The Frozen People (Audio book review)

 

The Frozen People (Ali Dawson, Book 1)
by Elly Griffiths, 2025

Audio book narrated by Julie Maisey
9 hrs 41 mins

Elly Griffiths is one of my favourite crime writers in later years. I have reviewed several of her books on my blog before - not least her series (15 books) about forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway. Recently I discovered that she has started on a new series, which differs from her previous books in that it pushes the boundaries of reality. (I listened to it as audio book, bought with one of my Audible membership credits; but it is of course available in other formats as well.)

Her new protagonist, Ali Dawson, is a woman in her 50s, working with a "cold case team"  reputed to investigate "crimes so old, they're frozen". What most people outside the team don't know, is that they have even found a way to travel back in time to do research. So far they have only made a few minor experiments with this, but now it's time to try to both go back further in time, and stay there longer. So we get to follow Ali on a "journey" back to London in the 1850s, to find out more about a sinister secret socity of people calling themselves The Collectors. "Of course" things do not go 100% to plan - she finds herself stuck in the past longer than intended, not sure how to get back; and meanwhile, in the present time, her son Finn also finds himself in trouble...

I was a bit sceptical when I started listening, and even afterwards I'm still "kind of" in two minds about the time travelling dimensions... But Elly Griffiths is a very good writer, good at "painting images with words". So one does get drawn into it - even to the point of almost believing it... It probably helps that the characters themselves are also new to it all, and hardly know themselves how it is supposed to work!

As this book is advertised as "Book 1" I also assume this means that some things that still remain a bit hazy at the end may be further clarified in books to come. I'm pretty sure I'll at least remain curious enough to also read the next one when the time comes... And before that, probably also re-listen to this one at least once more.

Audible Review: The Jane Austen Collection

 

    Narrated by: Claire Foy, Gugu Mbatha-Raw,
Billie Piper, Florence Pugh, Emma Thompson
    Length: 45 hrs
    Unabridged Audiobook
    Release date: 11-05-20
    Language: English
    Publisher: Audible Originals
    Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics

From mid January to mid February or so I've been having a Jane Austen month, listening to a collection of dramatised readings of her novels (included in my current Audible membership). The "storytelling" parts of each book are read by a main narrator, while the dialogues are performed by a full cast of other actors. 

I did like some of the performances better than others; but that may also be related to the fact that it differs a bit how much I like the books. And two of my favourites happened to also be narrated by one of my favourite actresses - Emma Thompson.

Jane Austen lived 16 Dec 1775 - 18 July 1817.

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The introductary summaries below are from Audible's website.

 Sense and Sensibility (1811) - narrated by Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Austen introduces us to the Dashwood sisters who upon the death of their father are left with little money or status and without their family home. Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her.


Pride and Prejudice (1813) - narrated by Claire Foy.

Pride and Prejudice is centred around the Bennet family, their five unmarried daughters and their mother’s desperation for at least one of them to make a wealthy match to save the family from destitution. When Charles Bingley moves into Netherfield, a nearby estate, it seems that Jane, the eldest daughter, may have found her match, but it also introduces our heroine Elizabeth to Bingley’s friend, the aloof Mr Darcy.

Mansfield Park (1814) - narrated by Billie Piper.

Adopted into the household of her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, Fanny Price grows up a meek outsider among her cousins in the unaccustomed elegance of Mansfield Park. Soon after Sir Thomas absents himself on business, Mary Crawford and her brother, Henry, arrive at Mansfield, bringing with them London glamour and the seductive taste for flirtation and theatre that precipitates a crisis.

Emma (1816) narrated by Emma Thompson.

Emma is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage; nothing however delights her more than matchmaking her fellow residents of Highbury. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected.

Northanger Abbey (1803/1817)* - narrated by Emma Thompson.

A coming-of-age tale for the young and naïve 17-year-old Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey takes a decidedly comical look at themes of class, family, love and literature. Revelling in the sensationalist —and extremely popular—Gothic fiction of her day, the story follows Catherine out of Bath to the lofty manor of the Tilneys, where her overactive imagination gets to work constructing an absurd and melodramatic explanation for the death of Mrs Tilney, which threatens to jeopardise her newly forged friendships.

Persuasion (1817)* - narrated by Florence Pugh.

Anne Elliot, daughter of the snobbish Sir Walter Elliot, is woman of quiet charm and deep feelings. Eight years before our story begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret.

* Northanger Abbey and Persuation were both published after the author's death in 1817.

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My personal No.1 favourite among Austen's novels is (and has always been) Emma. One reason may be that this book was included in my English literature studies at university, a long time ago - which means I read and discussed it it more thoroughly than any of the others. But another main reason why I love it is the underlying theme of the main character being a bit too full of herself to start with, but learning by her mistakes along the way. And I think it's rather brilliant how the author manages to let the reader be one step ahead of the heroine most of the way.

I also always liked Northanger Abbey, and it struck me now that my reasons for that are rather similar to why I like Emma: Catherine too is a heroine who is prone to jumping to conclusions and letting her imagination run away with her...

