A Winter Grave by Peter May
Peter May has written what I would think of as a future history.
A Winter Grave
is partially set in a 2051 with flash-backs to decades before. In Peter May’s novel, Scotland has become an independent state but is badly affected by changes in the Gulf Stream. The changes are now causing regular storms, flooding, and power cuts, turning Scotland into a cold, miserable place.
The novel is a whodunit with a political twist concerning a faulty nuclear power station. Taking about twists, as with most detective novels, the plot is full of twists and turns and has descriptions that provide the reader with mental images of the scenery surrounding the action. The narratives concerning the future are thought-provoking. Snow storms are regular, and Glasgow is partially underwater.
Briefly,
Addie, a young meteorologist, discovers the body of a man entombed in ice whilst out checking a mountaintop weather station,
The body is identified as that of George Younger, an investigative reporter who’s been missing for three months after vanishing during what the locals claimed was a hill-walking holiday. However, George Younger has never shown any interest in hill walking. So why was his body found on a mountaintop near the Highland village of Kinlochleven?
Enter
Cameron Brodie, a veteran Glasgow detective who volunteers to fly north to investigate Younger’s death. However, all is not what it seems. He’s taken the case because it gives him the excuse to face Addie (the young meteorologist who discovered the body of George Younger).
Addie is also Brodie’s estranged daughter, who has made her home in the remote Highland village. Brodie also wants to see his daughter because he has cancer, has not long to live and wants to make his peace before he dies.
I think I have said enough. Read the novel, you’ll love it.
A Winter Grave by Peter May.
Couldn’t put down. .Five stars from me.
Reviewed by Andrew R Williams
Author of the Arcadia’s Children series, Jim Series and Superior and Playing Dirty
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