When Faber and Faber got in touch to invite me onto the blog tour for one of their new debut authors of course I said yes!

Death on Ice by R. O. Thorp introduces us to the Blanchard twins, Rose and Finn. They are marine biologists who are on a luxury Artic cruise for work, alongside an assortment of passengers who are there to enjoy themselves. After a trip out on their research submersible they return to find a fellow scientist is dead on the ice, killed by a harpoon that shouldn’t have been onboard. As the only two not under suspicion, Rose and Finn must use all their scientific instinct to try and track down the killer.

I really enjoyed this slightly madcap story, think a cross between Death in Paradise and Murder She Wrote. It was an eclectic mix of people, passengers looking for a luxury experience,  scientists wanting to save the ice caps and crew members wanting to do a good job, and this randomness of cast really made this book stand out for me.

The story was interesting although the main draw of this was definitely the characters. The twins actually share the spotlight with a pair of detectives called Tom and Titus who are called on board after chasing a smuggling ring to the nearby port. Together the four of them have to work together in order to try and save the others all whilst being cut off from main society in a frozen land.

This is very much a character led novel with a full cast of eccentrics who are all locked together with secrets and motives. I really like the character of Rose and Finn and I felt they gave an interesting twist on the detective genre. They were a good combination of humour, science and vulnerability that gave an added dimension to this take on a locked room mystery.

This was a great book that felt fresh (and not just because of the freezing cold setting) and a bit different. I will definitely be looking forward to the next in the series.