What do you think?
Rate this book
Ice Trap
Dear Doctor Woodruff,
I hope you don't mind me writing to you.
I think I'm your daughter....
This international bestseller is a startlingly assured first novel of deception, ambiguity, and shattering revelations.
At the height of his career, a British surgeon has found success in both the hospital and at home. He and his wife have everything they want out of life, except the child she longs for, the child Dr. Woodruff secretly believes he may never be ready to parent.
Suddenly, the delicate equilibrium of their relationship is blown apart by the arrival of shocking news. Deep in the desolate sub-Arctic wilderness of Canada where Woodruff lived and worked years before, a woman claims he is the father of her thirteen-year-old twins.
Woodruff knows it cannot be true -- but DNA tests don't lie.
To make sense of the impossible, he must return to that frozen wilderness, where no rules and few laws apply. Leaving his shattered relationship behind, he finds that his well-guarded secrets have even deeper and more sinister layers. But the people he once knew in that godforsaken place guard secrets of their own, and no one -- least of all the ruthless woman at the dark core of this maelstrom -- will help him uncover the truth.
The past quickly gains a stranglehold, threatening to unravel everything Woodruff has built -- his marriage, his career. And a man who has made one mistake may pay dearly for another -- and risk destroying his entire future....
A Bertelsmann Book Club International Book of the Month
A Literary Guild Main Selection
Shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger Award
Shortlisted for the Hay Festival Welsh Book of the Year
I hope you don't mind me writing to you.
I think I'm your daughter....
This international bestseller is a startlingly assured first novel of deception, ambiguity, and shattering revelations.
At the height of his career, a British surgeon has found success in both the hospital and at home. He and his wife have everything they want out of life, except the child she longs for, the child Dr. Woodruff secretly believes he may never be ready to parent.
Suddenly, the delicate equilibrium of their relationship is blown apart by the arrival of shocking news. Deep in the desolate sub-Arctic wilderness of Canada where Woodruff lived and worked years before, a woman claims he is the father of her thirteen-year-old twins.
Woodruff knows it cannot be true -- but DNA tests don't lie.
To make sense of the impossible, he must return to that frozen wilderness, where no rules and few laws apply. Leaving his shattered relationship behind, he finds that his well-guarded secrets have even deeper and more sinister layers. But the people he once knew in that godforsaken place guard secrets of their own, and no one -- least of all the ruthless woman at the dark core of this maelstrom -- will help him uncover the truth.
The past quickly gains a stranglehold, threatening to unravel everything Woodruff has built -- his marriage, his career. And a man who has made one mistake may pay dearly for another -- and risk destroying his entire future....
A Bertelsmann Book Club International Book of the Month
A Literary Guild Main Selection
Shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger Award
Shortlisted for the Hay Festival Welsh Book of the Year
352 pages, Hardcover
First published October 11, 2013
28 people are currently reading
215 people want to read
About the author
Kitty Sewell
20Ìýbooks14ÌýfollowersI was born a Swede and, like many wholesome girls, spent my adolescent years crazed with love of horses.
When I was 13, my parents sold their farm in rural Sweden and on a whim moved to the Canary Islands. From one day to the next the horses were gone and I was living in Franco’s Spain. There was a German school, the only one which offered a reasonable education, so I had no choice but to become an islander and learn both German and Spanish in a hurry.
My parents, ever restless and adventurous, soon decided to start a new life in Canada, and at age 18, I followed them there. I spent a year in Toronto and another year being a hippie, hitchhiking solo around South America, before settling on the west coast. I loved Vancouver and took Canadian citizenship. Marriage and children were followed by divorce.
With a law qualification, I obtained a Seal as Notary Public for a small sub-Arctic community, which later would become the setting for my debut novel ICE TRAP. Like Dafydd in ICE TRAP I wanted to escape, get as far away from civilization as possible.
I stayed, with my two children, Elise and Erik, in this little outpost on the Alaska Highway for two years, when along came another escapist, a handsome English doctor named John, who would shortly become my husband.
He whisked us to England, then Wales. There I re-trained as a psychotherapist and worked for the National Health Service and in private practice. My interest in writing started around this time, with a syndicated newspaper column about mental health, and a biography of a transsexual.
After twelve years of learning a lot about people, I felt burnt-out and was yearning for a change (my fate, I blame my parents). Asking John to feed and water me for a foreseeable future, I embarked on a degree in Applied Sculpture and concurrently did a part-time Masters degree in Creative Writing. Why do things by halves?
