⋙ PDF Free The Frozen Lake Elizabeth Edmondson 9780007184866 Books

The Frozen Lake Elizabeth Edmondson 9780007184866 Books

Download As PDF : The Frozen Lake Elizabeth Edmondson 9780007184866 Books

The Frozen Lake Elizabeth Edmondson 9780007184866 Books

This is the fourth Elizabeth Edmondson historical mystery I've read. They are really good reads for anyone interested in this genre, dense with plot, characters, atmosphere, etc.

Although I am only part way through this one, I thought I'd do a public service and include a family chart, because the characters' relationships to each other are very confusing. No spoilers, I think:

grandparents Henry, lady (carolyn?) richardson

their sons:
neville died in accident in alps, married to helena
jack died in france 1917
saul richardson, wife jane, saul maybe having an affair with mavis

children of neville and helena?
alix and her twin edwin, who is in love with lidia a refugee
perdita
isabel, died in car accident in the US with her mother helena.

lipp, rokeby, servants to grandparents

who is alix's aunt trudie, maybe a daughter richardson grandparents?

grindleys, neighbors to the richardsons:

hal grindley, loved neville's wife helena, loved or married to margo who maybe left him or something

peter grindley first marriage to delia ended when she ran away, peter now married to eve,
eve is stepmother to peter's daughter ursula, eve has a daughter rosalind
simon and nicky are ursula's brothers.

roger grindley, married to angela, daughter cecy

not richardsons nor grindleys, I think:

michael wrexhan and his friend (dr) freddie kerr

This is yet another kindle book where the publishers seem to have run the print book through a scanner with OCR, then run spellcheck on it, and no human looked at it before it was released. It is full of the kind of errors that result from that. I've even seen this with M.C. Beaton books. I would think authors might have enough influence to demand proofreading, maybe not.


Tags : The Frozen Lake [Elizabeth Edmondson] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers.,Elizabeth Edmondson,The Frozen Lake,Harpercollins Pub Ltd,0007184867,Modern fiction,Sagas,Fiction

The Frozen Lake Elizabeth Edmondson 9780007184866 Books Reviews

I like Elizabeth .Edmondson's books, and this was no exception. There were interesting characters with interesting issues to be figured out, and a proper amount of suspense near the end. As far as I could tell this was not a series book. There are 2 families living near each other. They don't all like each other. Everyone is excited about the nearby lake which is expected to freeze completely over for the first time in a number of years. This is what draws the characters together. They all like to skate or sled on the frozen lake. A young woman is murdered. When her body is found, there are several suspects. Working out who dunnit is a complex process with many fingers pointing different ways. The answer might be a surprise to some readers.
This is a typical Edmondson with many plot lines that converge and result in an exciting and page-turning reveal in the last 5th of the book. I enjoy the slow and steady movement of the plot and trying to fit the clues together before the end. It is also an interesting time period, just before WWII in England. Nazis and Fascists, Communists and the rest of us are all working out our salvations - or lack thereof. Edmondson does not deal in gray areas.
Oh, this book is an interesting experience! The atmosphere of the setting -- a rare Christmas freeze in the north country, which last happened 16 years before -- permeates it, and so does the atmosphere of buried family dynamics. It is a symphony of secrets, large and small.

I was still getting the characters sorted out in my head, and ambling along through the fairly low-drama early events of two wealthy families' holiday reunions when I realized that I could not put the book down -- I was gripped by such a sense of rising tension.

As the buried secrets begin to poke through the civilized layers of manners and propriety, the tension continues to build -- and it is a testimony to Edmondson's skill as a writer that, even once one has guessed the secrets, there is no reduction in tension. How -- and whether -- the characters will discover the secrets, and what their reaction will be, becomes just as gripping as uncovering the secrets oneself.

Edmondson has a tremendous gift for making her characters matter to the reader -- an especial pleasure in her "Very English" series, and the source of this book's power. And she is kind enough, after making the reader care passionately about her characters, to provide a very satisfying ending -- virtue rewarded, innocence avenged, and many delightful new threads set in motion. A deeply satisfying read!
Many-layered and complex, the story revolves basically around two families from the same community as the children and grandchildren return to the area, some after many years away, to attempt to celebrate the holidays despite secrets and difficult people and relationships. Parts are dark, and some difficult issues arise. These serve to balance a holiday-themed story and give it a strong realism. The mystery is good, but it is not what the story is centered on. Rather, the focus is on multiple relationships within and between the two families. Very enjoyable story.
I am a fan of Ms. Edmondson's sensibilities and her books. This book started slowly, introducing a huge cast of characters about whom I found it difficult to keep track. It took me nearly a third of the book to distinguish them all in my mind, but I was fascinated by the character of Lady Richardson, a woman so forceful and capable of so much malice that she rules and damages three generations of her family in ways that parallel the rise of Hitler. Since the book is set in the late 30's in Great Britain, this is not accidental. There are Mosleyites (British fascists), a murder, rapes, deceit and romance all set during a rare hard freeze in the Lakes District during the Christmas Holidays. Many of the women chafe at and buck the sexism of the period, thank goodness. Even so, this IS an English Country house novel, so everyone dresses for dinner.
This is the fourth Elizabeth Edmondson historical mystery I've read. They are really good reads for anyone interested in this genre, dense with plot, characters, atmosphere, etc.

Although I am only part way through this one, I thought I'd do a public service and include a family chart, because the characters' relationships to each other are very confusing. No spoilers, I think

grandparents Henry, lady (carolyn?) richardson

their sons
neville died in accident in alps, married to helena
jack died in france 1917
saul richardson, wife jane, saul maybe having an affair with mavis

children of neville and helena?
alix and her twin edwin, who is in love with lidia a refugee
perdita
isabel, died in car accident in the US with her mother helena.

lipp, rokeby, servants to grandparents

who is alix's aunt trudie, maybe a daughter richardson grandparents?

grindleys, neighbors to the richardsons

hal grindley, loved neville's wife helena, loved or married to margo who maybe left him or something

peter grindley first marriage to delia ended when she ran away, peter now married to eve,
eve is stepmother to peter's daughter ursula, eve has a daughter rosalind
simon and nicky are ursula's brothers.

roger grindley, married to angela, daughter cecy

not richardsons nor grindleys, I think

michael wrexhan and his friend (dr) freddie kerr

This is yet another kindle book where the publishers seem to have run the print book through a scanner with OCR, then run spellcheck on it, and no human looked at it before it was released. It is full of the kind of errors that result from that. I've even seen this with M.C. Beaton books. I would think authors might have enough influence to demand proofreading, maybe not.