The Blanchard twins, Rose and Finn, are both marine biologists but are very different people. Finn is nice and sweet and specialises in sharks. Rose is practical and sharp, and specialises in manta rays. And looking out for her brother. They are on the Dauphin, a luxuty cruise ship in the arctic to study sharks on the sea bed – but not all of the passengers seem to share their interests.

When Rose and Finn return from the sea bed in their submersible, the one bit of good news is that they have iron clad alibis for the murder of a fellow scientist, stabbed with a harpoon that shouldn’t have been on the boat. Which is probably a good thing as Rose had punched him in the face the day before…

Just a quick review as I’m a bit short on time. This is a new book from an author new to the genre (or possibly just one with a new pseudonym) and it’s out on Kindle this week. It’s out in paperback in a few months time – not sure how that helps publication, maybe it was a last minute decision when they realised “ice” in the title might work in the Christmas market.

Anyway, it’s perfectly fine. The central characters are well drawn and despite eccentricities feel like real people. I wasn’t convinced that the story needed the addition of the two police detectives as it did detract from the twins (and when I say twins, it’s primarily Rose who we get insight into, along with her thoughts on Finn). There’s a mixed bag of passengers and fellow scientists and…

I’ll be honest, I found some of it slow going. After an excellent teaser in the first chapter that ends with a dead body, I could have done with the actual first murder happening a bit sooner. There’s quite a lot of talking and for when things do happen, I could have done with a plan of the boat. Who knows, maybe it’s in the non-review copy.

It does get rather complicated towards the end, as to who did what and why, but I’d rather see that than something where one character did it and the rest were there just to pad out the cast, although the introduction of the backstory of a couple of characters did seem to come out of nowhere (and go the same place).

As I said, it’s fine. It didn’t really grab me, but potentially I wasn’t quite focused as I’m struggling with a heavy cold at the mo. Why not try it and see what you think?

Death On Ice is out as an ebook from Faber and Faber on 11^th December. Many thanks for the e-copy.