The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza

Publication date: 12th February

Published by Bookouture

Purchase from Amazon here

The Blurb: 

Her eyes are wide open. Her lips parted as if to speak. Her dead body frozen in the ice… She is not the only one. 

When a young boy discovers the body of a woman beneath a thick sheet of ice in a South London park, Detective Erika Foster is called in to lead the murder investigation. 

The victim, a beautiful young socialite, appeared to have the perfect life. Yet when Erika begins to dig deeper, she starts to connect the dots between the murder and the killings of three prostitutes, all found strangled, hands bound and dumped in water around London. 

What dark secrets is the girl in the ice hiding? 

As Erika inches closer to uncovering the truth, the killer is closing in on Erika. 

The last investigation Erika led went badly wrong… resulting in the death of her husband. With her career hanging by a thread, Erika must now battle her own personal demons as well as a killer more deadly than any she’s faced before. But will she get to him before he strikes again? 

My Review: 

Have I already found my book of the year? Quite possibly! I cannot begin to put into words just how much I loved it. From start to finish I was hooked, and tearing myself away to do anything other than reading The Girl in the Ice was hard. I feel a bit sorry for my friends and family who have had to listen to me rave on and on about it.

I have been a long time massive fan of Detective thriller books, with the Alex Cross series by James Patterson being my favourite. But he now has a rival in Detective Erika Foster. I really loved her character and am so excited to hear that a second book in the series will be out later in the year. 

This book certainly lives up to being labelled as a thriller. It starts with a young woman being followed before being mysterious killed in a park in the middle of a very cold snap, and builds from there. What seems at first like a one off random killing soon becomes a bigger murder investigation as connections to other deaths emerge. 

Detective Erika Foster is returning to the force after some time off, and has been relocated to London to lead the investigation. She is a strong character which I loved. She doesnt take any nonsense from anyone, and she is not scared to tread where others fear to follow. Her personal life has not been easy and now she has nothing to lose from giving it her all, no matter what danger it might put in her way. 

The book is set in South London, particularly Forest Hill, which made the book even better for me. I know the area and visit it regularly which made it even more sinister, and helped me to get into the book and visualise the locations. It was brilliant sitting in the local coffee shop there whilst reading the book too.

Anyway, that is not essential as the author has a brilliant writing style that includes fantastic descriptions which really enabled me to visualise what was going on, and absorb me into Erika's world. I felt like I was her sidekick with her all the way trying to work out just what had happened. Of course, I was wrong! But thats part of the beauty of the book for me. I thought I was a clever clogs and had it all solved, but then a twist happens and blows me out of the water!

Strong characters, a fabulous and thrilling storyline, skilled writing and a fabulous new Detective. Whats not to love about The Girl in the Ice. I am already chomping at the bit to read the next book in the series. 

This is yet another riveting book by Bookouture who have wonderful authors. If you havent read any books from their company you really should!