I worked very hard at both sculpting and writing, and initially it looked as if I was going to make my future living as a sculptor. My stone-carvings won two awards and I had several solo exhibitions� until ICE TRAP was finally published and took off into the blue yonder.
The kids have flown the nest (Erik lives in Canada, Elise in Wales) and John and I now live almost full-time on our fruit farm in the mountains of Granada, Spain.
It’s a great place to write� Yep! That is what I do now, and forever more.
When I was 13, my parents sold their farm in rural Sweden and on a whim moved to the Canary Islands. From one day to the next the horses were gone and I was living in Franco’s Spain. There was a German school, the only one which offered a reasonable education, so I had no choice but to become an islander and learn both German and Spanish in a hurry.
My parents, ever restless and adventurous, soon decided to start a new life in Canada, and at age 18, I followed them there. I spent a year in Toronto and another year being a hippie, hitchhiking solo around South America, before settling on the west coast. I loved Vancouver and took Canadian citizenship. Marriage and children were followed by divorce.
With a law qualification, I obtained a Seal as Notary Public for a small sub-Arctic community, which later would become the setting for my debut novel ICE TRAP. Like Dafydd in ICE TRAP I wanted to escape, get as far away from civilization as possible.
I stayed, with my two children, Elise and Erik, in this little outpost on the Alaska Highway for two years, when along came another escapist, a handsome English doctor named John, who would shortly become my husband.
He whisked us to England, then Wales. There I re-trained as a psychotherapist and worked for the National Health Service and in private practice. My interest in writing started around this time, with a syndicated newspaper column about mental health, and a biography of a transsexual.
After twelve years of learning a lot about people, I felt burnt-out and was yearning for a change (my fate, I blame my parents). Asking John to feed and water me for a foreseeable future, I embarked on a degree in Applied Sculpture and concurrently did a part-time Masters degree in Creative Writing. Why do things by halves?
I worked very hard at both sculpting and writing, and initially it looked as if I was going to make my future living as a sculptor. My stone-carvings won two awards and I had several solo exhibitions� until ICE TRAP was finally published and took off into the blue yonder.
The kids have flown the nest (Erik lives in Canada, Elise in Wales) and John and I now live almost full-time on our fruit farm in the mountains of Granada, Spain.
It’s a great place to write� Yep! That is what I do now, and forever more.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 209 reviews
November 19, 2022
In het begin verloopt het verhaal nogal traag, maar dat wordt ruimschoots goedgemaakt door alle informatie en gebeurtenissen uit het tweede deel.
Dafydd Woodruff, een arts, is in de jaren negentig voor een jaar naar Moose Creek, in Canada, gekomen, om daar zijn beroep uit te oefenen, op de vlucht voor een gebeurtenis uit zijn verleden.
Hij--en de lezer--leert al gauw de inwoners van het stadje kennen, die allemaal wel hun eigen speciale karakter hebben.
Het verhaal springt dan over en weer van deze tijd naar 2006, als Dafydd getrouwd is met Isabel, en ze al heel lang proberen om kinderen te krijgen, zonder succes.
Op een dag krijgt Dafydd een brief van een meisje uit Moose Creek, Miranda, die beweert dat ze zijn dochter is en ook nog een tweelingbroer heeft, Mark. Dafydd kan dit niet geloven, omdat hij nooit gemeenschap heeft gehad met Sheila, hun moeder. Maar als na een DNA test blijkt dat hij toch de vader van de kinderen is, is hij verbijsterd. En zijn huwelijk is ondertussen in een neergaande spiraal geraakt...
Dafydd besluit af te reizen naar Moose Creek, om met eigen ogen de kinderen te zien en uitleg te vragen aan Sheila. Sheila is echter zeer bot tegen hem, en beweert dat hij haar eens in een dronken bui verkracht heeft, met de zwangerschap als gevolg.
We komen ook nog te weten dat Dafydd tijdens zijn eerste verblijf, eens een tocht gemaakt heeft naar het Hoge Noorden, en daar verliefd geworden was op een Inuït meisje, waarmee hij een zalige nacht had doorgebracht.
In Moose Creek probeert Dafydd meer te weten te komen over zijn vermeende vaderschap, door te praten met oude bekenden. Het blijkt echter dat Sheila hem dikwijls een stap voor was, en de toch al zwijgzame bevolking manipuleert om hun mond te houden; de DNA test zegt immers genoeg!
