"The Craftsman" was a very tricky murder mystery spanning the decades in North England, near Pendle, famous for the Seventeenth Century witch trials, which the novel refers to, with vague supernatural undercurrents at various points of the novel. The novel opens with a policewoman attending the funeral of whom we realise is a serial killer, the story flicks back to when the killer was active and the policewoman much younger and new on the force. Something from the past crops up, a warning, in the present story strand and we realise the plot has some way to go. This was an entertaining twister of a novel, which was very easy to read, with good twists as it progressed.

I love love loved the Craftsman. Just the right amount of suspense and horror, and a fantastic female protagonist. Wonderfully evocative setting (both in time and place). My only gripe is I guessed the 'baddie' early on (but then again, at least I could feel smug about that).

An ordinary setting is in stark contrast to the horrific events that take place in a 20th-century Lancashire town, which has a bloody history that many can't let go. Maybe Florence Lovelady had no choice but to return to the place that changed her and nearly cost her life over thirty years ago?

There are a lot of facts to assimilate in the early chapters. What seems abstract becomes more evident as you travel back over thirty years to the late 1960's when Florence Loveday was the town's first WPC.

The story's ethos is dark and menacing even before the possibility of supernatural influence. The larger than life characters are believable and compelling. Florence is an outsider, a curiosity and a threat to the town's establishment. She suffers prejudice in her personal and work life. Her isolation increases the suspense as she struggles to solve the missing teenager's disappearances.

The author creates vivid images of murder with a twist. You are left wondering whether the deaths are the work of a deranged murderer or something less definable but no less menacing. The fast pacing complements the detail, and every line builds towards a hold your breath moment.

The well-constructed plot has many twists incorporating historical fact and myths. While needing your concentration, the storyline holds its secrets well. The clues are there if you want to play detective, but you are unlikely to be prepared for the final twists which leave you with a chill down your spine and menace imprinted on your psyche.

I received a copy of this book from Orion Publishing Group - Trapeze via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I’m a huge fan of Sharon Bolton’s books so was delighted to have the opportunity to review The Craftsman. This is a brilliant crime story with a great cast of detectives and is set in the interesting location of Pendle, which led to a different twist by including some local witchcraft tales. I enjoyed the fact that the story was written from the view point of a young policewoman rather than the usual main character of an accomplished detective. The first part of the book is set in 1969 and I found this to be the most enjoyable part of the book….but I still loved the whole book and really couldn’t put it down. If you fancy a spellbinding, unique and quirky crime novel that totally draws you into it’s story and it’s characters then I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend The Craftsman - just leave a few hours / days free to finish it once you start reading…

I have been a big fan of Sharon Bolton for years. I have read all her books. I devoured her last two books "Little Black Lies" and especially "Daisy in Chains". Therefore I was so shocked when I read "Dead Woman Walking" and found myself extremly struggeling with it. That's why I was really looking forward to her new book.

I'm a little bit torn here. Unfortunately, I found myselfe struggeling again. I did not expect the story to be that long in the past. I did not warm up to Florence, though she reminded me a lot of Lacy Flint. Interesting were the insights with which a female police officer had to fight in rural England in 1969. The actual crime story gets on very slowly. For a long time, it's about tedious police work. For me there was a lack of tension most of the time. The story of the missing children in 1969 did not really catch me.

I liked the timeline in the present more. The atmosphere in the small English town is indeed a bit somber and scary. Sharon Bolton has added a slightly psychic touch to her plot this time.

Unfortunately, I have to say this time, too, that the story did not go really well for me. I never really got into the story as I did in her books earlier. I also found the characters all a bit shallow and I could not connect with anybody. Florence gets for example no real background. What about her family and why is she in this little English place? I liked the story better than in" Dead Woman Walking". The supernatural aspect was at least interesting and fit. Overall, it was a bit too lengthy for me. I must admid that I even was a bit bored in the middle. I don't know if it's me or what happend that I am suddenly not very happy with Sharon Bolton's books anymore. This book sounded exactly like my cup of tea and in a way it was. But it lacked the pace and good characters.

I hate to write a bad review about a book of one of my favorite authors. But I will not pretend I liked it when actually I didn't. But hopes dies at last so despite of that I am looking forward to her next book.

I'm not going to give much of a synopsis of this book because I don't feel it would be right - I think the less you know about this going in the better. Basically it tells the story of a case involving a policewoman in 1960s Lancashire.

