A Winter Grave by Peter May Narrated by Peter Forbes was another excellent thriller. Peter always has a way of making you think that his stories could be true, which make all his books well written, from start to finish and very hard to put down.

This latest book is set in 2051, in a world greatly altered by climate change., All Warnings of climate catastrophe have been ignored, and vast areas of the planet are under water, or uninhabitable hot. A quarter of the world's population has been displaced by hunger and flooding, and immigration wars are breaking out all around the globe as refugees pour into neighbouring countries.

Melting ice sheets have brought the Gulf Stream to a halt and northern latitudes, including Scotland, are being hit by snow and ice storms. 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.

The dead man is an investigative reporter, called George Younger, missing for three months after vanishing during what he claimed was a hill-walking holiday. But George was no hill walker, and his discovery on a mountain-top near the Highland village of Kinlochleven, is inexplicable.

Cameron Brodie, a veteran Glasgow Detective, volunteers to be flown north to investigate Younger's death, but he has more than a murder enquiry on his agenda. He has just been given a devastating medical prognosis by his doctor and knows the time has come to face his estranged daughter who has made her home in the remote Highland village.

Arriving during an ice storm, Brodie and pathologist Dr. Sita Roy, find themselves the sole guests at the inappropriately named International Hotel, where Younger's body has been kept refrigerated in a cake cabinet. But evidence uncovered during his autopsy places the lives of both Brodie and Roy in extreme jeopardy. More storms are coming..........

This book has so many twists and turns throughout it is hard to put it down. Plus, one of his best books he has written. I loved it and I highly recommend A Winters Grave.

I wonder what 2051 would be like? I really hope its not like this!!! Blimey I will be 81!!! I wonder?

A meteorologist discovers the body of a missing journalist in an ice-cave above Kinlochleven and Detective Cameron Brodie, from Glasgow, is assigned the initial investigation. Set in the near future, Brodie endures the effects of climate change and technological advancement as he his whisked in an un-piloted drone to the remote village where journalist was last seen alive. Recently diagnosed with cancer and given around 6 months to live, Brodie has personal reasons to revisit the Scottish mountains he first visited with his father during childhood.
The village is near the site of Scotland’s large nuclear power plant. With the help of the local policeman, the hotel-owner and a worker/whistle-blower from the power plant, Brodie’s investigations eventually lead to the knowledge that the now-dead journalist was investigating a shady political past associated with the power plant and a recent earthquake with possibly lethal consequences for all who live in the region.
The characters are well-crafted with a good amount of the book is spent revealing Detective Brodie’s past and eventually revealing a present-day relationship with one of the key characters. The plot is well paced and the overall story has an eerie degree of credibility.
A very good read, very highly recommended.

Peter May’s new thriller is a gripping tale of murder and betrayal in a dystopian Scotland suffering from catastrophic climate change.

It’s 2051 and after decades of inaction on climate change, large swathes of the world are either already under water or too hot for habitation with governments unable to cope with the resulting famine, death and mass migration. Due to the melting of polar ice causing disruption of the Gulf Stream, the Scottish Highlands now experience increasingly ferocious snow and ice storms. These are monitored by local meteorologist Addie Sinclair from weather stations set on top of the mountains around Loch Leven. Whilst out checking one of her stations, she discovers an ice tunnel has formed in a corrie or hollow on the side of the mountain and exploring it further is shocked to see a man’s body trapped in the ice above her head.

The body is recognised as that of investigative journalist George Younger who went missing three months ago from the isolated village of Kinlochleven, while supposedly out walking in the mountains. Detective, Cameron Brodie, an experienced mountain climber is sent from Glasgow with pathologist Dr Sita Roy, to Kinlochleven to investigate his death. It’s now winter and the village is a bleak place with no tourists or visiting workers from the nearby nuclear power plant, and only a lone manager keeping the hotel open.

