This is probably the book I enjoyed least out of Bolton's back catalogue - I think it's possibly her first novel? The mystery veered a little too close to the ludicrous for my taste, and I was a little bored with the many tense encounters with snakes.

I was very much anticipating reading this novel after immensely enjoying Bolton's debut novel, Sacrifice; Awakening, while a solid work of crime/suspense fiction, failed to live up to brilliance of Sacrifice. The plot of Awakening revolves around a series of murders and disappearances, and the murders are carried out via venomous snakes: adders and taipans. Bolton does an excellent job of building the suspense leading up to the resolution and detailing the trials and turmoils of the protagonist, Clara, a veterinarian who works in rural England. Bolton also keeps the reader, for most of the novel, in the dark with regards to an important factor in Clara's life: very early in the novel, we learn that Clara has some unusual physical feature, and only very slowly is the nature of this feature revealed.

The denouement, however, is where this novel fails where the previous one did not. It is not so much the characters' motives as the manner in which everything unfolds that is the problem; without giving too much away, I shall just say that it seems as if Bolton wrote the climactic scenes as if she had in mind developing a screenplay for moving this novel to the big screen, and the ending winds up seeming too Hollywoodish and even far-fetched. Nevertheless, it was still, overall, a very good novel, and besides providing the chance to enjoy a generally good story, the reader will also receive a nice little education about snakes and religious snake-handling sects.

This one had too many snakes for my liking. I could even picture them when I closed my eyes *shudders*. I like the writing so I think I'll try another book by this author some time.

Bolton really had me stumped on this one till the end. Flew through this book and enjoyed the main character. Well written characters overall.

‘Awakening’ by Sharon Bolton really lived up to its title! I sure had an awakening. Never before have I read a mystery novel so overrun with snakes. And, never have I managed to read one filled to the brim with snakes almost at one sitting! If you, like me, have an aversion to snakes don’t let that put you off. Take heart and follow the socially phobic protagonist, Dr. Clara Benning, veterinarian, down a multi-faceted plot laced with - well, snakes!
Sharon Bolton weaves everything to do with snakes, venomous and non-venomous, such as their natural habitat, their feeding habits, their reproduction, the illegal exportation of them, their venom and the effects of their venom, into the plot. This intense background, together with characters who work with them and others who use them for nefarious purposes, makes for a fascinating read.