Maar uiteindelijk is er toch iemand die Dafydd de waarheid vertelt en kan het mysterie opgelost worden.
Ik had in het begin, eigenlijk het hele eerste deel, een beetje moeite om verder te lezen. Maar alleen al om de beschrijvingen van de natuur en het harde leven in dit koude land, ben ik toch doorgegaan. En ja, eens ik aan deel 2 begon, kon ik het boek nog moeilijk wegleggen. Eindelijk, eindelijk kwam er dan schot in de zaak. En het einde vond ik zo mooi...
Dafydd Woodruff, een arts, is in de jaren negentig voor een jaar naar Moose Creek, in Canada, gekomen, om daar zijn beroep uit te oefenen, op de vlucht voor een gebeurtenis uit zijn verleden.
Hij--en de lezer--leert al gauw de inwoners van het stadje kennen, die allemaal wel hun eigen speciale karakter hebben.
Het verhaal springt dan over en weer van deze tijd naar 2006, als Dafydd getrouwd is met Isabel, en ze al heel lang proberen om kinderen te krijgen, zonder succes.
Op een dag krijgt Dafydd een brief van een meisje uit Moose Creek, Miranda, die beweert dat ze zijn dochter is en ook nog een tweelingbroer heeft, Mark. Dafydd kan dit niet geloven, omdat hij nooit gemeenschap heeft gehad met Sheila, hun moeder. Maar als na een DNA test blijkt dat hij toch de vader van de kinderen is, is hij verbijsterd. En zijn huwelijk is ondertussen in een neergaande spiraal geraakt...
Dafydd besluit af te reizen naar Moose Creek, om met eigen ogen de kinderen te zien en uitleg te vragen aan Sheila. Sheila is echter zeer bot tegen hem, en beweert dat hij haar eens in een dronken bui verkracht heeft, met de zwangerschap als gevolg.
We komen ook nog te weten dat Dafydd tijdens zijn eerste verblijf, eens een tocht gemaakt heeft naar het Hoge Noorden, en daar verliefd geworden was op een Inuït meisje, waarmee hij een zalige nacht had doorgebracht.
In Moose Creek probeert Dafydd meer te weten te komen over zijn vermeende vaderschap, door te praten met oude bekenden. Het blijkt echter dat Sheila hem dikwijls een stap voor was, en de toch al zwijgzame bevolking manipuleert om hun mond te houden; de DNA test zegt immers genoeg!
Maar uiteindelijk is er toch iemand die Dafydd de waarheid vertelt en kan het mysterie opgelost worden.
Ik had in het begin, eigenlijk het hele eerste deel, een beetje moeite om verder te lezen. Maar alleen al om de beschrijvingen van de natuur en het harde leven in dit koude land, ben ik toch doorgegaan. En ja, eens ik aan deel 2 begon, kon ik het boek nog moeilijk wegleggen. Eindelijk, eindelijk kwam er dan schot in de zaak. En het einde vond ik zo mooi...
September 7, 2010
This book has a misleading title. Someone at the publishing house decided calling it a "thriller" would get better sales for it. This is a shame, because it's really a drama. If you come expecting a John Sanford type novel set in a northern clime, you'll be dissapointed.
However, if you like a drama with a forbidding, beautiful setting, characters who decieve each other, and a slightly naive (though lovable) main character who feels remorse for his mistakes, you may enjoy this book.
My main gripe about the novel is that what should have been the "mystery" of this story was very easy to figure out. I felt a little angry that the protagonist, Daffyd, didn't see how this was going to play out. He accepts that a woman - whom he has no memory of ever sleeping with - bore twins for him. Suffice it to say that this is a plot that has been handled on daytime soaps many times (and let's face it, handled better). A trip to the Maury show could have cut this book in half.
Where this book does succeed is in the description of the location, a small town in Canada near the edge of the arctic. The characters (until the very end of the story) are imbued with a sort of hopelessness that comes with the atmosphere, a paralysis that keeps many of them stuck in the past. There is a dash of romance in this story as well, and these portions of the book were well written.
I stuck through the end of the book, because of the setting, and because I wanted to see Daffyd get some sense knocked into him. Unless you are looking for a slow paced drama, skip it.
However, if you like a drama with a forbidding, beautiful setting, characters who decieve each other, and a slightly naive (though lovable) main character who feels remorse for his mistakes, you may enjoy this book.
