This one was not for me unfortunately. I never really got ‘into it’ which is a shame as I’d heard good things about a couple of Will’s books, in particular The Chamber and the Last thing to burn.

Tuva Moodyson returns in this great thriller by Will Dean. Tuva takes up the story of a missing deaf teenager in a northerly town only accessible via a tunnel through the mountain. Dean creates a super sense of encroachment and compression with the story as the town reacts to the discovery of dead bodies and the search for the killer. In a town where you think you know everyone how can this happen? This continues to develop into a great series.

3.5 🌟


Things have obviously been too quiet in Gavrik for the last few years, and Tuva must be looking for excitement.
I can think of no other good reason she's rushing off to a place where there's only one single way in and out. I'm already in slight panic mode just thinking about it... even before any bodies showed up.
As usual Tuva sticks herself in the middle of everything, and at one point I believed anyone could be the murderer.
Thankfully my own detective skills managed to narrow it down before the speedy reveal.
I enjoy the murder mystery aspect of these stories but also the human connection, the friendships central to Tuvas life, and I don't mind admitting the ending got me.

On a lighter note, we may need to have words about the appalling diet going on if it continues though

Last night I've finished the new addition to Tuva Moodyson series by Will Dean called "Ice Town". I was approved to get the eArc by Netgalley which I'm extremely grateful for. Back to the book.
First of all - despite being next part in the series this book can be read as a standalone. Our main character Tuva is a deaf journalist, who after hearing about a deaf teenager going missing, decided to drive for hours to follow the story and give it a justice. She ends up in a small town accessible by the tunnel that gets closed at night. The village has a diverse characters and each and every one of them can be a villain in the story. Action develops quite quickly and as usual, good few red herrings are to be found to confuse us, mere readers.
I love Will Dean's books but it's so hard to give them a justice, without spoiling it by describing the plot. Let me tell you one thing. It is good. Chillingly good ❄️🌨️ and with amazing description of the scenery, that makes you feel like you've been there before. Be aware as once you start it - you might end up reading until 4am 😂 The extra surprise at the end makes you thrive for more immediately and it makes it even more exciting.
To sum it up - Chilling, clever with the twist you won't see coming.
5 of 5

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this novel.
I requested this book on the basis of having read ‘The Last Thing to Burn’. I didn’t realise Ice Town was the 6th in a series, with a lot of passing references to Tuva’s past. A bit distracting, but the novel still worked okay as a first-time read.
Told in the first-person present tense.
Tuva, a talented, deaf reporter, is drawn to a small, isolated Swedish town in the depths of winter, to investigate the disappearance of a young deaf man. Then someone else goes missing….
The story is a bit of a slow burn, with a lot of descriptive and introspective musing on Tuva’s part, interspersed with bursts of action, some centred on Tuva’s herself. The slow/fast repetition for me gave a gradual increase of tension and anticipation that I really liked.
The descriptions of the town and surroundings are very atmospheric and I could get a sense of what it was like to live in an isolated, tiny community in the darkest part of winter near or within the Arctic Circle. Living in Scotland, I’m used to very short December days, but this was Next Level!
The characters, for me, were more understated, not as well fleshed-out as the settings; I find this can be a feature of stories told from a single POV.
Like an Agatha Christie, clues and red herrings are sprinkled throughout the story, and as usual I missed most of them!
The climax of the story didn’t quite ring true for me, though that didn’t stop it being tense and scary.
There were also a few events that remained unaccounted for; but they may be part of the groundwork for the next book.
Overall a very satisfying read, from a very good author.

Will Dean’s Ice Town offers a unique twist on his signature style, diverging from the gripping narratives that fans might expect from his previous works. While it didn’t quite reach the heights of his earlier novels, it still provides an engaging read filled with atmospheric tension and compelling characters.

Set against the backdrop of a snow-blanketed landscape, the story unfolds with enough context to keep newcomers engaged, even though it is part of a series. Dean skillfully weaves in backstory, ensuring that readers are not left in the dark, which allows the plot to flow smoothly despite any prior gaps in knowledge.