While Dr Roy’s autopsy finds evidence that Younger was assaulted on the mountain, she also discovers puzzling signs of damage inside his body that will have to wait until she gets back to her hospital to analyse. However, with another major ice storm cutting off power and communication with the outside world, Brodie and Roy find themselves trapped with no means of leaving and a killer on the loose seeking to hide all evidence of Younger’s murder and whatever it was he was investigating. Brodie also has personal reasons for coming to Kinlochleven and demons of his own to deal with. In addition to his failing health, he is forced to face the mistakes of his past while he still has a chance for some reconciliation.

Peter May’s futuristic vision of 2051 is totally plausible, with its mix of new inventions and catastrophic environmental and geopolitical changes. The bleak and rugged atmospheric setting of the icy cold Scottish mountains and Brodie’s struggles battling blizzards generates a feeling of entrapment and claustrophobia, making Brodie’s search for what was important enough to get Younger killed tense and riveting reading.

The novel is sparsely populated with main characters; Brodie and Roy, Addie, the meteorologist, married to Robbie Sinclair, the local, friendly policeman and Brannon the shadowy and often missing manager of the mostly closed up hotel. All have their flaws and secrets but are real and very credible. The suspense builds gradually as Brodie starts to work out what was important enough to get Younger killed and what role others played. While the futuristic setting might indicate a change in direction for May, he’s right at home in his vision of a futuristic bleak and wintery Scotland and delivers everything we’ve come to expect from him in this compelling thriller.

A Winter Grave is set in Scotland but it’s not a Scotland we would recognise. The year is 2051 and Scotland has achieved independence and rejoined the European Union. However, at the same time, the effects of climate change on the world have become all too obvious. Whilst parts of the world are suffering extreme heat, prompting the migration of millions of people from Africa and Asia to Europe, great swathes of Scotland are now under water due to rising sea levels caused by the melting of the Greenland ice sheets and the country now has the climate of northern Norway.

As Brodie investigates the death of a man found frozen in the ice of a snow tunnel, it becomes clear his enemy is not just the person or persons responsible for the man’s death but the weather as well. Ferocious storms have become a frequent occurrence for the residents of Kinlochleven, resulting in power cuts and the loss of communications with the outside world for days at a time. Venturing out into a particularly violent storm, Brodie witnesses the extreme weather conditions for himself. ‘He seemed to be driving headlong into the gale. Hailstorms flew out of the darkness like sparks, deflecting off the windscreen… He could barely see the road ahead of him, hail blowing around and drifting like snow on the recently cleared tarmac.’

Alongside an absorbing and action-packed crime story, and the depiction of the potential impacts of climate change on the world, is Inspector Cameron Brodie’s deeply personal story, told through flashbacks to 2023. Brodie hasn’t long left on this earth but in the time remaining he wants to lay to rest the ghosts of the past, attempt a reconciliation and, perhaps, receive forgiveness. ‘It wasn’t until now, with his own death imminent, that he had been moved, finally, to drag all the skeletons from the closet, and lay them out to be judged.’ It’s a story of love, loss and sacrifice and I found the end of the book intensely moving.

For those who like action, there’s plenty of it and for those who like intrigue, there’s plenty of that as well. There’s even a role for future technology the prospect of which might either thrill you or appall you depending on how you feel about flying in a pilotless plane or living in a 3D printed home. Add to this a central character prepared to give his all in one last fight and you have a totally gripping crime thriller that is chilling in more ways than one. This is the first book I’ve read by Peter May but it definitely won’t be the last.

