I think I am in the minority for not enjoying this audiobook, to the point that I was unable to finish it. It just wasn't what I was looking to read at this time - I came to the book expecting it to be a mystery/police procedural and yet 20% of the way into the book, the investigating detective hasn't even got to the scene of the crime yet. It probably didn't help that somehow I managed to miss the fact that the story is set in 2051 until I was a good chunk of the way into the story and really confused about the new technology on offer to police officers! I don't mind speculative fiction but the gloomy look-ahead to 2051 where everything is flooding due to global warming wasn't what I expected and nor was it particularly engaging. Too bleak and too slow for me.

Although A Winter Grave is set in the future, the crime/mystery was typical to what I read about during any time frame. A Winter Grave is set in the Scotland of 2051 where the effects of climate change we've been warned about have become a reality. There are many areas in the world that have become uninhabitable, so people are constantly on the move. In Scotland, a body has been found frozen in the ice near Loch Leven. The body is an investigative journalist, Charles Younger, who had been reported missing three months earlier. Detective Inspector Cameron Brodie volunteers to travel there along with the doctor who will do the post mortem, Dr Sita Roy. Why would he volunteer for this investigation? As the story is revealed, we will find out his personal reasons for this.

This is one well-written book that pulled me in from the beginning and didn't let go. Although this book is set in the future, it is not the far future and I could easily still be alive in 2051. It is a bit scary to think that our world could come to this during my lifetime. Winter Grave is a thriller, a crime story, a story of police corruption and coverup, a family story full of secrets, and a climate story, all rolled into one. The characters are well-developed with flaws and realistic emotions. The mystery is intriguing with twists revealed in a nicely paced fashion. The final reveals had my jaw dropping, sitting on the edge of my seat to see what would happen. I have to mention the setting. It was a character in itself with its atmospheric weather and dangers. This is my first book by Peter May, but it won't be my last. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Peter Forbes. This is my first time with this voice actor and I will not hesitate to listen to books he narrates in the future. He was Cameron Brodie and helped me picture this book as it was unveiled. Excellent performance and one that made me enjoy this book so much more.

Thank you NetGalley for the audio copy in exchange for a honest review. Set in 2051 the body of a missing man is found during an ice storm in a remote part of Scotland. Glasgow Detective Cameron Brodie has just learnt he is dying when he is asked to investigate. He travels with pathologist Dr Sita Roy. Brodie’s estranged daughter is in the same village and he takes the opportunity to build bridges with her. A gripping thriller from beginning to end.

Der Krimi spielt im Jahr 2050, was mir erst ein wenig Mühe bereitete, um reinzukommen. Lag wohl auch daran, dass ich mit dem Hörbuch begann. Der Sprecher hat einen tollen schottischen Akzent, ich war total verzaubert und bekam einen Teil der Story erst nicht genau mit... 😊

Ich musste mich erst in diese zukünftige Welt einlesen/hören. Der Klimawandel hat voll zugeschlagen, Teile der Welt sind durch den Anstieg des Meeresspiegels überflutet worden, Länder wie zum Beispiel Schottland haben durch die Veränderung des Golfstroms mit eisigen Winterstürmen zu kämpfen. Es gibt neue Technikgadgets wie selbstfliegende Flugzeuge, spezielle Brillen zur Kommunikation, etc.

Aber eigentlich spielen diese Dinge im Krimi keine grosse Rolle, sie sind nur für die Rahmenhandlung relevant.

Detective Cameron Brodie wird in die schottischen Highlands geschickt, um einen Mord aufzuklären. Es wurde ein Mann im Eis eingefroren gefunden, der schon ein paar Monate als vermisst galt. Die Leiche wurde geborgen, ins örtliche Hotel gebracht und dort im Kühlraum gelagert, bis sie forensisch untersucht werden kann. Das besagte Hotel erinnert ein wenig an den Film Shining, denn Brodie und die Pathologin sind die einzigen Gäste, die während eines Sturms und eines daraus resultierenden Stromausfalls dort eintreffen. Einzig der Hotelbesitzer ist anwesend. Schnell wird klar, so einsam wie sie glauben sind sie nicht, denn sie werden heimlich beobachtet und sabotiert...

Ab Brodies Eintreffen im Hotel ist die Handlung wirklich spannend und man vergisst, dass sie eigentlich in der nahen Zukunft spielt. Auch weil Brodies persönliche Geschichte dann in Rückblenden ins Jahr 2023 erzählt wird.

Also von mir aus hätte der Krimi auch in der Gegenwart spielen können, wäre nicht weniger spannend gewesen, aber die Handlung in der Zukunft verleiht ihm doch noch einen interessanten Touch.

