“The Girl In The Ice” by Robert Bryndza
This was a review copy kindly provided by the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I found this to be thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable read. Robert Bryndza has created a plausible, likeable and feisty character in Detective Erika Foster and her team of cohorts in his debut crime thriller.
His writing is clean, precise and snappy and you are drawn into the plot effortlessly as the tale zips along. I especially liked the London setting – the descriptions of the locations wetted my appetite and, as I only visit the capital a few times each year, I found myself Googling some of them for further details. Rather satisfyingly, I read this in late December and early January which is the same timeframe that much of the plot takes place in. For me, this added to the overall enjoyment of the novel; it helped that the weather outside matched that on the pages but reading it in the height of summer would have been just as good.
A cast of potential culprits is presented for us to sift through and, in the flawed Foster – detectives are always flawed, aren’t they? That’s what we find so gripping about them – we revel in the way she (mis)handles them in her search for the killer. The obligatory fractious relationships with co-workers and superiors that it seems every detective must have is, to my mind, cleverly written and, often, very refreshingly depicted.
The array of characters was deftly handled; Bryndza has created a cast across varying sectors of society and each one of them reads as genuine, the authority figures and socialites ring just as true as his depictions of the migrants and criminals that appear in the book.
I do have one tiny gripe in that I felt the ending was a little rushed but, despite this, Erika Foster’s debut was a satisfyingly good read. I look forward to her return and to her further adventures.
The Moustachioed Reader
My Rating: 3* out of 5*
Author: Robert Bryndza
Robert Bryndza
Publication Date: 12th February 2016
Published by Bookouture
Gavin Dimmock. Writer. 