#BlogTour-‘The Craftsman’ by Sharon Bolton

So, as you can see by the banner, I am part of the Orion blogtour to promote the paperback release of ‘The Craftsman’ by Sharon Bolton!

Absolutely thrilled to be involved, this was one of my bookish highlights of the year and is the first in a trilogy from Sharon Bolton.Also, it has been optioned for a television adaptation from the same team who developed ‘Killing Eve’.

I am sure that if you have read this book you will appreciate how cool this is ! I have read all of her books to date and would say that ‘The Craftsman’ is Sharon Bolton’s best work. It brilliantly captures the atmosphere of a small village, a woman police officer at a time when that was unthinkable, and how superstitions spread. There is a creeping, insidious nature of fear that makes your spine tingle when reading it. This demands your full attention until ‘The Craftsman’ has finished with you.

From the chilling opener of main character, Florence Lovelady, attending the funeral of the protagonist, Larry Glassbrook, the man she caught and believed responsible for a string of murders in the 1960’s, ‘The Craftsman’ vacillates between Florence’s  past and present with aplomb. Physically and emotionally scarred by the involvement in her first major case, Florence appears to be at the funeral to make sure the past is buried forever. The fact that Larry was the undertaker in this small, Lancashire town of Sabden, near Pendle, makes the irony of his funeral being so sparse and unadorned in his cheap, mass market coffin and I think secretly pleases Florence.

She risked her life and future career to bring Larry to justice, but her conviction that this was served is turned upside down when she finds an effigy in her old boarding house, which is identical to the ones Larry left with his victims. Copycat,or was Larry ever responsible for the murders of three teenagers, whom he buried alive? And if he wasn’t, then who was and why did he never defend himself?

Florence’s entire personal life and career is suddenly at risk as she thought the past which had been buried 30 years ago rises again to haunt her. Every action that took her to the post of Assistant Commissioner is now questionable and as she revisits the summer of ’69 , she begins to experience doubts about the conviction given certain items reappearing which were connected to the missing teens , items that only the killer would have had.

What is captured really well is the way that women were treated in the 60’s/70’s, especially those in professions such as the police, as well as  the claustrophobic nature of villages and how they treat ‘outsiders’ in the immediate aftermath of the Moors Murders . Every stranger was a potential serial killer ,which is neatly juxtaposed with the irony of killers being more likely to be someone that the victim knows. The inherent misogyny of the time is quite shocking and it is quite challenging reading the way that women were talked to, or about, especially in terms of superstition given the proximity of the village to Pendle(well known for its witch trials).

What I really loved about the book was the way it was so authentic, all the dogged determination which Florence has to use to get taken seriously or even listened to , and which actually puts her life in danger.’ The Wickerman’-esque atmosphere would possibly categorise ‘The Craftsman’ as folk horror in my humble opinion, but others may disagree.

It was a genuinely disturbing book that I devoured in the best way possible-at night, with lots of wine-and I am very much looking forward to following the trilogy and where Sharon Bolton goes next!

Sharon Bolton’s website

‘The Craftsman’ Paperback