The Ice Beneath Her by Camilla Grebe

The Ice Beneath Her by Camilla Grebe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A young woman is found beheaded in an infamous business tycoon's marble-lined hallway.

The businessman, scandal-ridden CEO of the retail chain Clothes & More, is missing without a trace.

But who is the dead woman? And who is the brutal killer who wielded the machete?

Rewind two months earlier to meet Emma Bohman, a sales assistant for Clothes & More, whose life is turned upside down by a chance encounter with Jesper Orre. Insisting that their love affair is kept secret, he shakes Emma's world a second time when he suddenly leaves her with no explanation.

As frightening things begin to happen to Emma, she suspects Jesper is responsible. But why does he want to hurt her? And how far would he go to silence his secret lover?


The author chose to narrate this in the first person for each of the three narrators which I must admit was initially confusing but once the characters were established I didn't find the need to keep checking the chapter narrator as I did at the beginning. Watching the case unfold from these narrators perspective did enhance the authors control over what we learn and the pace we learnt it which kept the suspense going.

The story is set in Stockholm narrated by Detective Inspector Peter Lindgren, a woman called Hanne a police consultant who has the early stages of Alzheimer's, and a girl who works in Jesper Orre's store called Emma Bohman.

It starts with a great opening hook - a woman is found murdered having been beheaded in the apartment of a well known CEO (Jesper Orre) of a clothing company Clothes & More. When Detective Inspector Lindgren is called to the house to investigate Jesper Orre is missing and the identity of the beheaded woman in his home is not known. Remembering a similar unsolved murder case he investigated some 10 years previously he decides to call Hanne who worked on the case with him. We learn that Peter Lindgren was also romantically involved with Hanne which adds to the tension of the case.

It was a good paced piece of writing and interesting to have this in three different narrations through the book. I did guess the outcome but only 3/4 of the way through the book which was fairly good going as I normally guess the 'who dunnit' well before then so for this reason it gets a well deserved 4 stars from me. It's well worth a read, good holiday reading material but equally good for a cold winters' evening by the fire. Would definitely read more from this author.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.