The narrative pacing felt different from Dean’s usual thrilling tempo. While some may find this a refreshing change, others might miss the heart-pounding suspense that characterizes his previous books. Nonetheless, Ice Town captivates with its richly developed setting and layered character dynamics, providing an immersive experience that showcases Dean’s talent for creating mood.

In conclusion, while Ice Town may not have met all expectations set by Dean’s earlier novels, it still stands as an intriguing installment that highlights his versatility as a writer. Fans and newcomers alike may find enjoyment in this frosty tale, even if it takes a slightly different route than expected.

Big thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC

As much as I enjoy Will Dean's tense and gripping standalone thrillers, I feel it is in the Sweden-based Tuva Moodyson series that he excels. The Swedish scenery is excellent for building a dramatic mood, especially in the depths of winter, Tuva's deafness adds to the feeling of fear, and the plotting is always spot-on. When a young deaf man goes missing in a remote town, Tuva feels compelled to go and investigate. As the body count rises, she works with the police to seek a breakthrough. Tremendous!

This book had a great plot with intriguing characters. I’ll definitely be looking out for more from this author.

The Chamber was my first introduction to this author, which has a good but slightly 'stodgy' plot, and I found the characters difficult to engage with. I felt much the same about this. Disappointingly, it's in present-tense narrative, something I dislike intensely, and it hampered the story's field of vision. Esseberg or Ice Town as it's known, is reachable only by one tunnel…and that's what present-tense narrative is: a claustrophobic blind alley of tunnel darkness.

The ending is a tad overdramatic and lacks credibility. Whilst this is #6 in the Tuva Moodyson series, it's pretty much stand-alone, and I didn't feel stranded by back-story gaps, but I found it difficult to feel very much for Tuva, a deaf and, by all accounts, successful, journalist…she came over as a bit wooden.

Despite all that and some bad grammatical errors, I didn't find it totally unenjoyable. I can't subscribe to the 'unputdownable' it claims to be, but I did find myself compelled to get to the conclusion.

Will Dean is fast becoming one of my favourite authors – I really enjoyed The Last Thing to Burn and The Chamber, although I haven’t read any of the other books in the Tuva Moodyson series.

When deaf journalist Tuva Moodyson learns that a deaf teenager has gone missing in the town of Esseberg – a remote village which can only be accessed via tunnel, she feels compelled to go and investigate. However, when citizens start turning up dead, it seems there may be more to this case than meets the eye.

Although Ice Town is book six in the series, it does work really well as a standalone thriller, although there’s lots of shocking developments of the overall arc to satisfy fans of the series. The end few pages made very little sense to me, not knowing the full story, but I’m sure will be very shocking to those in the know. This didn’t stop my enjoyment of it though, and if anything, made me want to pick up the others in the series as well.

I loved the main character of Tuva – she’s flawed but determined, and the fact that she is deaf added some real vulnerability to certain situations. The setting of the village of Esseberg was so atmospheric, with the below freezing temperatures really adding to the stakes of the book and the fact that the tunnel was the only way in or out turned it into a locked room thriller at times. The chapters when a character is stuck on a snow lift or trying to ski down the mountain at night were truly scary (particularly for someone like me who tried skiing for the first time this year with disastrous results!). I also really enjoyed the final showdown at the end – you got even more of an insight into Tuva’s character, but I was constantly changing my mind about who the perpetrator could be!

Overall, Ice Town is an atmospheric thriller in a great setting and with brilliant characters. Although it’s part of a series, it makes for a great standalone and a perfect introduction to Tuva Moodyson. Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Will Dean has written another absolute blinder in the Tuva Moodyson thrillers. Tuva is back again and embarks on a trip to report on the disappearance of a deaf boy. The descriptions of how Tuva deals with her own deafness absolutely resonate with me being deaf myself. However Tuva’s disability does not let it stop her. She throws herself into the investigation, which being in a different town to her own throws up its own issues.

