Ouroboros by T.S. Simons
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In this installment of the Antipodes series, Cam has set off on a journey of discovery and healing after the loss of his wife Laetitia when she was cruelly killed, he is in pain and needs some closure, so he heads away from his home, his family and his life so that he can go back to them fully healed and able to be with them completely, so he takes of on his boat. On his naval travels, the first place Cam stops at is Kirkwall and a visit to the community living on Orkney where some of the other women who shared in his late wife’s ordeal live, he cannot remember what happened on that fateful day and so he asks to speak to them when they are ready. In the meantime, he meets up with some old friends and sees how life has changed there over the past year, he is happy to see them and he thinks that they are happy to see him too, or at least some of them are, but he finds out that they are all still suffering too, he knows he has to regain their trust before they will open up to him.

As he introduces himself to the inhabitants of the island he hasn’t yet met, he has a feeling that there is someone in the crowd he knows, but cannot place them, it turns out to be someone who was heading up the recruitment centre where he was chosen when the whole domed community idea was started. As they properly introduce themselves, Cam asks what they have been doing on Orkney and how they ended up there, this leads on to conversations about their role on the island, the portals and everything else they had learned over the last few years and Cam is invited to join them on future trips around the community, to which he readily agrees. He stays with a friend and it is their partner who opens up first and shocks Cam by telling him that the women feared him after his outburst a year ago, but now that they have seen him and he explains his reasons why and his feelings on everything that happened, they can understand him better too. As the days pass and a working relationship with the woman from Australia develops, Cam stays on the island as he waits for the other women to talk to him, he learns all that he can so that he can take the information with him when he gets home. When the opportunity to talk to the women arrives, it helps them all with some closure and acceptance of what happened and Cam is grateful for it all, but nobody is surprised when he continues on his travels past the place he lost his mind to grief and on to another place in Scotland he hoped to find some more answers.

As he approaches the place he needs to go, Cam finds somewhere dry to spend the time he needs to dig for some information, this takes a little longer than planned, but is worth it in the end when he finds what he was looking for, as well as some unexpected information along the way. He makes a few more stops on his travels and shares some of the things he has learned along the way with others who are as shocked as he is, but it causes him to question the friendships he has and others he hasn’t. Will Cam be able to use the information he finds out to look after those he holds dear, or will circumstances beyond his control threaten the life he has come home to find again and will he be able to look on his life and friendships in the same way because of it? This is another journey of secrets, revelations and discovery which keeps you on your toes as you journey along with Cam and those around him, a story you will not want to miss out on.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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