What a spectacular read this was from Peter May! Set in 2051 in Scotland, with climate change bringing disastrous floods caused by melting ice, Detective Cameron Brodie sets out to investigate the body of a journalist, frozen in ice, found on a mountain top. I loved the descriptions of the landscape and the believable characterisation and I was quickly drawn in to the story which kept me enthralled to the end. The insight into the technology and mode of transport was quite scary but I could imagine it working well. Overall, it's an engrossing read from a brilliant author. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

I am relatively new to this author but, the more I read, the more I want the time to pounce on all his back catalogue and devour all he has written. There is something about the way he writes as well as the content that just gels with me.
Set in the near future, 2051, where the climate change we talk about today has happened with a vengeance. Huge swathes of the planet are under water or too hot to be populated. People have been displaced and immigration is a nightmare. The ice caps are melting and Scotland, where our book is set, is being hit by snow and ice storms. And it is here where young meteorologist Addie discovers the body of a man, frozen within the ice. The death is called in, the body identified as an investigative reporter who had gone missing a few months previously on a walking holiday. But that doesn't fit with where he was found and a suspicious death (at least) is called.
And this is where Cameron Brodie comes in. He volunteers for the job and, along with a pathologist, travels to the wilds of Scotland to start their investigations... He has an ulterior motive for wanting the job, as we soon find out... It's also not long before things start to get weird, strange, and very very dangerous...
One of the things I really loved about this book was the setting. It is so claustrophobic and dark. Creepy and chilling. It really lends itself well to the story being told. Which is also all these things in itself. With the storm bringing communication to a stop, they really are on their own. And, it also soon transpires, on their own with a killer!
As well as a cracking whodunnit and why, we also have a cracking cast of very well drawn characters. And some wicked dynamics between them. There is a certain amount of personal stuff too, as you will find out, but they really sell the main story being told.
It contains everything you'd expect, and want, from a book of this genre. There are twists and turns aplenty as the plot races on, building up the tension throughout until finally, the whole shocking truth is laid bare. Leaving me wholly satisfied.
Note to self, bump up this author on your tbr quick smart...
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

An interesting and dramatic tale by May. It was a slow burn for me but once things got going I was intrigued to find out what happened. It was full of twists and turns as you'd expect from May but I did feel some of these were a bit too far fetched. I appreciated the amount of research that had clearly gone into the book and May is always good at setting a scene, the snowy Scottish landscapes were particularly easy to picture. I liked this book but found I wasn't massively keen on any of the characters and the time jumps didn't work for me but it was an interesting take on what our near-future could be like.

This is quite a different read to previous books I’ve read by Peter May and I loved it. This book has a really dark and foreboding atmosphere which is compounded by the setting which is in the not too distant future after global warming has started to have an impact. The story is fast paced and addictive with plenty of surprises along the way. Definitely a recommended read for 2023.

I have read Peter May’s Lewis trilogy and found them to be an enjoyable but pretty standard crime read. This new novel has a very different feel and tone as it is set in the not too distant future and is very relatable.

Peter May won me over many years ago with The Lewis Trilogy. One of my all-time favourite book series, I felt A Winter Grave would be a fun outing. Which it was. In this novel we are back in Scotland though roughly 30 years in the future. Much has changed in Scotland from tech, politics, national alignment and climate so this police procedural investigating the murder of a body found in ice takes a different path from May's previous novels.

Cameron Brodie investigates this murder as he is a keen hill climber, a necessity for reaching the location where the body was found, but there are other reasons Brodie is interested in this case. This story is well rounded and covers quite a lot of ground from past events that have formed the current state of events to the tense potential for the future. This novel isn't as intimate as The Lewis novels were as its developed around the tech of 2051 and the personal dynamic of the locals close to the murder location. With climate change, the amount of snow Scotland gets in this future time is shocking so a brilliant read if you, like me, are hankering after Christmas-time snow that has failed to make as appearance. A great novel, so pleased to be reacquainted with the talented Peter May.

Set in the not too distant future where climate change is a reality. Cities under water. Deserts burning up.

A dying detective, Cameron Brodie, travels to an ice-bound village to investigate a crime. A local meteorologist has discovered a body that is entombed in ice. He has a personal reason for taking on this case

There are more murders along the way and they are gruesome.
Details and descriptions are excellent. I could feel the biting cold and the turbulent waters of the loch.
I didn't foresee the outcome and was gripped by the story.

Another clever mystery from Peter with not-so-subtle warnings about what to possibly expect in 2051 with climate change and world-wide unrest.

While the rest of the world bakes in the heat, parts of Scotland have become even more snowy with wild storms. The body of a man is found frozen in a tunnel of ice and a detective is sent to investigate where he must confront his own mortality, his past and his estranged daughter.

Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended.

Well, this was certainly different to what I expected but I was reeled in very quickly. Set in the near future with Britain mostly underwater, I thought it might be pushing a climate agenda, but that was just a small part of the storyline. This is a book that keeps you needing to know what happens next, I got lost in it for hours at a time.
I loved the strong characters and the relationships between them. Very good story.

Peter May is one of my favourite authors in this genre, he never fails to write books which grip this reader from start to finish.
This story is set in an imagined near-future of the 2050s - I had to re-check the book’s blurb as initially I thought there was a mistake with the date, but quickly realised the setting was a few decades in advance, and the main character, DI Brodie, was born in 1996. Some points in the book did feel rather political: Scotland is an independent country and has re-entered the EU. At times it did also feel like an environmental lecture as climate change is the main cause of the severe weather in which the story is set. I would have preferred this book set in current times without imagined technology; however, I understand why this was impossible as the premise for the storyline requires it.
All that said, and despite correctly guessing the antagonist early on, I very much enjoyed this book. It held my attention throughout & had a good amount of suspense and tension within an interesting and thought-provoking story.