I really enjoyed this book. There were a few different things going on with the witchcraft element, the police drama and the difficulties Florence faced being a policewoman (or even just a woman) in the '60s. All these factors were very well combined in the plot and came together cohesively.

The writing was quite simple and not very elaborate or descriptive, and I think it worked really well in this book. It suited the setting and the main character's personality perfectly. I really enjoyed the setting of this little village in Lancashire. Although I'm from Yorkshire and technically this is enemy territory, the speech of the characters was spot on for the North of England, as was the description of the village itself and the surrounding countryside. I could definitely conjure images of the townsfolk and all the different locations.

At first I was unsure about the book starting by telling you who the murderer was. I felt like it would take away a lot of the suspense and mystery. I'm happy to say that I was completely wrong about that; there were lots of twists in the story and I was kept guessing the whole time. There is a definite sense of mystery and creepiness throughout, and the story moves at a good pace. It was definitely never boring and I would recommend this to any mystery or crime fiction fans.

This book is set right at the end of the 1960's and later in the 1990's centring around the Glassbrook family and their lodger WPC Florence (Flossie) Lovelady. Lovelady is noticeable by being the first female police officer in a small Northern town of Sabden and a Londoner to boot. Her long red hair makes her unmissable wherever she goes. Coincidentally the disappearances of local teenager started at around the time Flossie started her duties.
The 1960s setting is perfectly described with small town attitudes and the lack of present day technology coming together to make the reader feel as if they are part of the book. Florence soon turns heads within the force offices when her enthusiasm earns her a place on the investigation team. Whether this is a good thing or not remains to be seen.
With 2 young girls and a lad all missing the author has managed to portray the sense of dread, fear and eventually terror in her descriptions of what Florence and the team find when Florence follows her gut feelings. This is definitely not a book for the faint hearted. The suspicions of the local residents gradually move away from the local known paedophile in terms of blame and somehow Florence finds herself in the frame. This makes her work even harder to try and find the missing children despite her concerns that the outcome won't be a positive one for the families. Witchcraft and local myths figure strongly in the local community and Florence needs to sort out the facts from the fiction to keep herself and others safe from harm. Help comes from the strangest of sources yet the truth will take a long time to come out.
Once the happenings of the original crime and investigation are duly explained, the story then moves nearer the present day and Florence is now married with her own teenage son and is flying high in the police force.
She and her son find themselves back in Sabden as Florence attempts to lay some ghosts to rest, only to find a Pandora's box of horrors opening before her and her worst fears becoming reality.
I found this to be a creepy, gripping thriller of a novel which really had me guessing whodunnit and how right through to the end. The characters are perfect for their time setting and there are definitely lots of surprises along the way. I certainly recommend this book for any lover of a creepy crime novel.

Sharon Bolton's creative talent is truly amazing. She has an excellent series of police procedurals featuring Lacey Flint and in addition to that, she's written a number of totally different standalone thrillers. The Craftsman is possibly her best yet. Whether her setting is the Falkland Islands (Little Black Lies) or the Pendle Hills, she creates a strong sense of place. This story draws on the Pendle Witch history and mythology with incantations, superstition and effigies.

In a timeline which switches between 1969 and 1999, the story involves the disappearance of three youngsters. One is found buried alive in a coffin. The killer is caught, found guilty and we join the story at his funeral where locals come to spit on his grave. The events are narrated by Florence, a young PC directly involved in the original 1969 investigation, now an Assistant Commissioner, returning to attend the killer's funeral and still haunted by her horrific experiences in the case. Larry Glassbrook, the killer undertaker she brought to account died in prison and surprisingly Florence remained in contact with him until shortly before his death.

Why does this book work so well? The sense of location is strong; the link to the Pendle Witches and dark deeds runs through the text. Graveyards, dark figures at the dead of night, clay carvings embedded with thorns...these are scene setters creating mystery a sense of menace for the events. The passages describing the efforts of one of the victims trying to escape a coffin having been buried alive are desperate and harrowing.

Florence is a strong lead character, the supporting characters are equally well depicted. This is an emotive tale in every sense. Sharon Bolton captures the appalling sexist attitudes of the police in 1969. Despite being educated and intelligent, whenever Florence applies her skills to investigating the crimes, she's treated as a minion fit only to make tea. Brilliant depiction of the times which adds to the plausibility of the tale.