Mixed feelings. I loved practically everything about the mystery part - the broken main hero with painful past and maybe even more painful present, trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter at last; said daughter with a lot of stored anger going out of her like geysirs, but all this anger really showing an unfulfilled place in her heart; side characters (like pathologist, whose story made an enormous impact within the novel); the sleuthing, even the solution. But this novel is also a dystopian one (played in a close future where the climate change would made irreversible changers to life as we know it) and a political one - and I disliked those. While the dystopian part I can take or leave (it is not well-done in my opinion, but it is not that bad that I could not live with it, more on boring side); but I am not a fan of politically-coloured literature. Yes, migration crisis and climate change are big topics, yes. Politicians are bad, yes (mostly). But in my opinion these political issues do not enhance the quality of the story here. They are present to show that the author has his finger on the pulse of our times, but more on the showy side than offering any real dystopia story or any real solution. This does not add any creative enrichment - in my opinion it even takes out of the otherwise interesting detective story.

The narrator was great, his narration truly enriched the story.

Cameron Brodie, a terminally ill detective, volunteers to take a trip to a remote Scottish weather station where the body of a Scottish Herald reporter has been found entombed in the ice. Very quickly things turn darker when the pathologist accompanying him disappears along with all the evidence they have uncovered. Someone is taking great pains to keep the truth about the murder a secret. As the story unfolds, the reader is also given a great back story into Brodie's earlier life and the reason for his estrangement from his daughter who just happened to discover the corpse. Brodie battles to put the past right whilst dealing with an enemy much greater than he could ever imagine. The book is set in 2051 in a bleak environment with some great bits of technology which are not hard to believe could be in place by then. With a very likeable lead character, excellent narration and all the wonderful scenic descriptions we have come to expect from this very talented author, I can thoroughly recommend this story.

This is a great thriller from Peter May, which I really enjoyed. I found it very interesting as it is set in the future, in the 1950's, in Scotland.

The story is about Glasgow Policeman Cameron Brodie and his investigation into a body being found in ice. Brodie works with pathologist Sita Roy, and together, they come to find that this has been a murder.

Later in the book we find out that Brodie's daughter Addie is active in the story, and although they hadn't been speaking recently, due to past family troubles, they have to come together to help solve the murder. Here they discuss their past, and what really happened to her mother.

From there, another murder takes place, and Brodie must work harder to reveal the truth.

I really enjoyed this story, and it was interesting to read about climate change, and what Scotland might look like in the future. I loved the character of Brodie. You will need some tissues ready at the end of the book, as it gets a bit emotional.

The whole book is very well written and beautifully descriptive, which I loved.

The audiobook narrator was amazing, and I loved his accent, which was perfect for this story.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves crime thrillers, police procedurals, or books set in Scotland with a futuristic feel.

Many thanks to the author, narrator, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

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?

Well this is the first Peter May book that I have read, but it won’t be the last. I wasn’t sure that I was going to like the story for about the first 10 minutes. Then I couldn’t stop reading the book. It was a tremendous story and I felt really engaged with the characters. The story was so well written that at times I felt angry about the situations described, they felt so real.
Towards the end I was so caught up in the story that I felt what it must be like to live in a country where you were only told what the government wanted you to know - not the truth
Thank you net galley for allowing me to read this book - the narrator was a real pleasure to listen to.

Lots of other reviewers share the plot line to the books they review I just share my opinion so here we go
It is a dark and heavy read with stark warning for where we are headed as a planet.
It's what to be expected from Peter May a well written, flowing story with twists, turns and dark drama.
For readers of Shetland and Vera

The year is 2051, a frozen body is found by a meteorologist servicing their weather station, deep in the Scottish mountains. Protagonist DI Brody finds himself tasked with investigating how the body ended up there and why.


Rich descriptions make the vision of earth in the near future totally believable. The storyline is fresh and exciting with the crime procedural elements well executed. The plot kept me on the edge of my seat from the very beginning, questioning who could possibly be involved in the death on the mountain, as well as building a feeling a rapport with the characters. I really enjoyed the writing style and would definitely listen to more books by Peter May.



Really a wonderfully creative modern murder mystery, excellent!



The narrator is expressive and really suits the book well, elevating it as an audiobook.

I have just reviewed A Winter Grave by Peter May as an advanced reader copy Audio book thanks to Quercus Audio and NetGalley.

Yet another intriguing, cleverly written, fast paced and heart-breaking crime thriller from Peter May.

Set in 2051, in a world greatly altered by climate change, a journalist is found dead in the snow and ice in an almost artic Scotland.

The detective sent to determine the exact circumstances of the news man’s death faces terrible danger when he realises that there are people who will kill to keep this story buried.

