Review: "The Frozen People" by Elly Griffiths
The
Frozen People by
Elly Griffiths Viking,
2025 Elly Griffiths’ latest mystery, The Frozen People—which is scheduled for release on July 8—is a likable first in a new and wholly original mystery series. In fact, it is a hybrid of sorts, since Ali Dawson, part of a secret cold case team with the meaningless title of the Department of Logistics, is tasked with solving cases so cold they use a new, and not completely understood technology, to travel back in time and gather evidence. The team’s operating procedures are simple: watch, bear witness, don’t interact, and stay safe. To date these rules have been easy to follow since the time jumps have been reasonably short and the people being watched were unable to see Ali. But things change when the
politically connected Isaac Templeton—a Tory MP and the boss of Ali’s son,
Finn—asks the Department to travel to the Victorian London of 1850 to clear his
ancestor, Cain Templeton, of the suspicion that he killed three women. Isaac
believes the whispers about Cain has sullied his family’s name and that Ali
and the Department can clear it. Ali takes the challenge. With the help of an
expert, she studies the era, readies the proper attire, and, not completely
successfully, attempts to adopt the meek attitude of Victorian women. Of
course, things go wrong quickly, the natives can see her, Ali gets stuck in
1850, and her son, Finn, is accused of murder back home in 2023. The Frozen People
is a solid traditional mystery with an original concept and enough personality,
in the form of Ali, to give it zing. While it starts slowly—the confusing
number of characters introduced early-on is the primary culprit—the narrative
picks up quickly when Ali jumps into the past. The Victorian London setting,
from the attitudes and clothing to the colder than expected weather, is splendid.
Ali is beset by one catastrophe after another until it seems her plight, and
that of Finn, is doomed. And the time travel element? What isn’t great about
a detective solving multiple murders across nearly 200 years? |
Find The Frozen People on Amazon—click here for the Kindle edition
and here for the hardcover. |
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