As for plotting, it's truly dark and menacing. I was ready to jump at any shadow whilst reading this, totally immersed, horrified by the twists and turns which kept me guessing. Totally unexpected finale. Very difficult to put down and my best psychological thriller this year. Top rate.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

What can I say about this book other than how much I loved it. The book is focused on a man called Larry Glassbrook who was convicted of burying several teenagers alive. The young policelady who caught him always believed that he was guilty until years later when he died things began to happen. The book centers on withcraft and folklore which are linked to the murders. There are so many twists and turns at the end that when you finally find out what happened all those years ago you are surprised. I would recommend this book to anyone.

I would like to start by thanking Orion for providing me with a copy of this thrilling and unpredictable novel.

THE CRAFTSMAN opens in 1999, in Sabden, in Lancashire, where Assistant Commissioner Florence Lovelady attends the funeral of Larry Glassbrook, a man accused of the murders of 3 teenagers thirty years before. Over the years she made regular visits to Larry while he was in prison and now she is there to close one of the most terrible cases of her life. But during her brief stay there she finds a clay effigy of herself, similar to the voodoo dolls left with Larry’s victims.

Then the novel goes back to 1969, when Flossie had just joined the Lancashire Police. Three teenagers had disappeared in the last weeks and while her colleagues think that it’s a case of runaway teenagers, Flossie is convinced that it’s more complicated than that and she challenges her colleagues to prove that she is right.

THE CRAFTSMAN is very creepy and very captivating. There is never a dull moment and the tension is always high. I loved the elements of folklore and witchcraft that fit perfectly with the gloomy setting and the grim and scary plot.

I found Flossie a very intriguing character. She is hard-working and very smart. She is good at her job and I loved how she stood up to her sexist and prejudiced colleagues who just want her to make tea or clean the bathrooms just because she is a woman.

Full of mystery, legends, and twists that will chill you to the bone, THE CRAFTSMAN is one of these sublime books that keep you up at night. It’s out this week and I highly recommend you go and buy it.

First of all thank you to Net Galley and Orion Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book. As soon as I started it I knew I was in for a great read. I had goose bumps into the first few pages. This is a mixture of murder , mystery , and witchcraft - an absolute potent combination. I could not put this book down. I have read a good few books by Sharon Bolton and this is by far the best so far. I have no hesitation in recommending this book and will be buying a copy for my collection. A must read for 2018.

Let me just make one thing clear before I start. I do not believe in the supernatural, not even a little bit. Did that spoil my enjoyment of this witchy, black magic laced masterpiece? Not one iota. Sharon Bolton can do no wrong in my book even after making me live my nightmare of being buried alive (I defy you to read this book without feeling claustrophobic! Like all her novels this is perfectly paced with dollops of creepiness and an ending to die for. I cannot express how much you should read it.

First off – Sharon Bolton, or even your editors by any chance are reading this – Please don’t let this be a stand alone novel!!! My poor brain is screaming at me for more!
What an absolutely genuinely brilliant book! The plot was genius. Having read all her novels to date I knew it would be good but I admit I didn’t anticipate it to be soooo good!
I literally wanted to rush through the entire book as it threw me off in different directions then back again so the anticipation for the conclusion was all-consuming but at the same time I wanted to savour each chapter and drag the book out as long as possible to make it last longer!!
Consumption won out and I would have completed it in 1 sitting if I didn’t have to play taxi to my darling children or feed them!! – How inconsiderate of them to require feeding whilst I’m miles away in the in the shadow’s of Pendle Hill with one of my newly acquainted favourite female detectives, Flossy!
I can safely say even I was slightly unsettled by the parts of the book to the point of dreaming about it which is highly unlike me! The scarier and gruesome the better normal but this book involves one of my biggest phobias, buried alive, and I felt every suffocating, claustrophobic detail and it makes your imagination run riot as to how mind-blowingly horrendous that would truly be. Well it did mine anyway!
But best of all was the added layer to the story – witchcraft! If you are a complete skeptic when it comes to the occult this may just give you pause for thought. I’m not saying there are witches as in the Harry Potter/Roald Dahl witches, more along the lines of the harvesting the power of nature, spiritual and the power of the combined believe kind of witches! The more believable kind that doesn’t turn people into toads!
But even if the occult, witches thing doesn’t appeal to you don’t let that put you off as that is more of a sub plot threaded through even though it does play its part beautifully. And you can tell a lot of research has gone into the subject of the old-fashioned witch trials and rituals conducted in the past as well as in the present day.
WPC Florence Lovelady is so well written that you cant help but become invested into her life the entire way through, she is for me the standout character of the book but you do meet some really interesting, if slightly eccentric other characters along they way that stand out for their own reasons! The handsomely charming police officer Tom, whom even I thought i might have slightly fallen in love with at one point! – Sorry Roy!! (My other half, bless him!)
I know my review isn’t exactly full of the whole plot to the book but that was my intention! Make you curious enough to go read it for yourselves and not ruin it for anyone as this is a book you must defiantly need to read and discover for yourselves! So I won’t tell you what happens and to whom, I will leave the twists and turns all for yourselves and see if you get thrown off the scent a few times as I was!!!
I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of this book for review purposes and I am extremely grateful to the Orion Publishing Group, Sharon Bolton, her publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity!
I preordered my copy of this book way back on the 19 Jan 2018 and when the actual hardback copy of the book arrives I will be reading it again 🙂
The Craftsman will be released in the UK on 3rd May 2018 and can be pre ordered now from Amazon UK or Amazon.com
And I can not express to you enough how much you need to read this book and how wonderfully brilliant it really is!
I will be keeping my fingers and toes crossed that there will be a follow-up to this book and I hope you will be too!!

