Being a fan of Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway and The Brighton Murder mysteries series, a new book with a new series from a favourite author is always exciting.

The Frozen People takes us in a new direction a crime procedural but with a fascinatingly original twist- time travel.

Ali Dawson works for a cold case team but with a huge difference ; the discovery to go back in time to potentially solve cases.

When requested by a Government Minister to research whether his ancestor was a serial killer, Ali finds herself back in 1850 and trapped! Simultaneously, the aforementioned Minister is found shot dead and Ali’s son Finn is accused of the murder.

This is a gloriously mind- bending crime novel - ingenious and highly original .

Keeping up with the time changes and focus upon how time travel worked keeps you on your toes but it works brilliantly.

Combining Elly Griffiths’ dry wit and meticulous period research, The Frozen People is a great read. For a successful author to take a new path must be a risk but rest assured this new direction is great fun and gripping - where the series goes next ..well that’s anyone’s guess …so much potential

Highly recommended - and come on TV companies it’s about time an Elly Griffiths series was adapted for the small screen ..maybe this new series could be the one!

A great new read for 2025

I’m a massive Elly Griffiths fan and was so excited to get the chance to read The Frozen People.

This is a new series and the protagonist is Ali Dawson who works for a Cold Case unit in the Met Police in London. I loved everything about Ali, with her postbox rea hair - she is a feminist firebrand! She’s a single-mum who put herself through University and then joined the Police and had a successful career.

The Cold Case unit is a little bizarre - they time-travel to investigate cases. I was a little dubious about this element of the story. However, I very quickly got sucked into the story. I found the Victorian strand fascinating. I loved the fish out of water element of Ali having to navigate Victorian England. I also really enjoyed Ali revisiting the buildings and streets she had spent time in the Victorian era as many of the buildings still stand in East London.

It’s a page-turner and absolutely engaging read. Ali Dawson is a great leading lady for a series of new books. Her colleagues, her son Finn and finally and not forgetting her cat Terry are great supporting characters.

I look forward to reading the next Ali Dawson instalment in the future.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Quercus Books, for the e-ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

It took me a little while to get into this book, Elly Griffiths has always been such a fabulous author that I decided it was worth persevering when the beginning seemed a little far-fetched and complicated. It was absolutely worth. The book is about Time travel because it needs to be for the plot to work, but actually this is about betrayal friendship and the strength and weakness of relationships. The bond between mother and son is explored as is the ties that are made through work colleagues and what ultimately people are willing to give up the safety and love of others.. the murder mystery is well told and whilst the unpicking of the murderer at the end was a surprise it was a great read.

I have to say, when I first read the synopsis of The Frozen People - a secret cold case team within the Met who time travel to gather evidence on historical crimes - my initial reaction was to think "Really?! This is what's replacing our beloved Ruth Galloway series?!" And it's a bonkers premise, let's be honest, but somehow it kind of works. This is down entirely to the strength of Griffiths' writing, and especially her character development. Quite rapidly the reader understands who Ali is, what makes her tick, and why we should care about her. And care we do, so when she gets stuck in the mid-19th century while investigating the ancestor of a prominent MP (an MP for whom her son happens to work), we want badly for Ali and her team to work out how to get her back to the present day.

There's a little too much going on in the narrative, what with mysterious chairs and a sinister secret society and a present day murder case and and letters from the past suggesting that Ali will return to 1850 at some point, but altogether it manages to (just about) cohere into an enjoyable and well paced mystery. I shall certainly read the next in the series.

I absolutely loved The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths! As a new reader of her work, I was captivated by how she skillfully blended time-traveling fantasy, historical intrigue, and crime elements into a gripping and imaginative story. Her ability to create vivid settings and compelling characters kept me hooked from start to finish. This was my first experience with Griffiths’ writing, but it definitely won’t be my last—I’m now eager to dive into her Ruth Galloway series to see more of her storytelling.

The genre I didn’t know I needed - time travelling crime. Am so excited about this series - I’m no science fiction nut but this offers me just enough to get me fantasy juices flowing while still being focused on history and crime (my faves) in only a way Elly can do.

As always her characters are beautifully human and loveable, the book is well researched and gripping through the flow of the story as well as keeping you hungry for nuggets of Victorian facts throughout!

It was pacy at the start, slowed down in the middle and then whizzed towards the end in the last 5 or so percent so perhaps could have been paced a bit more smoothly but I loved it none-the-less.

Please give us more and quickly.

This is mind-bendingly good, even for such a seasoned author as Griffiths. The idea is fresh and exciting and she executes it in such a way that the core plot point almost sneaks up on you. The cast of characters is fascinating and credible, from the investigating team to the political advisors and even the cats. The pacing was perfect, the dialogue carefully executed to align with the locations and plot and the back stories just full enough to add value without detracting from the very exciting main story line. I can’t wait for more!