All in all, I enjoyed getting reaquainted with all the books in this Audible format. One thing that I didn't really appreciate all that much, though, was that there was often music played in the background behind the narrative parts. That I found more distracting than helpful. 

Two more Novels by Jospehine Tey

I have now finished listening to the Josephine Tey Audio book collection that I bought around New Year. (61+ hours of listening altogether!) 

The last two are stand-alones (not including Alan Grant):

Brat Farrar (1949) is one I remember having read before (a long time ago). I know liked it then, and still did now, when reading it again.

The story is set in the late 1940s, after WWII. Beatrice (Bee), a spinster, lives on a big old English estate together with her late brother's four children, whose parents both died several years ago. When the oldest son, Simon, turns 21, he will inherit the estate plus a trust fund from his mother. For now, they all survive on a business combining breeding, selling and training horses, and giving riding lessons.

Simon used to have a twin brother, Patrick, who was older than him just by a few minutes. But soon after their parents died, Patrick disappeared, leaving behind what was taken to be a suicide note. His body was never found, but he is assumed to be dead.

Brat Farrar is a young man of around the same age, recently returned to England from America. He grew up in an English orphanage, but ran away in his teens and ended up working at ranches and stables in western US; until a fall injured his leg. In London, he now meets a man who at first mistakes him for Simon - and when he realises that he is not, he comes up with a plan to make Brat impersonate Patrick, Simon's missing twin brother, and thus claim his right to inherit the estate and money. Brat is unwilling at first, but agrees when he learns it will involve working with horses. He gets some tutoring about the family history, and then contacts the family solicitor, claiming to be Patrick, with a story to account for the missing years. He manages to convince the solicitor; and when introduced to the family, they too (or at least some of them) also do see in him a resemblance to Patrick...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Miss Pym Disposes (1946), Lucy Pym, author of a best-selling book on psychology, is invited to give a lecture at a Physical Training College. After her initial lecture she is also asked to stay on for a while. She is given a room in the students' quarters rather than among the other teachers, which means she gets to know some of them quite well. The end of the term is approaching, and some of the senior students are going be recommended by the school for jobs at other institutions. Two of them especially are rivals for a very sought-after position at another school. Just before the end of term, a tragic accident occurs, which also turns into a test of Miss Pym's psychological expertise.

I was not all that captured by this book to start with - perhaps to do with my own memories of gymnastics and school gymnasiums (...all negative...) back in my school days. But aside from the accident/crime scene being a gymnasium, the author does deserve credit for the moral dilemmas raised towards the end of the story.

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Previous reviews from this audio book collection:

The Man in the Queue

More by Josephine Tey

More by Josephine Tey (Book reviews)

Having bought them all collected in one Audible volume, I've continued to listen to the rest of the Inspector Grant mysteries by Josephine Tey (pseudonym for Elizabeth Mackintosh). (Cf my review of The Man in the Queue from earlier this month.) 

 

 

 In A Shilling for Candles (1936)  a film actress is found drowned on a beach in Kent. At first it's believed to be an accident, but a button entangled in her hair makes Grant suspect murder... The case of course turns out to be more complicated than it seems at first, though.

 

In The Franchise Affair (1949), a mother and daughter living in a remote house in the countryside (called The Franchise) , are accused of having kidnapped a young woman visiting the area, imprisoning her in their attic, and forcing her to become their servant. The two women accused of doing this contact a solicitor, Robert Blair, to be present when they're interviewed by the police. Blair decides to believe the two women rather than their alleged victim, and sets out on a quest to prove their innocense. A tabloid takes the side of the young girl, though, and turns the townspeople against the two women. In this book, Inspector Grant is really only a background character, and it's Blair who is the main investigator, trying to disprove the girl's story, even though some of the details she's able to provide seem hard to explain if she wasn't really held captive at the house the way she says.

 

  

In To Love and Be Wise (1950),  it's up to Inspector Alan Grant to discover whether a handsome American photographer was accidentally drowned, committed suicide, or met his death at the hands of one of his many admirers...

 

In The Daughter of Time (1951), Alan Grant is in bed in hospital with a broken leg, and feeling bored. His actress friend Martha Hallard (who also appears in one or two more of the books) suggests that he should amuse himself by researching a historical mystery. She brings him some pictures of historical characters, aware of Grant's interest in human faces. With the help of friends and acquaintances (bringing him various books etc) he starts looking into the life of King Richard III and the famous case of the Princes in the Tower. 

(I remember reading this book before - decades ago - because it's such an unusual combination of 'modern' (well, 1950s!) detective story vs. historical mystery. Even after re-listening to it now, I'd find it hard to recapitulate the details of the conclusions, though.)

 

In The Singing Sands (1952, published posthumously) Alan Grant is on sick leave from Scotland Yard and planning a quiet holiday with old friends. Traveling on a night train to Scotland, however, he happens to find a dead man and a cryptic poem (including the words “the singing sand", the title of this novel). Of course he cannot keep from carrying on some further investigations of his own, even if he's not officially involved in the case... 

(Book covers copied from Wikipedia articles or whereever I could find them.) 

* As my favourite in this series I think must chose The Franchise Affair. *

* Each of the books can without problem be read as a standalone. *