A captivating mystery at sea.
Meet The Dauphin – a state of the art scientific research vessel, with 6 luxurious state rooms built to be home to the wealthiest looking for a trip with a difference. At £24,000 a head, taking paying visitors helps fund the science taking place in the laboratories below deck. There’s also a deep sea submersible for exploring the depths of the ocean, which is handy for Dr Finn Blanchard, on board to research the elusive and long-lived Greenland Shark.
The Dauphin is headed up to the Arctic Circle. Alongside Finn is his protective twin sister, Rose – herself a scientist focussing on more tropical climes.
One by one we meet the crew and guests on board. The passenger list is limited by the size of the ship and cost to travel, giving us a group pf characters to focus on, each with their own quirks. The most obnoxious being Dr Ben Sixgill, who manages to get the backs up of nearly everyone on board.
Called back to the surface during a trip in the submersible, Rose and Finn emerge from the vessel to find that Dr Sixgill is dead. Harpooned on the ice sheet near the ship. Stranded up in the Arctic, Rose and Finn are the only people with a firm alibi, and suspicion falls on every one else on board.
Help is at hand, with British police officers Tom Heissen and Titus Williams, at this point stationed up in Svalbard, on the trail of a smuggling ring. As the nearest officers, they board the ship, and make use of the twins’ scientific minds to help solve a seemingly impossible murder.
The novel reads like a classic murder mystery in a modern setting, and is great fun to read. The characters are well written, and I felt compelled to keep reading into the early hours to find out whodunnit. Layers of secrets are peeled back until we find out everyone’s deep hidden secrets, and uncover who hated Dr Sixgill enough to kill him. The author has crafted wonderful characters that we really root for, and I’m excited to hear the Blanchard twins will be back for another adventure.
Death on Ice is out on February 13th.
Many thanks to the author, the published Faber & Faber Ltd and Netgalley for the advance digital copy for review.
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