Today I’m delighted to be joining the blog tour for The Source. My review is written with thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the blog tour.

Blurb:

1996. Essex. Thirteen-year-old schoolgirl Carly lives in a disenfranchised town dominated by a military base, struggling to care for her baby sister while her mum sleeps off another binge. When her squaddie brother brings food and treats, and offers an exclusive invitation to army parties, things start to look a little less bleak…

2006. London. Junior TV newsroom journalist Marie has spent six months exposing a gang of sex traffickers, but everything is derailed when New Scotland Yard announces the re-opening of Operation Andromeda, the notorious investigation into allegations of sex abuse at an army base a decade earlier…

As the lives of these two characters intertwine around a single, defining event, a series of utterly chilling experiences is revealed, sparking a nail-biting race to find the truth … and justice.

A riveting, searing and devastatingly dark thriller, The Source is also a story about survival, about hopes and dreams, about power, abuse and resilience … an immense, tense and thought-provoking debut that you will never, ever forget.

Review:

The Source starts with a bang and does not stop giving until the final page. From the beginning, I was drawn into the stories of Carly and Marie and wanted to know what had happened to them. The novel is brilliantly plotted and wonderfully written, so much so that when I did a little research on the author, I was surprised to learn that she is a debut novelist. She has worked as a journalist though and her experience in this field shines through to make a compelling story in a tense environment.

The novel is written from two different perspectives: Carly, mostly in the 1990s, and Marie, ten years later. I loved how both these characters were constructed with so many layers and so much to learn about them. In particular, my heart broke for Carly and I really hoped that she could break free from the situation in which she found herself. It’s not clear at first how Carly and Marie are connected but the plot does come together well and this is testament to Sultoon’s writing. 

Through The Source, Sultoon handles some difficult themes, which at times, makes for uncomfortable reading. However, it is an important issue which should be addressed more widely and I appreciated Sultoon’s ability to do this in such an engaging, yet compassionate way.

The Source is available from Amazon.

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