Peter May has been recommended to me so I snatched this chance up. Afraid that I was very underwhelmed. The 2050s, climate change impacted, setting is interesting enough but the clunky exposition about what has changed was tiresome - the opposite of “show don’t tell”. The characters felt unrealistic and weren’t particularly engaging, the villain of the piece was apparent early on, and the central relationships were poor soap level rather than grounded in any emotional reality.

The thriller element towards the end was more interesting than the clunkiness of getting there, but overall this felt like a missed opportunity.

Interesting premise, but not certain that it needed to be set so many years in the future, as very little technology had been modernised.
Characters are rounded and believable, and this is a stand-alone, not part of a series.

Would recommend to anyone who wants to read a good 'meaty' mystery; and I didn't guess who the 'baddie' was until just before they were revealed.

Thanks to NetGalley and Riverrun for an ARC.

This took me by surprise as at first I didn’t think that I would like this book but, I read on and got caught up in it halfway through. It’s a great story and I enjoyed this one in the end. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #riverrun for the copy of #AWinterGrave by #PeterMay
Brilliant and terrifying in equal measure.
A glimpse of what the future could hold and it is scary.
Detective Cameron Brodie volunteers to go from his base in Glasgow into the highlands to investigate a dead body.
But as he get a second agenda?
A riveting book that I could not put down.
Loved it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’ve read a number of Peter May books over the years and particularly liked the trilogy set on the Isle of Lewis. He is an author who certainly knows his craft.
This one is slightly different- it is still a crime story, a murder being investigated by a Detective called Brodie but it is set in the immediate future- an independent Scotland in 2050 with flashbacks to 2020s when Brodie was a young Constable.
I’m not normally keen on science fiction but this book was set in an imagined time merely 30 years hence and felt very realistic.
It was a place where climate change had wreaked havoc on our world and inventions such as drone like driverless helicopters transport people around. However murder investigations are not so different despite improvements in forensics.
Brodie has not long to live and has some unfinished business with his estranged daughter, a meteorologist who has discovered a dead body in a remote area.
Through the dual time line the reader learns Brodie’s secrets and why he no longer has a relationship with Addie, his daughter.
Brodie is sent to a remote part of Scotland to investigate the dead body who transpires to be an investigative journalist: he hopes to solve the crime and make peace with Addie at the same time.
I liked the descriptions of Scotland, more wild in 2050 due to the climate emergency as well as the well drawn characters. Brodie was sympathetic as a flawed hero, a man with little to lose but whose humanity and dedication to the job shine through.
It was an easy book to get into and quick to read as there was a lot happening. The atmospheric background as well as the descriptions of a future Scotland made for a compelling and entertaining story.
This book is definitely to be recommended as a five star read.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my advance copy.

*4.5 stars*

It’s the year 2051, and the subject of climate change has been ignored for so long, and now it’s too late, with catastrophic changes taking place across the world. Huge areas of the world are under water, whilst others are too hot to be habitable.

Melting ice sheets have resulted in Scotland being constantly hit by raging snow storms and thick ice. 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.

The dead man is investigative reporter George Younger, who’d been missing for three months. What he’d been doing on a mountain top is a mystery, as those who knew him said he wasn’t an experienced hill walker at all.

Glasgow detective Cameron Brodie volunteers to fly out to investigate Younger’s death, but his ulterior motive is something else all together. He’s been given the devastating news that he has only months to live, but he needs to meet up with Addie, the meteorologist first, he has something really important to tell her before it’s too late - because Addie is his estranged daughter.

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!

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!

Futuristic crime novel which somehow rings true. Our worst fears on climate change are realised but murder doesn't change.

Winter Grave is set in 2051 and climate change has not been halted so much of the planet is under water. Scotland is hit by snow and ice storms. Addie checks the weather station in the highlands and sees a beautiful ice tunnel and proceeds to take a selfie.....which shows a body frozen in the ice. It turns out to be a journalist who has been missing since August. DI Cameron Brodie and Dr Sita Roy are dispatched to investigate. The characters are so well rounded Peter May certainly knows how to bring a story to life, plenty of plot twists and turns. The environmental aspect also gets you thinking. I finished it in record time just because I couldn't put it down!!! I would highly recommend this.... all you mystery/thriller fans will not be disappointed.

I have read some books by this author previously and enjoyed them, so I was quite looking forward to this.

It is a standalone thriller, set in the future, which was something that interested me from the start. I liked this book a lot. I was reminded slightly of Entry Island, which is my favourite book by this author, and I have read it multiple times. I was drawn into the story very quickly, and the characters and the atmosphere came to life.

Something I have previously found when reading books by this author, is that I always feel very connected to the characters. They feel very real to me. If the protagonist is lonely, or struggling emotionally, I find that as a reader, I feel affected by that. I may empathise with the character and wish that I could be their friend. Once again, that was something that I experienced while reading this. In fact, I was close to tears by the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.

Wow - totally blown away by this book - it had everything! Superb!!

I was already a great fan of Peter May but this book was a whole new level. The characters and pace of the book was as I expected - superb.

The biggest win for me was the very realistic insight into the future. The book is set in 2051 and was simply unnerving when a chapter went back in time to 2023.

Perhaps this book good be made compulsory reading for all decisions makers - particularly those that can help shape future climate controls.

I also loved the mode of transport described so vividly throughout the book! Exciting yet a tad worrying/scary.

All in all I thoroughly recommend this thrilling book to everyone - such a creative and innovative author @PeterMay