The Girl in the Ice - Robert Bryndza

The Girl in the Ice is a brilliant crime thriller. It is definitely one of those I couldn't put down. (I would have liked to have read it all night until I got to the end but I was just too exhausted so I didn't finish it until the next day). I got involved in the story right from the start and it held my attention all the way through.

This really is a “gripping serial killer thriller” as it states on the cover but it's not obvious at the start that there is a serial killer. The body of a young woman with horrendous injuries is found under thick ice. She is identified as the missing daughter of a prominent and influential politician, Lord Douglas-Brown.

DCI Erika Foster has returned to service after an absence following the death of her husband. She expected to be put on administrative duties for a period but instead was put in immediate charge of the murder case because of her experience.

DCI Sparks who was leading the case when it was a missing person is not happy that Erika Foster has been put in charge of the murder case.

The victim's father is putting on the pressure to get results and arrest someone. However the family don't seem to want to answer Erika's awkward questions about their daughter and her lifestyle.

Erika eventually seems to make a breakthrough and finds someone who may have seen the victim talking to a man and woman in a pub near the place where her body was found. The pub was also suspected of placing illegal immigrants in work and being involved in prostitution.

As Erika's enquiries continue it becomes clear that certain information about other similar cases that she has learned of has been withheld but it's not clear why or by whom.

When one of her potential witnesses is found murdered and the other one long disappeared, Erika is suspended. Erika suspects the murders might be linked but her superiors seem to have a different agenda.

Of course, Erika continues to investigate unofficially with the help of some colleagues and when an arrest is made she believes they have arrested the wrong person.

I loved all the sub-plots and red herrings but the writing is so good the plot is easy to follow.

You have a powerful, wealthy family whose daughter has been murdered. The father is an influential politician with many business interests. The mother, originally from Slovakia, runs a society florist business. There is a younger son who is a university student and an older, daughter who seems just a little bit strange at times. There is also a fiancé, an ex-boyfriend, possibly illegal immigrants from Eastern Europe, Senior police officers, the Press.

I liked the characters. I liked the writing style. The story is complex enough to hold the reader's attention but never so complicated that you lose the thread. DCI Erika Foster is strong and feisty character, an experienced police officer, but also vulnerable given the circumstances of her husband's death. She doesn't always stick to the rules. I like her.

I wholeheartedly give this book 5 stars and look forward to the next one in the series.

[I received a review copy of this via NetGalley]


Publication date:  12 February 2016
Author website:    http://robertbryndza.com/the-girl-in-the-ice/

EXPOSURE - Helen Dunmore

I almost missed this book. I had cleared my shelf on NetGalley and was going to take a short break in the run up to Christmas.  Fortunately I learned of it in an email from NetGalley and was intrigued so I requested it.  I'm so glad I read it.  I really enjoyed it.

Exposure by Helen Dunmore is a book full of secrets, deception, concealment, hidden emotions. It's a spy thriller with a difference. While there isn't a lot of physical violence in this book, there is a threat of it just lurking below the surface.

The story is set in London in 1960 at the height of the Cold War. Simon Callington works at the Admiralty and is not particularly ambitious. His wife Lily works part time as a teacher and looks after their three children. Both have 'hidden' pasts that are not talked about.

Lily arrived in England fleeing Nazi Germany with her Jewish mother in 1937. Her mother insisted that they speak only English at home and work hard to fit in. You get the feeling that Lily likes her quiet ordinary life but you you get a feeling that she has a degree of anxiety about being 'found out'.

When Simon was at Cambridge, before he met and married Lily, he had a relationship with Giles Holloway who had also been instrumental in getting him employment at the Admiralty. Giles is considered a bit unreliable as he drinks too much and is less discreet about his liaisons than perhaps he should be in a time when homosexual sex was a criminal offence and usually resulted in a jail sentence.

The Callingtons' rather mundane life is completely turned on its head and becomes a nightmare when Simon takes a call from Giles who has had an accident and is in hospital. Giles asks him to go to his flat and retrieve a file, which should not have been removed from the office, from a hidden room and get it back to the Admiralty without anyone finding out.

