Death on Ice
As seen:
By R. O. Thorp
avg rating
1 review
Meet the Blanchard twins:
Rose is practical, sharp, and protective. Specialty: manta rays.
Finn is too sweet and kind for his own good. Specialty: sharks.
They work together on research – but can their scientific minds solve a murder?
The cruise ship Dauphin promises luxury suites, a champagne brunch on the Arctic ice – and scientific experts studying the animals of the far north. Rose Blanchard will pilot the ship’s spherical submersible, Mouette, while her brother Finn films his beloved Greenland sharks.
But when they resurface from a deep-sea expedition, they find one of their colleagues dead – murdered on the ice with a harpoon that should never have been on board. The Blanchards’ submarine trip rules them out as suspects, and soon they are asked to turn their scientific minds to investigate the crime.
No-one liked the murder victim – but did anyone have a motive strong enough for murder?’Thorp’s prose is sweepingly lyrical . . . She finds mystery in the everyday, locates the poison that lurks within.’ Spectator
TweetReviews
A fun read in the Cosy Crime genre not usually my piece of toasted crumpet but that's one of the good things about book clubs, how they persuade...force us out of our habits
That the novel is very well written in respectful tribute to Agatha Christie style classic Golden Age detective fiction clearly helps win over the likes of me, 60+, cynical, grumpy, you know the type.
Murder as puzzle, with clues carefully planted to be picked up by the discerning reader. Nicely humorous in a very English way, with 21st C diversity that simply 'is' rather than making a 'Look at me! 'song-and-dance. Enough tension, twists and surprises to satisfy this reader.
The setting, an Arctic cruise with proper academic researchers and scientists to give intellectual heft to wealthy passengers' need for comfort and luxury, was the main draw for me, but it's the well drawn characters I stayed for: Rose and Finn, twin scientists forced by circumstances to turn amateur sleuths, a stalwart Scandi Captain completely in charge of his well-run ship regardless of what happens on this voyage, competing scientists, a pair of English policemen currently in Svalbard to investigate a smuggling ring, a pair of 'crystal hippie snobs' and a couple of 'quiet luxury snobs', an elderly writer together with her very efficient nurse.
Skilfully RO Thorp weaves together a satisfying murder mystery story that manages to be Classic and yet very Modern at the same time. It would make a brilliant film adaptation with the right casting and sufficient whimsy.
More, please.
