Release date: May 1st 2021
Publisher: Trapeze
Pages: 384
Find it: Goodreads Waterstones
Source: I bought a copy of this book from my local supermarket
Rating: 4.25/5 stars

Synopsis

A golden summer, and six talented teenagers are looking forward to the brightest of futures – until a daredevil game goes horribly wrong, leaving three strangers dead.

18-year-old Megan takes the blame for the crime, leaving her friends to get on with their lives. In return, they each agree to a ‘favour’, payable on her release from prison.

Twenty years later Megan is free.
It is payback time.
And her friends start disappearing, one by one . . .

Review

The Pact is a taut, gripping thriller that follows six teenagers who make a horrible mistake one night and leave three strangers dead. One of the group (Megan) decides to take the blame for what they did, allowing her friends to go on to their bright futures, but it will cost them one favour each when she is released from prison. Twenty years have gone by, and now Megan has been released. One by one, the group begins to disappear, but can they appease Megan before it’s too late?

The Pact is one of those books that you sit down to read a chapter of and before you know it, you’ve been completely sucked in and you’re still reading hours later. This book completely captivated me from start to finish. It was intensely compelling, and I just had to know what was going to happen next. I thought this was such an intriguing concept – if your friend had sacrificed everything for you, what would you do when they came back into your life to collect on a promise you made twenty years ago? Bolton executed the plot really well and there were lots of twists and surprises I didn’t expect.

Bolton has created a fascinating cast of characters, and I loved that they were all so well developed. Each of the group are living pretty differently lives, and I enjoyed seeing how the pressure of Megan returning affected them. Towards the end of the book Bolton really ramps up the suspense and I read the last few chapters on the edge of my seat. This was a really tense, twisty, thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed. If you’re looking for a story that will keep you hooked till the very end, you don’t want to miss The Pact and I am thoroughly looking forward to reading more from Sharon Bolton.