A Fractured Winter

Travel Guide

Wilderswil in the Swiss Alps

She thought she was safe, that she’s managed to escape from her past. For the last eleven years, she’s led an idyllic life in this small Swiss village.

“It was a magical November morning, with jewel-bright colours and long shadows and long shadows from the low winter sun. Below her house, the forest snaked its way over the hillside and into the valley where Lake Zug sparkled in the distance”

Wildenberg Peaks

These mountains loomed in dark spikes against the pure blue sky. Part of the stunning landscape around this region. Olivia and her family have lived here for eleven years but the landscape still takes her breath away.

Zug

Nearby village where not many of the English expats could speak any German even years in Switzerland according to the novel.

Remote landscape

Cold, remote and if a child goes missing, a dark desolate place too big to fathom. There is a Swiss Alert System for missing children which is activated in the novel but the full operation can’t go ahead with helicopters until first light. When there’s not natural light here, it’s as dark as death itself.

Scarborough, Yorkshire, England

Where the second story of the novel takes place. The weather and wind chill factor aren’t much better in 1980s Yorkshire to be fair:

“There’s cold wind blowing off the sea and the outlines of the ruined eleventh-century castle is silhouetted against the sky and the Victorian terraces. Marie’s favourite place is the library where she indulges in adventures with the Famous Five.”