This author never fails to deliver. Twisty, suspenseful and kept me gripped from one page to the next. One of this year's best books so far.

This is easily Bolton's creepiest and most enthralling novel yet. She is an absolute master at providing a thumping good story with believability and exquisite timing. I really enjoyed the duel timelines - those 30 yrs between 60s and 90s really make a lot of difference to mindsets and sense of place. I especially loved the way she layered folktales and local legend with real mystery and police procedural. This was back to Sacrifice levels of awesomeness. Thoroughly enjoyed this tense, atmospheric novel.

Catching him will make her career - and change her forever.

August, 1999
On the hottest day of the year, Assistant Commissioner Florence Lovelady attends the funeral of Larry Glassbrook, the convicted murderer she arrested thirty years earlier. A master carpenter and funeral director, Larry imprisoned his victims, alive, in the caskets he made himself. Clay effigies found entombed with their bodies suggested a motive beyond the worst human depravity.

June, 1969
13-year- old Patsy Wood has been missing for two days, the third teenager to disappear in as many months. New to the Lancashire police force and struggling to fit in, WPC Lovelady is sent to investigate an unlikely report from school children claiming to have heard a voice calling for help. A voice from deep within a recent grave.

August, 1999
As she tries to lay her ghosts to rest, Florence is drawn back to the Glassbrooks' old house, in the shadow of Pendle Hill, where she once lodged with the family. She is chilled by the discovery of another effigy - one bearing a remarkable resemblance to herself. Is the killer still at large? Is Florence once again in terrible danger? Or, this time, could the fate in store be worse than even her darkest imaginings?

So incredibly creepy!
I urgent all thriller and crime aficionados that think that have been hardened by crime novels to read this! It will give you the creeps so bad, you won't want to turn the light off at night. This murderer is one of the worst I have read about and I'm dying to know if he is based on a real person.
The narrative is tightly plotted and the main protagonist, Florence, someone who is highly relatable and I appreciated Bolton's attention to her struggle in the police as a woman.
Highly enjoyable reading.

Sharon Bolton takes us into her northern home territory, Lancashire, inhospitable, unpredictable, often savage, horrifying, but heartbreakingly and wonderfully beautiful. She draws on the areas history of witches with the Pendle witch trials, folklore, legend, and its fear and macabre treatment of intelligent women who dare to be different. Set in Sabden, a town on the edge of Pendle Hill, Bolton combines these themes to give us an outstanding story with elements of horror, the darkest of arts and the supernatural from 1069 and the present, 1999. Assistant Commissioner Florence 'Flossie' Lovelady attends the funeral of funeral director and carpenter, Larry Glassbrook, a man convicted of the murders of 3 teenagers buried alive in 1969. Locals turn out to make clear their disgust and contempt of Glassbrook. Florence is there to lay ghosts of the most horrific of cases that made her career, lost her a finger and pay her respects given her continuing relationship with Larry whilst he served his time in prison. Accompanied by her 15 year son, Ben, she visits the dilapidated Glassbrook home where she was staying as a WPC prior to being forced to leave, and is freaked out when she finds a clay effigy of herself, reminiscent of a voodoo doll. The past casts a dark, disturbing and unsettlingly long shadow into the present as it appears that maybe, just maybe, Larry was innocent of the depraved crimes laid at his doorstep, and the menacing dangers of that period are alive in the here and now.