A Winter Grave deserved the full five stars; I think it would do great as a movie. There are only a few characters involved: Cameron Brodie, his daughter, the journalist, the whistle blower, the pathologist, the policeman and the hotel owner. The setting is the wild and cold highlands of Scotland, made even wilder and colder due to the climate change. There is high-tech involved, and political misconduct. The story sets out with a mystery, and the mysteries keep coming, getting bigger by the page. There is also the personal background of the characters, and in the end the stories come very neatly together, although not always as the reader would hope.
There is just one thing I don’t like: when the blurb tells half the story, as is the case here. How important is it that the body of George Younger is kept in a cake cabinet? How important is it to tell that Cameron Brodie is about to die soon? How important is it that we hear Addie being Cameron’s estranged daughter? It’s good that I make a habit of trying nót to read too much information and/or reviews before I read a book myself. The three things I mentioned above were total surprises for me because I didn’t know this before I started reading and this added to my reading pleasure.
A Winter Grave is not an easy read; the near future is quite bleak so to say, in more than one meaning. It is, however, a great dystopian thriller which will set you thinking.

EXCERPT: 'Who was it?'

'No idea. But someone was out there in the hall listening to us talking in here. I don't know how much they could hear, or why they would want to, but they ran off through the snow when I went after them with my torch.'

She stood up, a little unsteadily. 'How did they get in?'

'Through French windows in the dining room.'

'Broke in, you mean?'

Brodie shook his head. 'There didn't appear to be any damage. It couldn't have been locked.' He pursed his lips thoughtfully. 'But we'd better lock ourselves into our rooms tonight. Don't want to offer open invites to any unwanted guests.'

She lifted her bag and crossed to the fire. 'You think we're in danger?'

He shook his head. 'No. I mean, why would we be?'

She shivered, in spite of standing in front of the flames. 'I don't like this place,' she said. 'I've spent half my life with corpses. But the thought of that dead man folded into the cake cabinet in the kitchen gives me the willies.'

ABOUT 'A WINTER GRAVE': It is the year 2051. Warnings of climate catastrophe have been ignored, and vast areas of the planet are under water, or uninhabitably hot. A quarter of the world's population has been displaced by hunger and flooding, and immigration wars are breaking out around the globe as refugees pour into neighboring countries.

By contrast, melting ice sheets have brought the Gulf Stream to a halt and northern latitudes, including Scotland, are being hit by snow and ice storms. 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.

The dead man is investigative reporter, George Younger, missing for three months after vanishing during what he claimed was a hill-walking holiday. But Younger was no hill walker, and his discovery on a mountain-top near the Highland village of Kinlochleven, is inexplicable.

Cameron Brodie, a veteran Glasgow detective, volunteers to be flown north to investigate Younger's death, but he has more than a murder enquiry on his agenda. He has just been given a devastating medical prognosis by his doctor and knows the time has come to face his estranged daughter who has made her home in the remote Highland village.

Arriving during an ice storm, Brodie and pathologist Dr. Sita Roy, find themselves the sole guests at the inappropriately named International Hotel, where Younger's body has been kept refrigerated in a cake cabinet. But evidence uncovered during his autopsy places the lives of both Brodie and Roy in extreme jeopardy.

As another storm closes off communications and the possibility of escape, Brodie must face up not only to the ghosts of his past, but to a killer determined to bury forever the chilling secret that George Younger's investigations had threatened to expose.

MY THOUGHTS: Chilling, in more ways than one, A Winter Grave is a riveting page-turner. A dead body encased in ice, multiple murders, and political corruption combine with addiction and a family drama that is irresistible - a one sitting read for me!

Set in 2051, so not that far in the future, the world has undergone massive climate and political change. Many areas of the world are under water; others too hot to be habitable, and if you think that there's a refugee problem now, just wait . . .

A Winter Grave takes place in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands; one that is in the grip of an ice storm. May has, as always, created the perfect atmospheric setting for his work.

Brodie has an ulterior motive for volunteering to take on this case. He has received a death sentence of his own, and has something personal he has to get out of the way before he departs this earth for good. So, in reality, he is a man with nothing to lose, and a will to live.

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.