Needless to say, it doesn't happen the way Giles would want it to happen and the file is not returned immediately. The file disappears from Simon's house and shortly thereafter the Police arrive, Simon is accused of passing information to the Soviets and is taken away for questioning. The house is searched, someone arrives in a black car – not a policeman – and begins to interrogate Lily, revealing that they know things about her and where she has been. Her whole life is turned upside down.

Lily turns out to be a very strong character when she needs to be and not the quiet, wife and mother who tends to keep her past to herself. She is very practical and does what has to be done to keep her family safe, even when she is terrified inside.

I love the way Helen Dunmore tells the story and seamlessly reveals things from both Simon and Lily's past. You get a very good sense of time and place. An almost unexpected ending too.

Great storytelling and a very good read.

Publication date:   28 January 2016

Author's website:  www.helendunmore.com

CHICKENS EAT PASTA - CLARE PEDRICK

In 1971 when I was 17, I left school and took myself off abroad to work as an au pair. During the following 12 months I spent time in Brussels and New York.  I thought that was a pretty good adventure but I still had the security of living with a family.  It was fun and it was different but it wasn't a 'new life'

How I admire Clare the author of this autobiography.  This is the story of how, in her 20s, she started a new life in Italy after seeing an advertisement for property for sale in hidden Umbria and watching a video showing an old stone house and chickens eating spaghetti.

With not much to look forward to in England, the miserable November weather, and a recent relationship break up, she arranged some time off her work as a journalist and travelled to Italy to view properties.

Having been shown several properties by the Italian agent she fell in love with an old wreck of property with  holes in the roof, crumbling walls, no kitchen, no bathroom, and a stone well and arranged to buy it almost immediately.

To me it seems much more than an autobiography.  It's a wonderful story and you are transported to the Italian countryside almost effortlessly.  Her writing style is warm, funny, and never dull.

Her description of the places and the people she meets is wonderful.  You just feel as if you are there, or at least really want to go there to see these places and meet these people.

Of course there is also the story of the ongoing work to the house and the problems it throws at her, some which appear to be insurmountable.There are also huge cultural differences not just between England and Italy, but also between different parts of Italy.  However she is helped to overcome most of them by Ercolino and Angela who were friends of the estate agent, and who became lifelong friends.

It's Clare's love story - with the house she bought, with Italy and with the man she met and then married.

So it's a happy ending.  Clare is still married, has three children and still lives in Italy.

I do hope she has more stories to tell and that she will write a sequel!







Twitter: @ClarePedrick

Where to Buy: click for info

IN SEARCH OF JESSICA - Declan Conner

I like all kinds of books.  I like to be entertained.  Sometimes it's romantic fiction; sometimes it's an engrossing family saga - historical or contemporary; sometimes it's just a good story.  Recently I find myself reading more and more psychological and/or crime thrillers.

This one seems to tick the boxes for crime/psychological/thriller.        

I enjoyed reading this book. It was hard to put it down once I started it. I liked the main characters and the pace of the story is just about right.

Jessica has been released from a secure mental hospital 15 years after her father was brutally murdered. There were several suspects at the time but no one went on trial for the murder although the lead detective in the investigation believed 12 year old Jessica, who had been found at the scene, holding a kitchen knife and with blood on her nightdress, was the culprit and that she may have been abused by her father.

On her release she is taken to a halfway house by her social worker who may or may not have ulterior motives. There she is befriended by another resident, Debbie, who may not be entirely honest. We also know from the start of the book there is a brother Jesse who was taken away at the time of his father's murder and subsequently adopted. He hasn't had any contact with his sister Jessica during her long stay in hospital and desperately wants to meet her and have her come to stay with him so he can protect her. The authorities want to delay any meeting to allow Jessica time to assimilate into the community.

Shortly after Jessica is released there is another murder with a similar MO. Jason Stone is the young LAPD detective assigned to the case. He's not shy about breaking the rules in his search for the killer and ends up getting taken off the case. However he continues to investigate the case unofficially.

