A review by nixbix_reads
The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza

dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

It took me a long time to get into this book, and even now that I’ve finished it, I don’t think I was ever fully invested.  

Right from the start, DCI Erika Foster is unstable - she’s back at work not long after her husband was killed on the job under her command.  She has all the tact & diplomacy of an exploding bomb, and this seems to apply to all humans who interact with her.  Within a day of being on the case, she infuriates most of the people on her team, her boss, her bosses boss, and the victim’s family.  I’m all for having unlikeable people as the hero or having a main character with unresolved trauma, but there is a limit.  

I found the story to be filled with cliche upon police procedural cliche.  I read on in the hope that it would get better, but that hope faded.  I will say that I never guessed who the killer was, so that’s a positive.