We go back to the sixties in Sabden where the young, smart and gifted Florence has the temerity to make unwelcome but major contributions in the search for the missing children that lead to major breaks in the investigation. With the exception of DC Tom Devins who supports her, Flossie finds herself derided by the sexist police force, who are of the opinion that she needs to be taught some harsh lessons in how things should be a, and learn what a woman's place is. In a narrative that educates on the differences between coffins and caskets, the body of Patsy Wood is discovered with a clay effigy buried with her. A hard working Flossie looks for any patterns that connect the 3 teenagers and explores the local history of witches, spells, covens, disturbed graves, local elites and the Freemasons determined to hide nefarious activities. The disappearance of another young girl raises tensions skyhigh in a petrified community, although a number of factors differ from the previous killings. The girl is rescued by Flossie, but Flossie's tireless efforts in the case has the town and the police turning against her in an atmosphere of hysteria as she finds herself suspended. In the present, Florence gets reacquainted with a number of locals and Tom Devins, still with the police, whose help she needs as her world falls apart. A frantic and determined Florence has to dig into her deepest inner resources to fight the malignant dark forces aligned against her and her family.

Sharon Bolton weaves a superb spine chilling and harrowing tale that draws on the darkest myths and legends of the British Isles. In true Bolton style, the plotting is impressive and the twists are jaw dropping, and although this is hard to believe given the quality of her previous works, she just keeps on getting better and better. Bolton's creation of Flossie captures the attitudes, culture and prejudices of a police force and a nation of a particular time and period. Women who step out of the norms and expectations of a society still continue to be treated as witches and deserving of the worst of abuse as we can see from the treatment meted out to women by men in areas such as social media. I have no hesitation in highly recommending this latest utterly gripping, creepy and compelling novel from a gifted storyteller. Many thanks to Orion for an ARC.

I've read most of Sharon Bolton's books now and always enjoyed them. Having some knowledge of the location and the Pendle witches, this one appealed to me. The funeral of the local undertaker, Glassbrook, who had been arrested and imprisoned due to the work of Constable Florence Lovelady, sets the scene. The now AC Florence Lovelady, who had lodged with the family at the time, attends the funeral - it is dark and troubling. What happened back then and was the outcome really the correct one?

The book then switches to the time of the original crime - 1969. It retells the story with a 1960s feel to it which worked well for me. We follow Flossie (WPC) as the story of missing children gradually unfolds. The story is often dark and not for the faint hearted. The prejudices of the era - the late sixties - comes over clearly and is done effectively for me. I found that the mundanity of Florence's life as a WPC at the time contrasted vividly with the incidents and discoveries of the 1969 case..

The characters in this story worked well for me and I found myself almost completely engaged with Florence. Her son, Ben, is with her in the present day part of the book and I enjoyed their interactions. The other characters are fine though none of them fully engaged me..

Reading this you quickly remember just how well Sharon Bolton writes. The pace is excellent and the story well imagined. In amongst the darkness there are moments of humour. I was just thinking this wasn't going anywhere when it did... Even then I'm not sure how much I can honestly say it surprised me. On the one hand I really loved the character of Florence, on the other I'm not quite sure the whole "witches" thing worked that well for me though I did have the hairs on the back of my neck standing up at times. I did enjoy the "craftsman" - I would have been happy if more had been made of that. Overall good writing and a good story, I hope I will be reading books from this author for some time to come.

Wow, now this is a thriller I have been waiting for for 2018. It packs a punch right from the beginning till the very end. Set in two time lines, 1960 and 1999. Newbie Florence joins the police force and set straight to looking for three missing teens from the area. Nothing is as it seems because this was never going to be a straight forward case, not when the history of witches from Pendle Hill come in to it. After a very sucsessful career, Florence returns to where the murders happened to attend the funeral of the man she found guilty. A man she once shared a home with him and his family. Back at this family home after all these years Florence find a voodoo doll of herself and knowing this was what Larry puts with his teen victims before he buried them alive set Florence on edge, are the murders really over even after 30 years have past and the killer now dead?
This was one spooky ride that will keep you guessing throughout and when read at night make you question what you saw in the dark shadows. I love spooky thrillers and this unique books was brilliant. I look forward to seeking out more from this author.