Sharon Bolton’s latest novel, The Token, begins with eight people on a yacht heading for the Scilly Isles. The skipper had promised it would be an uneventful crossing, with perfect sailing conditions, but his seven passengers are growing increasingly nervous as the wind strengthens and rain starts to fall. Soon they are caught in a storm, the boat is taking in water, the electronics have stopped working and two people have been swept overboard…

And that’s where we leave them, until much later in the book. First, we have to go back several weeks to find out why this group of people have come to be on this fateful journey in the first place. We learn that each of them has received an envelope containing a token and a letter stating that the billionaire Logan Quick is leaving them a share of his huge fortune. All they need to do is keep the token safe until they hear news of his death. However, none of the seven has ever heard of Logan Quick and none of them has any idea why they’ve been chosen.

The seven token recipients come from all walks of life and seem, at least at first, to have nothing in common. There’s Holly, a single mother trying to juggle her law career with caring for her son; Robin, a wedding planner in love with his latest client; Sabri, an ambulance driver whose family are struggling financially; Tara, an artist whose ex-husband just won’t leave her alone; Craig, a fire safety consultant who is sleeping with his best friend’s girlfriend; Cheryl, who cares for her spiteful, controlling mother and has no life of her own; and Tug, a former military man suffering from PTSD.

Seven people all with interesting stories to be told, but I felt that trying to tell all of them in one book was far too much! The perspective kept switching from one to the other throughout the novel, which quickly became overwhelming. I think five main characters at the most would have been enough; Holly, Cheryl and Tug were the ones I found the most engaging.

This is also not really the exciting, fast-paced sort of thriller I’ve come to expect from Sharon Bolton. It takes a very long time to develop the stories of all seven characters and to reach the point where they come together and board the yacht for the Scilly Isles. It was only the final 30% of the book that I found truly gripping and where we were treated to some of the big plot twists and surprises that Bolton readers know and love. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the rest of the book at all, but it did definitely have a different feel from some of the other Bolton novels I’ve read, being much more character driven than plot driven.

What I did find fascinating was the way the novel explores how different personalities react to the prospect of fame and fortune. The seven token recipients are all told to keep quiet and tell no one, yet some of them can’t resist and soon the whole thing has been made public and is being reported on the news. Each of them has to find a way to deal with the media attention and the difficulties of trying to keep the token safe from theft, while also trying to decide whether, despite the opportunities the inheritance would bring, they really want to become fabulously rich.

Not a personal favourite Bolton novel for me, then, but they can’t all be and I still felt more positive about this one than negative.

Thanks to Orion for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.