Tuva meets some very interesting characters and some fairly unpleasant ones as well.

If you’ve not read any of his books in this series, I would highly recommend.

An interesting murder mystery. A partially deaf reporter investigate the events in a small town above the artic circle only accessible by a tunnel through the mountains. It is winter with little or no daylight. Several atmospheric and tense chapters where you can really feel the extreme cold and isolation. The tension and palpable fear racks up.

Tis the year's midnight, and it is the day's,
Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks;
The sun is spent, and now his flasks
Send forth light squibs, no constant rays;
The world's whole sap is sunk...

- John Donne

Two years on from the shocking events that rounded off Book 4 in this series, Bad Apples, Tuva is keeping on keeping on. She fell back into binge drinking, but has come through that with the support a good friend - though she is still not looking after herself very well as we see with her diet. Life in Toytown is though quiet, and perhaps Tuva needs the atmosphere of a major evolving story - so she seizes the chance to drive 20 hours north to cover the search for a missing Deaf teenager in a VERY remote town.

Esseberg is something else, even among the strange locations that Dean has given us so far in this series. Entirely surrounded by mountains, it's accessible only through a single-lane tunnel that is shared between road and rail. One must wait for a time slot to drive through and, once inside, there is no escape when the tunnel shuts down for the night.

This place is then even more isolated, inward looking and suspicious than Gavrik - and Tuva has no standing here, no relationship with the police, and no base to operate from (she's staying at a B&B that doesn't serve breakfast, and that is also the town's tanning salon, popular in the Winter months).

As Tuva goes about her work, against a background of severe cold and short days, trying to establish what has happened to Peter even as bodies begin to turn up, Dean exploits a real vein of the gothic in portraying how this remote community reacts to the tragedy unfolding. Several times Tuva is put in danger - visits to the creepy hotel accessible only by chairlift are especially skin crawling. St Lucy's Day, the shortest day (and the subject of Donne's poem which I've quoted above, because that last line, The world's whole sap is sunk, just seems to me to sum up the atmosphere here) is approaching but the mood is hardly celebratory as the villagers begin to go out only in pairs and the local biker gang patrol the streets as vigilantes.

As ever, it is great to meet Tuva again. This stubborn, lonely and, often, suffering, woman has been through a lot but she still reaches out to help others, whether it's the missing Deaf young man or her neighbour's kid (and at the moving climax of this book we hear of another). Strictly she's our of her own domain and has no business here but she sets about unpicking the threads of life in a small town, allowing us encounters with many interesting characters - whether it's the ex-con ski lift manager, the self-absorbed true crime podcaster, or creepy Eric at the hotel. As ever Tuva has to balance the need to push these people for info, to go further than the police can, with her position as a stranger, an outsider in Ice Town.

The writing here is good - one senses a warmth from Dean for his protagonist - and we learn more about her complicated early life, but while unexpected the details don't come as just dropped in, it all makes sense in the context of the character. Billed as a standalone episode in the series, presumably because it's set "away", this book nevertheless feels fully integrated with what's going before and sets up plotlines and hints for the future.

It's great to this series powering forward so strongly and I am eager to hear more about Tuva Moodyson.

I loved the atmospheric landscape and claustrophobic isolation of the Nordic town Esseberg (or IceTown) accessible only by a single track tunnel that closes at night. This was my introduction to Tuva Moodyson, the deaf journalist who sidelines in being a brilliant detective. Cleverly plotted and engaging and even though this was book 6 of the Tuva series I lapped it up and will be returning to fill in the missing gaps from earlier books. That said this one does still read well as a stand-alone.

