Book Synopsis:
A frozen wilderness.
A killer in the skies.
When aspiring travel writer Chloé Campbell is invited aboard a luxury airship flying to the North Pole, she thinks she’s bagged the opportunity of a lifetime.
But she hasn’t had long to admire the dazzling icy views before a fellow passenger is found dead in their cabin.
Trapped at the top of the world, the group agrees a tragic accident has occurred. But as the hours tick by, fear turns to doubt.
It seems everyone’s a suspect.
And it isn’t long before the passengers begin to turn on each other . . .
My Review:
Death In The Arctic is a gripping, locked room murder mystery which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Firstly I loved the unusual setting of an airship in this book which helped add a different element to the story. I really enjoyed discovering more about this unusual form of transportation and finding out how it works. I ended up spending hours on the internet searching it up and discovering, much to my delight, that it is actually making a come back and is every bit as decedent as described in the book. I actually wondered if I’d fallen through a time loop whilst looking at one webpage as not only did it say flights were currently suspended but the head chief was also called Jasper which is one of the characters in the book.
The book is told through the point of view of multiple different characters which was really fascinating as everyone had something to hide. It was very intriguing to follow them all on their flight as we find out more about them and all their secrets. They are mainly a dislikeable bunch, though I did have a soft spot for Chloe and Ben who I thought made a great team together. There were quite a few that I loved to hate and I kept reading, hoping that they would get their comeuppance in the end. I did struggle to keep all the character’s straight at the beginning as we are introduced a quite a few at once. There is a passenger list at the front of the book to help but I wonder it would be better if the character’s job title or role was put onto it as well as I kept getting confused between a few of them.
I thought the book was very gripping and I quickly found myself drawn into the story. I’ve got a fascination with the arctic so I loved the vivid way the author described the views from the windows, especially the different colours the sky creates there which sounded so beautiful. There were lots of twists that kept me guessing and I found myself reading faster towards the end as everything is revealed. Unusually for me I didn’t guess who the murder was which I always love. I think I might be in the minority with this though as I’ve read a few reviews where people say they guessed it fairly early on , so maybe I’m losing my touch! The ending was brilliant and although I wish that some of the characters had a different outcome maybe that wouldn’t have made it so realistic. It’s a book I’ll be recommending to crime or mystery fans and one I’m hoping to do for our book club as I think they’d be lots to discuss.
Huge thanks to our lovely penguin rep Phoebe for sending me a copy of this book. If you are after a gripping crime book in an unusual setting then I highly recommend this one .
About The Author:
Tom Hindle hails from Leeds and lives in Oxfordshire with his wife, a cat and two surprisingly cunning tortoises. He is the author of A Fatal Crossing, The Murder Game and Murder on Lake Garda – which were inspired by masters of the crime genre such as Agatha Christie and Anthony Horowitz.
Tom is hard at work on his next murder mystery.
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