Monday 27 June 2016

Book Review: The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza


Book: The Girl in the Ice

Author: Robert Bryndza

Pages: 396

Read on: Kindle

Read in: 4-5 hours

Plot Summary: 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? 

Things I Liked: Listy-list right here:

1. This book had me at the "gripping serial killer thriller" blurb. I mean, come on! What's not to like about a serial killer thriller? 

2. There were a few red herrings- the dead girl had led a very colourful life- and so, the actual killer was not very obvious up until the 50-60% mark of the book. 

Things I Didn't Like: Quite a few things, actually:

1. Now, this book was pegged and blurbed as a serial killer thriller. It wasn't really a serial killer thriller at all! The body count was a measly two! Pathetic! The whole point of a serial killer-centric thriller/ mystery is that there should be semi-frequent murders, which make the reader wonder what's going on, whilst also helping shed some light on the serial killer's MO etc. This book was a big fail in that aspect! 

2. The other deaths linked to the serial killer pop up only at the 75% mark of the book and they are all cold cases, so it does nothing to excite the reader at all. 

3. The book seems very repetitive and annoying, especially, since the lead detective on the case- Erika- has a huge immigrant chip on her shoulder and keeps screwing up or gets screwed over and then gets hysterical and goes and does her own half-baked investigating! I am all for deep personal angst as a tool for character development but in this book there was no character development at all- only angst. 

4. It is pretty obvious who the killer is because in the very first chapter when the girl is getting killed, the killer is referred to as "a very familiar face", which clearly implicates one of the three men in her life. So dull. 

Rating: 2/5 
I don't know why this book is all hyped up on Goodreads and YouTube. Clearly some paid promotions at work here. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid. 

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