The suspect list keeps getting longer and there are a few red herrings along the way (and a few more deaths).  
I had my suspicions as to the identity of the killer but was never really be sure and was kept guessing until the end.

An enjoyable book. Although it's not the author's first book, I believe this is the first of the Jason Stone books. I hope there will be more. 

Author's website:     www.declanconner.com

My January-February To-Read List

If you've read any of my earlier posts you might know I'm a fan of BookHippo and Bookbub which are great sites for finding ebooks that are free or on special offer from Amazon.

I've gone a bit crazy the last couple of days and actually bought some books (as opposed to free books) so it looks like I'm going to be busy the next couple of weeks.

At the moment I'm reading a book sent via NetGalley for review:  The Lubetkin Legacy by Marina Lewycka.  I've started it and so far I'm enjoying it but I will probably put it aside for a week or so as it won't be published until May.  I've read at least two of her earlier books, A History of Tractors in Ukrainian and Two Caravans, and although it was some time ago, I remember liking them, especially the first one.

Anyway I've bought the following books and I would love to know what others thought of them.

The Separation
This is by Dinah Jefferies.  It was her first book and I have heard good things about it.  I'm quite keen to get started on it.  I read a review copy of her second book, The Tea Planter's wife, last year and loved it.  I have also read her forthcoming book, The Silk Merchant's Daughter, for review.  It's due for publication 25 February and I have to wait until then to post my review.  She seems to have become one of my favourite authors!

All The Light We Cannot See
The author is Anthony Doerr.  I haven't read anything by him before.  I'm pretty sure a friend read this book and recommended it to me but I can't for the life of me remember who.  Doh! I've just realised it's a prizewinning book, including the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.  I've got high hopes for this one.

The Other Son
I've only read one of Nick Alexander's previous books, The Half-Life of Hannah.  I seem to remember quite liking it.  The Other Son was one of Amazon's offers so I thought I would take a chance and download it.

So that will be some of my reading over the next couple of months.

Actually when I look at what's in my Kindle library there are probably at least 50 books I've downloaded at one time or another but haven't read.  Most of them didn't cost anything - the paid for ones I have read!  

I think one of my resolutions this year will be to try once again to organise my time better to fit in all the reading I want to do, all the paintings I want to paint and (maybe) de-clutter the house.

Happy New Year!

What I read in my holidays

I started writing this post on Christmas eve while on a long car journey to spend the holiday with our family. Since I wasn't driving I took the opportunity to read some of the freebies I've downloaded from Amazon. They've been available for some time.  I'm hoping at least some will be good (there are usually a few little gems). 


Almost 3 hours into our journey I finished a book that I had started the day before we set off.

Adrenaline by John Benedict  is a medical thriller and was very readable if slightly over the top.

It was a good read to make a long journey seem quicker!  It's set in the Anaesthesia Department  of Mercy Hospital.  There were incidents in the operating room and unexpected deaths in fairly straightforward cases.  Was it just bad luck or was there something else going on? If these were deliberate acts, who is involved and why?

Dr Doug Landry finds himself the focus of the blame and he tries to get to the bottom of these incidents and clear his name.  However his investigation and discoveries put his own life at risk

There's some clever deducing to get to the answer. The climax is way over the top but is actually quite exciting to read.  I enjoyed it.

It might not be the best choice for you however if you are of a nervous disposition and about to go into hospital for surgery!

When I bought the Kindle version of this book on 1st December it was free (although I believe that has now changed).

The author's website is at www.johnbenedictmd.com



I'm now back home and in the middle of reading another book which was published last September. It's a crime/psychological thriller In Search of Jessica by Declan Conner.  So far it's been very good and I'll post something once I've finished it.

I enjoyed reading The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jefferies last year and I've recently read a review copy of her next book The Silk Merchant's Daughter (due out on 25 February and also good).  I noticed the Kindle version of her first book The Separation was being offered at a reduced price today on Amazon so I've bought that and I think that will be my next read.


Happy New Year!!