The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza: Book Review

The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza is a compelling story of Erika Foster, who just transferred to a new police precinct and falls into a series of confrontations with nobility, her peers, and her boss. The crime of the girl found buried in the ice is almost secondary to these conflicts.

Book review: The Girl in the Ice

I found the book compelling, but, then, I’m a mystery buff and love nothing better than a good crime drama. It was also interesting that the murder took place in England, so we get a taste of the English justice system.

Here’s an except from the book, courtesy of Amazon:

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?

Characters, plot

I don’t want to give anything away, but I had kind of a love, hate relationship with this book.

I loved the plot and the way the author took us through various twists and turns before revealing the somewhat predictable ending when he finally named the killer. I’m ok with a predictable killer as long as the police aren’t being stupid and ignoring clues about his/her identity.

The characters were interesting and I found I cared about them, which, at least for me, is a key element in a book’s success.

Conflict between the protagonist and her colleagues detracted from the book. I’m not a fan of conflict, at least not on the job. In real life, I find it dysfunctional and I find most folks avoid outward conflict at work as much as possible. Instead, they resort to political games meant to punish the worker and gain support for their side rather than engage in outright conflict. Maybe it’s different in England, so I’ll give Bryndza a pass on this one.

My most serious problem with the book is that I don’t find some elements believable. For instance, I find it unbelievable that Foster fails to notice that someone was in her house, when, as a trained detective, she is very observant in other contexts. I also don’t understand why she would torpedo her career by inserting her version of the murder into the press conference, where it does little good for the investigation and, potentially, lets the killer know the cops are getting close.

My recommendation

I tried not to spoil anything for readers interested in picking up a copy because I highly recommend The Girl in the Ice.

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