Gripping, riveting and thought provoking, Peter May gets all five stars from me.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#AWinterGrave #NetGalley

I: @authorpetermay #quercusbooks

T: @authorpetermay @quercusbooks

#fivestarread #crime #detectivefiction #dystopian #familydrama #murdermystery #mystery #smalltownfiction #thriller #suspense #scottishnoir

THE AUTHOR: Peter May was born and raised in Scotland. He was an award-winning journalist at the age of twenty-one and a published novelist at twenty-six. When his first book was adapted as a major drama series for the BBC, he quit journalism and during the high-octane fifteen years that followed, became one of Scotland's most successful television dramatists. He created three prime-time drama series, presided over two of the highest-rated serials in his homeland as script editor and producer, and worked on more than 1,000 episodes of ratings-topping drama before deciding to leave television to return to his first love, writing novels.

He has won several literature awards in France. He received the USA's Barry Award for The Blackhouse, the first in his internationally bestselling Lewis Trilogy. In 2014 Entry Island won both the Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and a CWA Dagger as the ITV Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read of the Year.

Peter lives in South-West France with his wife, writer Janice Hally, and in 2016 both became French by naturalisation. (Peter May)

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Quercus Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of A Winter Grave by Peter May for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

A Winter's Grave is a standalone thriller by best-selling author, Peter May. This is my first book by this author, but it certainly won't be my last. I was excited to pick up a copy of this futuristic mystery thriller. The characters are relatable and excellently written, and you really care about the outcome. The story is fast paced and easy to get lost in. I devoured page after page. I'm excited to read more by this author. 5 stars well deserved.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book.

The first book I've read by Peter May, who is the 12 million copy bestselling author of the Lewis trilogy.

This latest novel is a chilling new mystery set in the not too distant future in the isolated Scottish Highlands. A young meteorologist checking a mountain top weather station in Kinlochleven discovers the body of a missing man entombed in ice.

Cameron Brodie, a Glasgow detective, sets out on a hazardous journey to the isolated and ice-bound village. He has his own reasons for wanting to investigate a murder case so far from his beat.

The denouement is a thrilling "best example" in dramatic writing as Brodie tries to out power and outwit his assailant.

Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Audio for the review copy!

A meteorologist is searching a mountain top and discovers the body of a missing man in the ice. Cameron Brodie is a detective, and he is on the search to find out what happened to this dead man in the ice. Although, he has another reason to be there as well. A more personal reason.

I did not really know what to expect from Peter May and “A Winter Grave”, but I must say that this story is amazing!

Peter May describes the characters in a beautiful way in this book. Even the bad- or evil-minded characters become somewhat likable. We also hear a lot about the background stories of the characters, especially Cameron Brodies story, which work great as well.

As usually in Peter May's books, there are lots of details in this book. The landscape with its snow and ice is beautiful and very descriptive. Also the characters, who all develop and learn about themselves and each other through the story.

The story is very suspenseful and a true thriller.

“A Winter Grave” is a captivating story, and I loved it! I love everything about this story!

The aching beauty of Scotland at its most remote has provided the author with some stunning locations in the past but now Peter May takes one to a bleak and chilling Highland setting in the near future where climate change has had deadly impact.
The central characters - Brodie, Addie, Robbie and Lee - come alive with poignant empathy as the plot shifts backwards and forwards between 2051, 2023 and 2040 revealing the twists and turns one has come to expect from this most accomplished author.
I found this novel thrilling, disturbing, authentic and absolutely impossible to put down.

The year is 2051 and the world is suffering the results of the predicted, but ignored warnings of global warming.
A meteorologist is working on a mountain in Scotland when she discovers a body frozen in ice.
Cameron Brodie, a Glaswegian detective, despite having just been told he is dying, asks to investigate.
With his own personal reasons to go to this most remote part of the country he sets off to hopefully solve the case and resolve his personal problems.
On arrival he has to deal with violent storms and a killer on the loose who is determined to prevent a secret coming out that could change the fate of a nation.
Peter May has created a superb detective story, based in a future that’s highly plausible and also quite frightening.
He really is an author that I find incredibly intriguing. His writing is wonderful and the subject matter is always fascinating.
A Winter Grave is a quite magnificent novel, as are the rest of his books.

