A Winter Grave is the latest standalone thriller by prolific author Peter May, and it was intense, gritty, fast-paced and chilling (in both senses of the word! It’s 2051 and despite climate activists clear warnings, vast quantities of the planet are now under water with some countries having entirely disappeared resulting in refugees seeking homes wherever there is land. I just found it really hard overall to get into the story and feel any certain way towards any of the characters. It went on to become an international best seller, and was shortlisted for both Barry Award and Macavity Award when it was published in the USA. It’s against this backdrop that we meet Addie, a meteorologist who checks mountain top weather stations in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands, but she’s unprepared for her latest discovery - the body of a man entombed in ice.

Set in 2051, so not that far in the future, the world has undergone massive climate and political change. Although this is set in 2051, the only thing different about life is some select technology that is very subtle and made me really enjoy that aspect of the book.He is the creator of three major television drama series and presided over two of the highest-rated serials in his homeland before quitting television to concentrate on his first love, writing novels. He has created, in granular detail, an entirely singular, plausible and fascinatingly new version of our own world.

This book is set in 2051 and climate catastrophe has arrived as it has long been predicted it would. But, the author, having completed his creation, then takes our hands, so we can run together through his raging hurricane of how’s, why’s, when’s and what’s, coming out exhausted but the better for it. Vast areas of the world are under water or not habitable because of excessive heat due to the constant neglect of climate warnings. Melting ice sheets have resulted in Scotland being constantly hit by raging snow storms and thick ice. It is against this backdrop that Addie, a young meteorologist checking a mountain top weather station, discovers the body of a man entombed in ice.But when I glanced at the scant description for this one (‘a young meteorologist checking a mountain top weather station in Kinlochleven discovers the body of a missing man entombed in ice’) it immediately reminded me of those three cherished books. Set almost 30 years into the future with a futuristic, automated "helicopter" controlled by the robotic "Eve", and with many other technological devices, plus the devastating effects of climate change, I found Cameron to be a great character. Il mix di futuro distopico, emergenza ambientale, ambientazione in Scozia (che però è diventata tipo Venezia), detective puro e duro con passato famigliare à la Mankell, descrizione naturalistiche come sempre mozzafiato .

Timings around the effects of climate change have been truncated, as has the speed of technical advances, so it takes a while to get used to what is supposed to be happening. Thanks to the ruined landscape and extreme weather, the atmosphere is oppressive, as Brodie considers the handful of likely suspects and their potential motivations.Author Peter May has a knack for taking society’s current situations and extrapolating them to the future. Now Brodie is investigating a mysterious murder but soon he is going to have his hands full with another. A Winter Grave takes place in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands; one that is in the grip of an ice storm. There are multiple twists and turns throughout the novel which kept me on the edge of my seat, and an ending I never saw coming.