I love a good mystery and The Ice Queen had a killer (pun intended) premise. German detectives find Jossi Goldberg shot execution style with a number drawn in blood near the body. As a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor, he isn’t the likeliest of murder victims. After getting him in for an autopsy however, they find that his arm has an unsuccessfully covered tatoo of his blood type, a sure sign that he was once part of the SS. Detectives Kirchhoff and Bodenstein must find out who this man really was and why he murdered.
If you’re a fan of mysteries, this is a book totally worth reading. It isn’t without flaws, but the story is a fascinating one that kept me interested. I’ve been trying to read more translated stories and I’ve found that detective mysteries from other countries are great because the procedure and tropes tend to be a little different from the ones set in America. A story like this set in Germany is especially intriguing because with most of the population still struggling to deal with the long-lasting ramifications of World War II.
I think I would have liked it a little better if I had read it on a hardcopy. The audiobook reader just didn’t do it for me and I had the hardest time keeping all the German names straight. Still, I’d definitely recommend The Ice House. It was a well told mystery and a fascinating dive into a foreign culture.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.