Book Review: ‘The Pact’ by Sharon Bolton

Megan, Talitha, Amber, Felix, Xav and Dan – six friends celebrating the final night before they find out their A-Level results. They are bonded by privilege and a dangerous rite of passage – a daredevil stunt that involves driving the wrong way down a motorway. Except on the final time everything goes wrong and three innocent people die. Megan volunteers to take the blame if her friends promise to owe her a favour each upon her release. Twenty years later Megan returns and no one’s life will ever be the same again.

The Pact is a combined crime and psychological drama by Sharon Bolton. It is the first book I have read by Bolton and the blurb definitely drew me in and made me want to find out more.

The book is split into two sections – the first when the friends are teenagers and the second set twenty years later. Even though the blurb did give away a lot of what happened in the first section I still found it enjoyable. The quick pace made the story easy to read and for me the extended opening built up the tension for the dramatic incident I knew was coming.

All of the six main characters have chapters where they are the ‘point of view narrator’ except for Megan. This deliberately prevents the reader from gaining any insight into the book’s most mysterious character. The reader, like the remaining characters, must try to work out what Megan’s state of mind is, what she might do next, and ultimately if she telling the truth once she returns from prison.

It is worth pointing out that none of the characters are really likeable, but I believe this is Bolton’s intention. All the characters except Megan are from very wealthy backgrounds and all six are in the top percentage academically at their school – not a combination many readers can relate too. With such an extreme plot perhaps Bolton felt she needed to use similarly extreme characters in order for the events to seem like they could take place? Having a story full of anti-heroes did make the story interesting for me as I was never sure who I wanted to succeed in this battle of wills. However I am curious to know what the story would be like using characters with ‘regular’ backgrounds.

The Pact’s strength is the build-up of tension and anticipation within the story. Unfortunately where the novel falters is its ending. There was a lot of frantic action which I enjoyed however the final couple of twists, while unexpected, did seem to come out of nowhere with no hints as to character motivation prior to this. After so much good work to get to this point the swift conclusion of the final pages felt too abrupt and I don’t think it did justice to the rest of what was otherwise an entertaining story.

Ultimately the book succeeded as it kept me reading and wanting to find out what was going to happen next. While there are a lot of good points to The Pact it is a shame that the quick conclusion lets it down.

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