It's 2051 and the world is changing. Scotland is independent and back in the EU but all is not well. Global warming has melted the Polar ice cap and the gulf stream which gives us out mild climate has disappeared. If you thought Scotland was wet before, think again! This is a setting where wind and rain, ice and snow are as much characters as the people.

Cameron Brodie is investigating a death in the Scottish Highlands in Kinlochleven near Glencoe. A journalist has been found dead in an ice tunnel but was it an accident or was it murder?

There was much I loved about this novel. I thought the descriptions of the weather and of the landscape were excellent. As someone who lives on the southside of Glasgow I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of Glasgow under water and the thought of having to get a water taxi from the Citizen's Theatre to the Sheriff Court amused me greatly (a 5 minute walk at most) but as Cameron says - how else is he supposed to get there. I liked Cameron as a character too and I would have loved to see a series based on this character.

This is first and foremost a crime novel so anyone put off by it being set in the future, don't be. Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus for the ARC.

I'm a big fan of Peter May, and was intrigued by the premise of this. I do feel a little bad, however, in saying that I just didn't click with this book at all. The 'troubled detective with a past' was a bit too cliché-ridden for my liking, and the climate change and Scottish independence themes were just a bit laboured (political pun unintended). Not my favourite of his, but I look forward to his next book, of course.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

I have travelled a long way with Peter May; from France to China and places in between. It feels like Scotland is where he is most at home. A Winter Grave is a terrific book. Set in Kinlochleven, a village in Lochaber in the Highlands, it takes place just a few decades from now,in the near future. This is not dystopian fiction; rather it is a small leap forward where most things are the same, only a bit worse. (though I might quarrel with Peter May’s optimism on how many newspapers we will be left with).

But that ‘bit worse’ includes the weather and the impact of 1 or two degrees is massive on different continents.

A Winter Grave is highly plausible and utterly terrifying. It is a tremendous, exciting and very chilling read and I absolutely inhaled it.

Addie is checking her mountain top weather station above Kinlochleven when she finds the dead body of a man encased in ice. DI Cameron Brodie is sent from from Glasgow pathologist to investigate and he picks up pathologist Dr Sita Roy on the way.

The dead man proves to be Charles Younger, an investigative journalist who went missing in August. The suggestion is that he lost his way while hill walking, but to do so why would he take the most difficult route while clearly unequipped for such a trip. That and the fact that he was a much feared investigative reporter makes this discovery more than worthy of an in depth look.

Peter May employs a dual timeline flitting from 2023 to 2051. This enables us to get a broad sense of who Cameron Brodie is and why he is prepared to follow this case through to the end despite the difficulties that poses.

There are many strands to this engrossing novel. There is the compelling murder mystery. We are also treated to a complex relationship story that unfolds throughout the course of the investigation, allowing us to better get to know the characters involved and their motivation. And then there’s the climate crisis element to the story which is both terrifying and horribly plausible. All of these combine to give us a strong and incredibly compulsive story that strikes a terrible chord of recognition with every chapter.

May does not flinch from showing us some of the perhaps less considered impacts of climate change on our society and that makes this novel so much more than a story about ice and snow. This is a considered and highly plausible view of how society might change as climate concerns rise to the fore. It is also written from the perspective of an author who is very angry at the failure of the world to face up to the reality of climate change and Peter May has made this a strong and convincing story as a result.

Verdict: A Winter Grave is a terrific, thought provoking read that is both propulsive and a bone-chillingly explosive cracker of a book. I love it when Peter May comes home.

Despite years of warnings, governments have done little to stave off the pending climate catastrophe and by 2051 vast areas of the planet are under water, or uninhabitably hot, causing severe social disintegration and migration. In contrast, melting ice sheets have brought the Gulf Stream to a halt and the northern latitudes, including Scotland, are being hit by snow and ice storms.

