Dead Woman Walking by Sharon Bolton

Dead Woman Walking by Sharon Bolton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One morning just before dawn near the Scottish border Jesse and her sister Isabel are enjoying a hot air balloon ride that Jesse set up to celebrate her sister’s birthday. As the balloon passes over the countryside with the two women and ten other passengers onboard with the pilot Jesse sees something below that she can’t believe is happening. A man is attacking a woman below as the group flies over and when he sees he has witnesses the chase begins.

Before the group above knows it bullets are flying at them as they duck for cover in complete shock from what they’ve just witnessed. Unfortunately one of the bullets takes out their pilot leaving them to fend for themselves as the attacker begins to pursue the balloon. As hard as they try the lack of experience wins in the end when the balloon comes crashing down leaving only one survivor hiding from the assailant.

Dead Woman Walking by Sharon Bolton had a unique format in which the action kicks in right away with the hot air balloon chase but this event is actually the middle of the story involved within the pages. The following events switch back and forth between telling the tale of what led up to the hot air balloon ride and the events that take place in the aftermath of the crash. Perhaps a tad confusing jumping into this format but it quickly worked it’s way to becoming a compelling read.

Along the journey in the story the reader already knows from the explosive beginning who the bad guy is so it’s not a matter of a whodunnit but the why and how things got to where they were in the beginning. The story was well developed and eventually everything is brought around through the expected twists and turns to bring the reader to the conclusion. I think this is one that thriller fans will enjoy that are always yearning for something a bit different from their next read.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.