The Girl in the Ice (Erika Foster, #1)

by Robert Bryndza

"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?"--From back cover.

• ISBN10: 153871342X
• ISBN13: 9781538713426
• Publish Date: 24 April 2018 (first published 12 February 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Grand Central Publishing
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

I'm glad I haven't bought the rest of the series. Here's the thing - the mystery was great. Straight procedural with lots of twists and turns and it was riveting.

But I hated the main character. Erika is completely unlikable and made me feel deeply uncomfortable. She hits a child across the face. In the first bit of the book. Apart from her brashness and cruelness with both witnesses and colleagues - I can't get over hitting a child. What kind of bloody cop is she? It's not like this was based in the 70's. It's set after 2014. No police officer should respond with belting a kid across the face.

Erika went to lift the little boy off her suitcase, but he leaned over and sank his teeth into the back of her hand. The intensity of the pain surprised her. ‘Let go, now,’ said Erika, trying to keep calm. He looked up at her with a nasty grin, and bit down even harder. Intense pain shot through her hand and she snapped, slapping him hard across the face. He screamed, releasing Erika’s hand, and fell off the suitcase, hitting the ground with a thud.

Bryndza, Robert. The Girl in the Ice: A gripping serial killer thriller (Detective Erika Foster Book 1) (p. 62). Bookouture. Kindle Edition.

It just made me sick. Yes he bit her but she hits him so hard he falls off the suitcase. I don't understand how so many other reviewers seem to have overlooked it. She seems to spend a lot of time going off half-cocked and it just irritated me. I got tired of it. I'm glad I haven't purchased the rest of the books in the series because I won't be obligated to continue reading.

The rest of the characters are pretty flat. Moss and/or Peterson would be the best of the lot. Marsh started out decent and then become a complete prick. Sparks just disappears. And the rest float through with no real purpose than to provide scenery. The procedural itself was well written but was hampered by a lacklustre cast and a completely unlikable heroine.

I'll keep an eye out for other works by this author but further Detective Erika Foster books - I'm taking a hard pass. 1.5 stars, rounded down to 1.

[Leah]

The Girl In The Ice is a brilliant opening novel to this brand new series, that currently stands at five books (the excitement is real, folks). The pacing was excellent – starting out with a random lad in a tracksuit, as is the British way, who because of new rules for the benefits system (that I have no idea if it’s real) has to go to work in the snow for his money – I mean, how dare the job center make him work in the snow(!) and he happens upon the body of Andrea Douglas-Brown and we have a case! We’re then introduced to Erika Foster, who’s been brought in from the Manchester force after several months absence to be SIO in the case, but as she’s soon to learn, not everything runs smoothly or correctly in her new department and she soon faces a bit of a dilemma – solve the case her way, or her bosses way and it adds an extra something to the plot.

I found The Girl In The Ice to be a brilliant read. It’s my first ever book by Robert Bryndza, he’s written women’s fiction novels prior to this series, and as I said this series now stands at five books so I have a nice catalogue of his books to read from now that I’ve finally sampled his work – and really, really enjoyed it. I’m a bit of a fussy thriller reader, easily turned off for the daftest of reasons, but what can I say, I like a certain kind of thriller (not that I could tell you what that actually IS). I loved The Girl in the Ice. So much so that I’m pretty sure I’m going to dive into the second book, The Night Stalker, just as soon as I’ve finished writing my review.

Erika Foster is a complex character – we learn her husband has died, that something went atrociously wrong in Manchester that led to her being suspended and that even after a forced absence, and in a new job, her new bosses still seem to question everything she does. I feel like there’s so much more back story there, that I’m eager to learn. And I also wanted to throat-punch the men in charge above Erika for not listening to a word she said and trying to push a different narrative as to who had actually killed poor Andrea. I found myself frustrated at times, wanting to punch something every time Erika got pushback for her thoughts and her intuitions, but I also loved that Erika didn’t take any of it lying down, so you can actually root for her.

I’m so intrigued to see where the series goes – I loved the set up, the pacing, the writing. I loved the few characters we got to know like Moss and Peterson and I hope we learn more about all of the detectives in Erika’s new team as the series progresses. This book kept me up way later than I usually let anything keep me up, considering I am a creature of habit, from the North East who LOVES her sleep, but it was just that gripping. I got nowhere near finishing the book, but it was thoroughly entertaining and devouring the next the next night was just brilliant. Robert Bryndza has written a cracking thriller here, and long may it continue with the next four of Erika Foster’s adventures!