Quando lo metti giù è tutto un po' incredibile (il detective Brodie è dotato di occhialetti che manco James Bond, ma il giornalista Younger stenografa), ma va bene così. 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. 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. 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.’ 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.

Book Genre: Crime, Cultural, Dystopia, Fiction, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Science Fiction, Scotland, Suspense, ThrillerI'm a reader who struggles to really visualize scenery, the author was descriptive and helped with this, but occasionally felt like it was too much and just slowed the book down.

It’s not just the weather that provides the chills in ‘A Winter Grave’ - this is a remote Scottish Highland village, cut off by extreme weather conditions, no means of communication, a killer that clearly knows the landscape, and uses it to his advantage, a rollercoaster of emotions for Brodie and Addie, lots of twists and turns, utter fear at times, and a completely gripping storyline. Highly recommended! But here in Scotland, a body has been found frozen in the ice near Loch Leven, that of one Charles Younger, an investigative journalist with the Scottish Herald who had been reported missing three months earlier, and Detective Inspector Cameron Brodie volunteers to travel there along with the doctor who will do the post mortem, Dr Sita Roy. Younger’s body has been kept refrigerated in a cabinet and what Brodie and pathologist Dr. Sita Roy uncover during the autopsy puts both their lives in danger. Brodie must fast his past as well as a killer who is desperate to keep secret what George Younger’s investigations had threatened to expose. 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 Author Peter May

In 2051, after a catastrophic climate change, vast swathes of the planet are underwater, and Scotland is a changed place. Old-school detective Cameron Brodie tries to keep up but knows his time is limited. On the day that he learns he has terminal cancer, he is also asked to look into the death of a journalist found encased in ice. 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. 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 is a detective sent to investigate the body of a journalist found frozen in the snow in Scotland . The book is set in 2051 and climate change has flooded many areas and increased snowfall in others. Scotland has its independence and has made itself self sufficient in energy by building a nuclear power plant. This power plant is near where the body was found. There’s more going on here, Brodie is estranged from his daughter who just happens to be married to the local police officer.

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.'Younger's body has been refrigerated at a creepy hotel where he and Sita are the only guests. Her findings suggest the cause of his death and other troubling evidence. What is discovered puts the lives of Sita and Brodie in extreme jeopardy and leads to several more deaths. His daughter is still rejecting Brodie, and his time to reconcile is running out. There are some intense, breathtaking actions, and a political coverup is revealed. This is a chilling novel – both literally and metaphorically. Set in the year 2051, after decades of politicians ignoring and denying the effects of climate change, the equatorial regions are now far too hot for human habitation, whole swathes of low-lying areas are totally submerged in the sea and, because of the destruction of the Gulf Stream, Scotland now suffers winters of stormy Arctic severity. What follows is a story that take place in both 2051 and 2023 the changes in times were sometime jarring but once I got use to it I settled into the story. There were plenty of twists and turns and I was no where near guessing the ending. Younger’s body has been kept in a refrigerated cabinet of a local hotel, and pathologist Dr Sita Roy, has uncovered some very interesting facts about him, something which puts herself and Brodie in danger. Someone is trying to conceal some extremely crucial information in this Highland village, something that cost George Younger his life. And, as yet another vicious storm closes off the village, together with all communications, Brodie will discover that Younger’s body won’t be the last! 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.