1.5 stars

Dithering and predictable. ( )

Bone Deep
by Sandra Ireland
2018
Gallery
4.5 / 5.0

A dark, psychological thriller of love, betrayal, sibling rivalry, and murder.
Set in the Scottish town of Fettermore, Arthur convinces his mother, a retired historian living alone in a large estate, to hire a Girl Friday to live in the cottage behind her home. So Max hires Lucie to help her transcribe her collection of folklore, and history of 2 sisters. Lucie is very different from Max, but they get along. As Lucie begins to transcribe Max's story of the 2 sisters, it reminds Lucie of her own secrets. Max has secrets of her own age wants to keep hidden. As these two women circle each other, they are forced to confront their own pasts and fears.
Atmospheric and gothic, this is only Irelands second novel. Tremendous storyteller and building.
#teamslaughter #scarathon #theme @Clwojick ( )

I quite liked the use of local folklore intermingled with a present day mystery. Had I not read this in the middle of summer, and instead in the dreary fall or early winter, I think its atmosphere would've made a bigger impact, increasing the sense of dread and suspense.

After the chapter "Mac - April" I knew Mac's secret. But I still wanted to finish because I didn't know how Lucie's story would end. If you don't read thrillers very often, or don't watch many movies, the twists will probably be more of a surprise for you than me.

All in all, a solid psychological thriller from a new-to-me author.

"The Cruel Sister" was the local folktale that Mac became obsessed with, which seemed to eerily mirror Lucie's current situation.

The big reveal is two-fold: 1) Lucie has been pregnant since at least February. It's now October and she goes into labor. She didn't know she was pregnant, but more like she was in denial, ignoring all the signs. 2) Five years earlier, not only did Mac murder Anna, the woman who was having an affair with Mac's husband, Jim, but Jim's accident was actually murder. Why? The affair happened some 15 years earlier but was ended when Mac threatened to tell Anna's husband about it. Then shortly before Jim's "accident" Anna emailed Jim to say she never stopped loving him; Jim replied with the same. Mac read the emails, hurt and angry because Jim stayed not for her, but for their son who was a teenager at the time. "He didn't choose me. He didn't stay for me." Mac attempts to dispose of Anna's body in present day by grinding her bones in the mill. A small twist at the very end reveals centuries old remains, bones, in the mill that could lend weight to Mac's theory that the folktale of Bella and Elspeth was factual, at least insofar as someone's bones were ground in the mill around the same time as the two sisters were alive.

Bone Deep is a novel that is a contemporary retelling of a Scottish legend of two sisters who were often by an ancient water mill that now is the home of Mac, a retired academic and writer. These sister's had a sibling rivalry that turned deadly. Mac is working on a new collection of folktales that include these sisters. Mac is a widow and her son wants her to live in an assisted living type place but she refuses.

Mac is having frequent bouts of memory loss and wants to complete her work so she hires a young woman, Lucie, to help her type up her notes and other duties. She moves into the Miller's Cottage. Lucie left home, her mother actually threw her out after she realized that Lucie was having an affair with her sister's fiance. So she just wanted to earn a living and to try to get past all of this. So dealing with Mac seems to be the way to do this.

The story is told in the point of views of Lucie and Mac. We learn more about Lucie and the affair and also Mac and the old mill and her deceased husband and how he died plus the story of the sisters. There are secrets, secrets and more secrets from these two women and it is how they come to terms with these secrets that make the story. This book is dark at times, gothic kind of read that should appeal to anyone who loves this genre.

I read some reviews that said it started out slow, I didn't feel that way. I just felt that it was a bit lengthy getting into the story but that was ok because it set up the story to its satisfying but not expected conclusion. Lots of twisty turns but that is what makes a great story right? The ending blew me away! Never saw it coming. Great psychological thriller! I enjoyed the book immensely! ( )