It’s 1910 and Sig Andersson is sitting alone inside his family’s cabin, staring at the body of his father. Only hours before, he found his father out on the ice – frozen to death after falling through the centre of the lake.
Sig’s elder sister Anna has gone to town with his stepmother and the sled dogs, to bring someone to help deal with the body. And then comes a knock at the door….
A mountain of a man introduces himself as Gunther Wolff and he’s come to discuss something with Sig’s father.
No matter how hard life had been living in sub zero temperatures with little money or food, the next few hours of Sig’s life would the hardest he would ever live. Who is this man and what business did he have with his father? And even when he sees the body, Gunther Wolff refuses to leave.

This was something different. The setting was so real, it made me shiver. This thriller novel had me hooked from the first page and gave me an ending I didn’t see coming. Fabulous.

Awards – Printz Honor (2011), YALSA Awards for Best Fiction for Young Adults (2011), Publishers Weekly’s Best Children’s Books of the Year for Fiction (2010), ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2011)

Author – Marcus Sedgwick

Age – 13+

(Awards, Ice, Family, Thriller, Death, Mystery, Fear)