Book Review – The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza

Goodreads Synopsis:

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?

My Opinion:

If you’re looking for an exceptional mystery/thriller look no more, this is the series for you.

The phone stopped ringing, and was replaced by a deafening silence. And then he saw it. Directly underneath where he crouched was the face of a girl. Her milky brown swollen eyes stared at him, blankly. A clump of dark hair was fused to the ice in a tangle. A fish swam lazily past, its tail brushing against the girl’s lips, which were parted as if she were about to speak. – Chapter 1

The body of Andrea Douglas-Brown has been found frozen under a thick layer of ice. She’s a 23-year-old local socialite whose father is a man of influence that can make or break careers.

DCI Erika Foster has not been active on the police force for the past several months. She has been called back in by Chief Superintendent Marsh to take the lead in a missing persons case, only by the time she arrives it has now become a murder investigation. She was told that when she returns to work that she would be put on administrative tasks for at least six months, so no one is more surprised than her when she becomes the SIO (Senior Investigating Officer) of such a high profile case.

It’s not rare to see a strong female lead in the mystery/thriller genre, but it’s not the norm.  So when I hear about a series with a female lead detective I’m naturally curious and excited to read it. Erika is smart, has tenacity, and is driven. Much to my frustration, there were times when her fellow officers underestimated her and ignored her theories and direction that she wanted to take the case. Yes, there were times when she took unnecessary risks, but it spoke to her undeniable determination to find the killer at any cost.

In this first book, along with the case at hand, there were tidbits of information about her life before being called back to active duty. I’m hoping that her past will be explored further in the books still to come in the series. This is a very strong start to a series that has four books in it at the time I am writing this review. I am very excited to start book two and see where this fantastic series if headed.

My Rating: 5/5

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Series: Detective Erika Foster

Publisher: Bookouture

Publication Date: 2/12/206

Pages: 395 (eBook)

Have you read this series? Do you have a favorite book in this series?

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Happy Reading!