Dirt by Sarah Sultoon #Review #Giveaway

 

Having enjoyed The Source, Sarah Sultoon's debut novel, I am delighted to be on the tour to celebrate her latest crime thriller, Dirt which will be published on 19th January by Orenda Books. I am fortunate to be able to offer a great giveaway - a print copy of Dirt. Details on how to enter are at the foot of this post.  

 This is no utopia…

1996. Northern Israel. Lola leaves an unhappy home life in England for the fabled utopian life of a kibbutz, but this heavily guarded farming community on the Arab-Israeli border isn’t the idyll it seems, and tensions are festering.

Hundreds of miles away, in the Jerusalem offices of the International Tribune newspaper, all eyes are on Israel’s response to a spate of rocket attacks from Lebanon, until cub reporter Jonny Murphy gets a tip from a mysterious source that sends him straight into the danger zone.

When the body of an Arab worker is discovered in the dirt of the kibbutz chicken house, it triggers a series of events that puts Lola and the whole community in jeopardy, and Jonny begins to uncover a series of secrets that put everything at risk, as he begins to realise just how far some people will go to belong…

My Thoughts

As I read this story, I became more and more invested and as the tension built up, it felt as though the revelations would not stop. It is a complicated plot which sets up so many characters who all seemed to have their own air of mystery. The kibbutz is a place where a range of individuals have gathered to live in a well established community but the links between them and their motivations for being there give you food for thought. Set on the border of Israel and the Lebanon, you feel you are on a precipice, with danger right on the edge of the enclosure. It is a hot and difficult place which challenges the volunteers. 

    Johnny is a determined and ambitious cub reporter who finds himself in a dangerous position. The tip off he has been given may have led him to the kibbutz but he has other more personal reasons for his journey there. As you find out more about his family, you realise that there are links he has to find and secrets which will shock. It is a raw, uncompromising story, with characters having to act to survive and always the feeling that they are isolated and caught in a faintly malignant situation. There are plenty of red herrings as to which characters you can trust. The hostility between the Israeli Arab territories seems to be mirrored in the growing tension within the kibbutz. This is a sophisticated crime thriller with layers of plotting, interesting characters and a wider political setting which is reflected in the story.

In short: an uncompromising thriller which pulls you in.

 

About theAuthor

Sarah Sultoon is a journalist and writer whose work as an international news executive at CNN has taken her all over the world, from the seats of power in both Westminster and Washington to the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan. She has extensive experience in conflict zones, winning three Peabody awards for her work on the war in Syria, an Emmy for her contribution to the coverage of Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, and a number of Royal Television Society gongs. As passionate about fiction as nonfiction, she recently completed a Masters of Studies in Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge, adding to an undergraduate language degree in French and Spanish, and Masters of Philosophy in History, Film and Television. When not reading or writing she can usually be found somewhere outside, either running, swimming or throwing a ball for her three children and dog while she imagines what might happen if...

You can follow Sarah here: Twitter

Book links: Amazon UK

Thanks to Sarah Sultoon, and Karen Sullivan and Anne Cater of Orenda Books for a copy of the book and a place on the tour. 

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Giveaway (UK only)

To win a print copy of Dirt, just Follow and Retweet the pinned Tweet at @bookslifethings and good luck!

 Closing Date is January 10th 2023 and there is one winner.

*Terms and Conditions –UK only.  The winner will be selected at random via Tweetdraw from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.