This is a book I would never have chosen if left to my own devices, but my book club selected it. It's a very dark book, maybe what they call granite noir? It is very different from our usual fare, being set in a post-apocalyptic near future. In 2051 the climate has become all the things that we are being warned about right now: permanent flooding of coastal areas, viscious storms, desperate people looking for a new home, desperate politicians try to bar entrance to their countries.
Human dramas continue on, despite the worldwide chaos. Cameron Brodie is an old timer on the police force who has quit paying much attention to the news. He has personal issues to occupy his thoughts, namely a dead wife, an estranged daughter, and six months to live due to virulent cancer. So he lies to his superior and takes a case that will take him to the little town in Scotland where his daughter lives. In fact, she is the one who discovered the corpse of a journalist frozen in an ice tunnel at the top of a mountain.
I struggled to connect to any of the characters but finally, a third of the way through, I at least developed an interest in the plot. Who killed the journalist and what were they trying to cover up? How far will they go? [Spoiler alert: pretty far.] I alternated reading and housework in order to withstand the plot tension. Nothing like doing dishes to calm me down.
In my opinion, this book skews more toward the thriller end of the spectrum than the mystery end. Brodie manages to find things out, put things together and survive mishaps that are so severe that I found my belief being stretched very thin. I will be interested in hearing what other book club members think, particularly our retired crown attorney. I hope he's there!
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