Sunday Books & Culture - Fiction
Some cold-case murders can't be solved in just one lifetime. A little time-travel is required.
Sunday Books & Culture is edited each week by Vanessa Sekinger
THE FROZEN PEOPLE
by Elly Griffiths
Published by Pamela Dorman Books (July 8, 2025)
Hardcover $27.90
Audiobook $14.95
Reviewed by Penny A Parrish
To murder mystery fans, “cold cases” get a lot of attention. Solving whodunits from decades ago is a challenge for investigators and families. But in this book, they’re trying to solve cases from the past by literally going back in time. As the cover reads, “Some murders can’t be solved in just one lifetime.”
Ali Dawson is part of a secret cold case team in London. She’s fifty years old, a bit cynical and very smart – streetwise and intellectually. She’s been married three times and her son Finn is the product of her first marriage to Declan – when she was 19 and pregnant. That lasted five years. Now she lives with Terry, her psychotic cat. Finn is an adult, working in the office of Isaac Templeton, Member of Parliament.
Ali and her small team have already traveled back in time, but for short trips into the recent past. The ability to do this has been master-minded by a physicist named Jones. The trips work as long as the time-traveler stands in the exact same place, feet in perfect position, when it’s time to return to the present.
Now, a bigger project is proposed. Lord Templeton wants Ali to go back to Victorian times to investigate his great-great grandfather. He was supposedly part of an unsavory group called The Collectors. In addition to antiques and art, the members collected women, dead women. Jones sets about making this adventure happen.
It was fun to read about changes Ali needed to make before her “trip.” Her fire-engine red hair had to go. So did all electronic devices. Layers of petticoats were not as difficult as the corset. Old money was provided, but her inquisitiveness and habit of asking unlady-like questions survived the transfer. She finds herself in a very cold, smelly, and dirty Victorian London.
But just because Ali gets to visit the past, readers will not be surprised when she has trouble getting back to the present. That becomes a dire mission when she finds out that Finn has been arrested for murder. How can she solve the Victorian case, get back to the present, and save her innocent son? It’s all part of a clever plot with interesting characters.
I’m not normally a reader of time-traveler books but found this one delightful, mostly because of Ali. Looking for a good summer read, pick this one up.
Penny A Parrish is a local writer and photographer. You can see her pictures at PennyAParrishPhotography.com
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