3.5 ⭐️
I left reviewing this book for a little while as I was somewhat torn. Obviously I am late to the Tuva Moodyson party, I haven’t read any of the previous books in this series, perhaps if I had I’d have loved this and would have connected with it and the character more. It is very well written, beautifully atmospheric and tension building but I felt a little disappointed when the murderer was revealed, almost as though the ending was rushed. Obviously clues and red herrings are integral to a book but I was left wondering what relevance some events were to the story.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and apologies to the author for not totally loving his hard work

In Ice Town, journalist Tuva Moodyson is thrust into a chilling mystery when a deaf teenager goes missing in the remote town of Esseberg.

The town is so isolated that it can only be accessed through a mountain tunnel that closes each night, trapping its residents inside. Tuva, drawn by her unique ability to communicate with the teen, rushes to join the search, knowing time is of the essence.

As the weather worsens and more people go missing, Tuva realises there is more at play than just a disappearance. When a dead body is discovered, she teams up with Astrid, a fellow journalist, to uncover the truth behind the unsettling events. Together, they dig deep into the town’s eerie secrets and hunt for a killer, all while racing against the clock to find the missing boy.

The atmosphere of Ice Town is suffocatingly tense, with its closed-off tunnel adding an extra layer of claustrophobic terror.

Thank you so much to the author - Will Dean (who I am such a huge fan of!) as well as Alainna at Hodder and Stoughton Books for running this book tour!

Read the full review at The Secret Bookreview.

There are reports of a missing teenager in Esseberg and as soon as journalist Tuva Moodyson learns that the boy is deaf she rushes to join the search.

Esseberg 'Ice Town' is even more isolated than her home town of Gavrik and can only be accessed via a tunnel which is closed overnight... literally meaning that what goes on in Ice Town, stays in Ice Town.

These peculiar little towns that Will Dean creates for his Tuva stories are all really quite fascinating and Ice Town and its inhabitants come alive within the pages of this book.

Being an outsider, Tuva is met with some resistance but her unique approach, dogged persistence and ability to empathise with people mean that she is soon on the inside track - which draws her ever closer to danger. As the death toll rises it becomes clear that everyone in Ice Town is in danger but particularly anyone getting close to the truth.

The tight focus of this story brings out a more vulnerable side of Tuva and there are some personal revelations to be had for her within Ice Town too. These add another dimension to the story and set the scene nicely for some tumultuous times ahead in future books.

I enjoyed the cameo role of previous characters from the Tuva series too, such as the sisters from the woods and their awful handmade creations.

My thanks to Hodder & Staughton, Netgalley and Will Dean for an ARC of Ice Town in return for an honest review. As I often do, I loved it so much I have also pre-ordered a copy for my bookshelf!

I am giving this 4 stars as I feel like I need a better understanding of the series to give it 5!

Fantastic as ever, Will Dean writes in a way which is addictive and captivating. His characters are well developed and his ability to se the scene is fantastic!

An atmospheric and compelling read.
I didn’t realise is was book 5 of a series when requesting this, but the subject matter attracted me. I’d didn't discover this until part way through.
It’s a good ‘locked room’ type thriller, a town inaccessible for many hours a day and only via a single track tunnel. And a dead teenager.
With the background of the main character, a journalist, being referred to in the book I think it would be helpful to have read the other books in the series for a full experience.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the SRC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I hadn't realised that there were other books with this character, Tuva, a journalist, as the protagonist, so I read it as a stand alone novel, and it works fine as this. It is very well written and I really felt the oppressiveness of the town of Esseberg and the adversity of the weather, the descriptions were spot on.
Tuva is deaf and she is immediately drawn to the story of a missing deaf teenager in a town many miles north of where she lives. She persuades her editor to allow her to go there and investigate. When she gets there she finds instead of the boy being a victim he is quickly accused of being a criminal as the bodies of other residents of the town are discovered buried in the ice. Tuva perseveres - she wants to tell Peter's story. As events unfold Tuva finds herself unwittingly drawn into the crime herself.
Good plotting, great pace, interesting characters who really feel what is going on, and so much tension.
A very enjoyable read.
With thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an arc copy in return for an honest review.