Awakening

Sounds as though I could have been bitten by the Twilight saga bug! I'm referring to S J Bolton's latest book Awakening which I've just finished and very scary it was too. I now know more about snakes than I ever wanted to know including some exceedingly poisonous specimens. The story features Clara a vet who much prefers animals to people because they do not judge her scarred face.

Clara must face up to her demons and help to save the tiny village from a plague of poisonous and harmless snakes. Snakes appear without warning in people's houses and one man dies apparently from a snake bite - though this is only the first of several deaths. Clara is puzzled that no one will talk about the catastrophic fire which burnt down the village church and starts to ask questions of the elderly villagers. When one of them dies she is under suspicion herself though it soon becomes clear that someone dangerous has her in their sights and the past is very much still there in the present.

This is well written novel which portrays Clara's own prickly personality and extremely effectively along with the two contrasting men she is attracted to. I could certainly do with reading more about the interesting Assistant Chief Constable - Mark. As the ending has been left very open I hope both he and Clara will feature in a later book.

I've just started reading Terry Reeve's Spirit of the Fen - set in Bungay in Suffolk. A development company wants to buy a piece of common land - known as the fen - and build 2000 houses on it. Many people oppose the plans and things start to get ugly when the District Council vote for it to go ahead. As I used to live in Suffolk and at one time drove through the town twice a day I'm finding it interesting. It is fiction but the scenery is authentic and I can identify the places he writes about. I bought the book because of its title but I'm finding it interesting in its own right.