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. The dead man is an investigative reporter, George Younger, who has been missing for three months after vanishing during what he claimed was a hill-walking holiday. Cameron Brodie, a veteran Glasgow detective, volunteers to be flown north to investigate Younger’s death, but he has more than a murder enquiry on his agenda. He has just been given a devastating medical prognosis by his doctor and knows the time has come to face his estranged daughter who has made her home in the remote Highland village.

Arriving during an ice storm, Brodie and pathologist Dr. Sita Roy, find themselves the sole guests at the hotel where Younger’s body has been kept refrigerated in a cake cabinet. Sita’s initial autopsy indicates a serious problem and soon the lives of both Brodie and Roy are in extreme jeopardy, especially when another storm closes off communications and the possibility of escape.

May uses Brodie’s scary flight, in a remotely controlled helicopter, to the Highland village of Kinlochleven to vividly set up the climate challenges facing Scotland in 2051, as well as some of the social changes. Once in Kinlochleven, the pace quickly steps up and the book moves at a briskish pace down some unexpected, and chilly, paths. From the opening pages there is a dark tone to A Winter Grave, and there is very little cheerfulness as Brodie has to deal with a raft of challenges and threats, as well as facing up to the ghosts of his past. Apart from the climate changes and a few gadgets, May’s depiction of 2051 is very close to the present and the futuristic trappings are not too intrusive.

Some may find A Winter Grave a little preachy at times, but underneath the reflections on climate change and government expediency there is a very good thriller plot at play here, and May certainly ratches up the tension, and the action, in final quarter of the book. The central mystery at the core of the book is handled well and May shows his usual panache for characterisation and vivid descriptions of the Scottish countryside.

Fans of May’s earlier novels will find that A Winter Grave is probably more akin to his A Coffin Road, than it is to his popular Lewis Trilogy, but it is still a gripping and thought provoking read.

Being a big fan of Peter May's work, I was excited to be offered the chance by the publisher to read an early copy, but however well written the novel is, it left me a little flat. The idea of a book set in the future did concern me somewhat - I generally like to read what I have a comprehension of, but this was not a major problem, it really revolved around the fact that I found it quite difficult to warm to any of the characters.

Don't let my negative thoughts put you off reading. It is beautifully descriptive and as well written and plotted as you would expect from this author, but something just wasn't right somehow.

My great thanks to both Quercus Books and Netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to read.

Due to being unwell it took me a while before I got to this book. At first I wasn’t sure about a book set in the future, but gave it ago .Mr M makes things believable and the things that stay the same comforting. Excellent gripping storyline as Brodie is sent to Northern Scotland to investigate a murder which brings about both reward and great sacrifice. New characters to get used to
and I totally enjoyed this new book.
My thanks to Netgalley as always and to the publisher Quercus books riverrun the early read.

I always enjoy reading Peter May books and this stand alone crime thriller was a great read.. The story line is set in the future with a touch of sci fi but it is mainly a crime thriller. Good characters, with a twisting plot meant that I kept page turning and quickly finished the novel .
I can recommend this book .Another great read from this excellent author

A crime thriller set in the future, a dystopic setting that I found fascinating and terrifying at the same time.
It's a solid mystery, full of twists and surprises, that kept me guessing till the end.
The characters are well plotted and realistic.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Set in 2051 the world has changed due to climate change and technology.
Cameron Brodie is a Glaswegian detective he is a complex character and decides to take on a case in a remote highland village .
The story that follows is full of twists and turns and left me guessing the identity of the perpetrators.
The writing is excellent , I was a little apprehensive about the book being set in the future but my doubts were unfounded and the story flows well and is full of intrigue and definitely kept me hooked.
Peter May has hit the spot again !
Highly recommended!
Thanks to NetGalley Quercus Books.