Why a Booktrail?
2000s: Just who is the girl found under a large sheet of ice in a South London park
The Girl in the Ice
What you need to know before your trail
This is one question that Detective Erika Foster would like to find out as well as she is in charge of the murder investigation which turns out to be very tricky to solve. The victim was a rich young socialite but her life was far from ideal. As Erika investigates, she finds links to a darker side of London and there are more bodies, this time found in water.
Just what is the connection and what is the significance of the freezing water?
Travel Guide
“The Pavement glittered in the moonlight as Andrea Douglas- Brown hurried up the deserted high street”
The sound of her high heels and the fact she’s dizzy from all the vodka she’s drunk. Mix in the cold January and air and you just know this is not going to end well.
She’s only about 1/4 miles from Dulwich but she is scared as she’s all alone and there is car following her. Flash forward a few chapters and her face reappears again in a whole new setting:
“Her body was found frozen in the ice. -that she’d been in the water for at least seventy-two hours. The temperature dropped below zero three days ago. Also, her phone was still working when she was found, a young guy who works here heard it ringing.”
The fact that a serial killer seems to be overpowering women in such creepy ways around around London and dumping them in freezing water creates a unique premise for a killer and a possible link between them all. Whether she’s investigating the death of a rich socialite like Andrea or a prostitute, Erika Foster is the woman you’d want on your side, she is a force to be reckoned with.
A gritty detective on the streets of an even grittier London.
As well as the gritty side of London, the area of Forest Hill is featured and the landmark that is the Hormiman Museum where Lee ends up a as a gardener should be visited in order to see the nicer side of the area where the Girl in the Ice unfolds. But the museum is actually the scene of one of the crimes so don’t take things too literarily!
Streetview Maps
B) The Homiman Museum
c) The real Lewisham Police Station
Booktrailer Review
Clare: @thebooktrailer
Can you believe the hype with this book? Well now, I am always unsure of popular books as often the hype is just that. But this was well deserved hype. Blimey, I felt cold reading it, that icy feeling didn’t leave me. That opening scene just chilled me to the core. It’s gripping and fast paced and then some. The police worked so hard and there were so many leads that no one seemed to go to bed or be able to rest for a while. I know I didn’t. What kind of killer dumps their victims in freezing water like this?
There was so much doubt and a cloud of suspicion over this novel that I had to keep the light on to make it less chillingly brilliant. The image of that girl stuck in time as if in the middle of saying something was something I could not get out of my head and still can’t.
And DCI Erica is just one of the most gripping female leads I have spent time with. I’d want her on my side as despite the scraps and situations she gets herself into, like a cat with nine lives, she just jumps back up and gets straight back out there.
I didn’t guess the killer but then again I didn’t want to. I was there for the ride and boy it was a fast and furious one. I’m slightly dizzy with the exhilaration now. Need a rest.
Where Next?