The investigation is hampered by the fact the detectives’ estranged daughter lives in the community and indeed discovered the body. In a dual timeline, the detective reveals some well hidden family secrets while discovering an explosive cover-up which will place his entire family in danger.

The near future setting is superbly framed and a little chilling, as we see familiar settings and lives being lived against a back drop shaped by our decisions. The family relationships and tensions are gripping and these tensions explode into a wider reaching and devastating end.

May, as usual, educates and entertains in equal measure without you even realising. You always leave his novels with an understanding of and interest in his chosen subject matter.

The narration of this audio book only adds to the writing. The performance is engaging, enjoyable and well-paced. I have already recommended this book/Audio book to several people and personally am looking forward to Peter may’s next book already.

#AWinterGrave #QuercusAudio #NetGalley

Narrated by Peter Forbes
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Story by Peter May
⭐⭐ 2.5

This story was just OK. I didn't particularly love it, but also didn't particularly dislike it. I just found it really hard overall to get into the story and feel any certain way towards any of the characters.

Started listening to this one without reading the blurb - almost switched off when I realised parts of the book were set in the future. Once I got over that I started to enjoy the story. Enjoyed the narration - brought the story to life. Quite dark and gritty. Not my usual sort of read.

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.
This audio narration by Peter Forbes is superb, he really draws you in with his fantastic brogue.

I've only read two Peter May books before - Lockdown, which I loved, and Extraordinary People, which I liked, but in which I thought the female characters were seen too much through the male gaze.

A Winter Grave does centre on a male character - Cameron Brodie - but the main relationship with which it is concerned is the one between him and his daughter, so it really gave the author the perfect opportunity to explore male/female relationships in a non-sexual way. Even the scenes in which Brodie was trying to come to terms with his wife's affair with her previous partner were really engaging and focused on her as a person. All in all, I liked Brodie, which was just as well as his first person narrative makes up a fair proportion of the book.

I also really liked the relationship between Brodie and his police partner, Tiny. There's a definite contrast between Tiny who lives what one imagines to be a fairly standard and unremarkable life as a serving police officer with a steady marriage and a practical view of what he wants to achieve. I got the impression that Brodie would have *loved* such a low-key existence. Instead he finds himself sucked into an increasingly difficult personal life, ultimately losing his wife to suicide and his daughter to her belief he had an affair.

One of the things I loved about Lockdown was the way that Peter May made subtle changes to signal we were in the very near future, and he pulls off the same trick here. It must be really tempting as a writer to put in huge changes to signal "Look! We're in 2051! Look!" but, of course, when we look *back* thirty years we can see that most (though not all) changes are incremental. But Peter May does just enough to aid his story - Brodie's transport is a helicopter with an autopiloting system, and he has some glasses which take the whole Google glasses to a new (but believable) level, with software running that can perform (and diagnose) really advanced deep fakery.

In short, I felt this was a really absorbing plot, and, of course, it was superbly written. Going forward, I'm going to ignore the rest of the Enzo Files series (which clearly just wasn't quite for me) and try his other series and standalones.

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!

I thoroughly enjoyed A Winter Grave. This crime thriller is set in 2051, in which the adverse effects of climate change are horrendous, and technology has advanced enormously. Detective Cameron Brodie investigates the death of a journalist, whose frozen body has been discovered by a meteorologist in the remote snow-bound depths of the Scottish highlands. Accompanied by pathologist, Sita Roy, Brodie arrives at the very odd International Hotel via Eve, a pilotless aircraft, and almost immediately things turn weird. And it soon becomes apparent why Brodie, who’s recently discovered he doesn’t have long to live, has chosen to take part in this particular investigation. There’s a real depth to this story that lifts it from being a mere crime thriller to being immensely satisfying, interesting and compelling. The audiobook is brilliantly narrated by Peter Forbes – I could listen to him for hours - and this book deserves its place among the best examples of Scottish Noir. Recommended.

This was a fantastic listen. The story of murder and family was gripping, surprising in places, and quite emotional. It was set in the middle of next century and had a mix of what we know and what might happen in the future. The narrator was excellent. He spoke clearly and calmly and gave emphasis where required.

Gripping mystery set in a chillingly believable near future where government has ignored the climate emergency and the world has been fundamentally affected by climate change.

Large areas of Scotland are underwater and the country has a much colder climate, similar to other countries on the same latitude, following the melting of the ice caps and the subsequent disruption to flows of warm water and warm air around the globe. At the same time, equatorial regions have become uninhabitable leading to mass migration.

After receiving some devastating news, Detective Brodie has a change of heart and agrees to go to the now very inhospitable Scottish Highlands to investigate the death of a body found encased in the mountain ice.

The action unfolds across dual timelines, incorporating believable technologies, relatable characters and with a well thought out plot.

A heart-thumping read. Highly recommended.