Until the Ice Cracks

Not my usual choice of book but I've lived in northern Norway, love the Nordic winters and go for detective thrillers so decided to 'give it a go'. It was hard going to start with for me with a good set of strong characters but little context. The description on NetGalley gave me more than I got out of the book. Yes, there was some sort of post catastrophic world and there were these confusing Zones on the island where the story was set. The Red, Orange, Green and Free zones sort of explained themselves but I wanted to know more - how they had developed, been set up, who was assigned, or chose, to go where and so on. Once I'd settled in it improved and rattled along at a good pace. Several intertwining stories appeared - a 'decoy' (who were they?) and her genetically modified pack of vixens had gone rogue (from what?) and murdered some, I think, criminals. The police inspector and his team were put on to finding and apprehending her and that part of the story followed a fairly routine police procedural route albeit with gadgets of the 2060s. A further murder occurred but that seems to have been a copycat of the first, so maybe another rogue decoy. A sub-story introduced a young telepath who had been trying to hide these skills but he was apprehended by, possibly, some police state characters or maybe criminals. He was scared and they were bullying but I'm not clear what they wanted from him. Perhaps to understand his powers and allow them to be developed in others? for good or evil? A third sub-story brought in police and state politics - were the senior police really interested in solving the original crimes or more interested in advancing their careers? Control by the state of the occupants brought out several subplots followed in more classic stories. Things hotted up with our police inspector and team chasing some red herrings, getting info of dubious intelligence and heading into what turned out a disaster with the original decoy escaping after having killed one of the police and seriously injuring another. Our telepath had some twists and turns in his story but finally escaped - yes, he knew what was planned! - and headed for the injured police inspector to rescue him from hospital where an attempt on his life had been made by the original decoy. The intensity and pressure were certainly rising and I turned a page....only to find that I had to wait for book 2. Frustrating to say the least.

I was drawn in though even if after quite a few pages and certainly want to read the next two in the trilogy. The writing was good and kept up the pace. The narrative between characters was well constructed too although, personally, I didn't like the thoughts, in italics, sprinkled through conversations. Actually they were relevant as they showed how manipulative and sneering of others quite a few of the characters were (oh dear, how's that for bad construction?!). Just a bit disconcerting to read somehow. The sci-fi techie stuff was not over the top and the reader could certainly follow much of it or at least work out abbreviations most of the time. It was believable I think, for a story set half a century or so in the future. I hope that we don't have to wait too long for the rest, and that I find out that they are available!

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for giving me the chance to read this book in return for a highly subjective but honest review.

Nero, a detective in another land, is investigating a horrific murder. He discovers someone is covering up the murder. Then another murder happens the same way. Book is fast paced.