My main gripe about the novel is that what should have been the "mystery" of this story was very easy to figure out. I felt a little angry that the protagonist, Daffyd, didn't see how this was going to play out. He accepts that a woman - whom he has no memory of ever sleeping with - bore twins for him. Suffice it to say that this is a plot that has been handled on daytime soaps many times (and let's face it, handled better). A trip to the Maury show could have cut this book in half.
Where this book does succeed is in the description of the location, a small town in Canada near the edge of the arctic. The characters (until the very end of the story) are imbued with a sort of hopelessness that comes with the atmosphere, a paralysis that keeps many of them stuck in the past. There is a dash of romance in this story as well, and these portions of the book were well written.
I stuck through the end of the book, because of the setting, and because I wanted to see Daffyd get some sense knocked into him. Unless you are looking for a slow paced drama, skip it.
July 25, 2016
Dafydd Woodruff was a very young surgeon when he made a nearly fatal mistake on the operating table. Shaken to the core by this event, he takes a locum position in the northern Canada wilderness to recover from his guilt and reassess. He spends a year in Moose Creek - just enough time to experience the frontier style life.
Fifteen years later, Dafydd is a consultant surgeon in Wales, trying to start a family with his wife, the marriage struggling under the pressure of infertility, when he receives a letter from Moose Creek. The letter is from a young girl who says she believes she, and her twin brother, are his children. Their mother, Sheila, is the head nurse at Moose Creek, but Dafydd is adamant that he was never involved with her, despite a blood test result that shows that one of the twins is definitely his son.
ICE TRAP moves between current day Cardiff, Moose Creek in 1992, and then Moose Creek again in current time as Dafydd goes back to see the children despite his confusion about how they could be his. Much of ICE TRAP is about watching Daffyd deal with his own life. In his early time in Moose Creek he's learning to deal with a world about as foreign to him as you could possibly get. When he returns after 15 years, he's dealing with the crumbling, remoteness of his marriage; the different reactions of the twin children that he can't remember fathering; the antagonism of their mother Sheila; the disintegration of the local doctor that had helped him so much in his earlier years; the changes in other friends and contacts and even in the town itself.
In ICE TRAP the crime element is fraud, deception and theft. The community of Moose Creek is a small, isolated, insulated community with a lot of secrets and past baggage being dragged around. This change in focus from the more traditional crime story involving murder, kidnapping or personal threat of some kind makes for a significantly different styling. One of the major impacts of this is that the story moves very very slowly, taking a considerable part of the book to fill in the back story and then the current circumstances of Dafydd's time in Moose Creek before getting to any indication of the extent of the crimes. The other impact is that the story is all about Dafydd - it's seen through his eyes and because he is ultimately a victim of those events, it's self-involved, even self-indulgent in some places.
Not having a traditional form of crime / investigation / solution is not a barrier to having a good book, in fact, if handled well it provides a difference in approach that is extremely refreshing. Whilst there were some good elements of that change in approach in ICE TRAP there are also elements that let the book down. The focus on the central character of Dafydd, in the role of victim, did get a bit tedious after a while. There were some inconsistencies in how he was reacting to the disintegration of his marriage and the amount of space in the book that the subject got - that element of the storyline could have been tightened up and given a more realistic feeling. The true story of the fathering of the children was pretty well telegraphed early on in the book and it wouldn't have hurt to bring out the truth of the goings on in Moose Creek earlier to keep the interest level higher. Throughout the book, there are a number of points where the reader's attention is allowed to wander with nothing much being revealed and the story going nowhere. Towards the end of the book when the full story of the people and the town is being revealed and Dafydd is forced into taking some positive steps towards answering his own questions about the parentage of the children and the circumstances around their mother and the local hospital personnel; the pace picks up, the story becomes more interesting and the reader's attention is more firmly held.
Fifteen years later, Dafydd is a consultant surgeon in Wales, trying to start a family with his wife, the marriage struggling under the pressure of infertility, when he receives a letter from Moose Creek. The letter is from a young girl who says she believes she, and her twin brother, are his children. Their mother, Sheila, is the head nurse at Moose Creek, but Dafydd is adamant that he was never involved with her, despite a blood test result that shows that one of the twins is definitely his son.
ICE TRAP moves between current day Cardiff, Moose Creek in 1992, and then Moose Creek again in current time as Dafydd goes back to see the children despite his confusion about how they could be his. Much of ICE TRAP is about watching Daffyd deal with his own life. In his early time in Moose Creek he's learning to deal with a world about as foreign to him as you could possibly get. When he returns after 15 years, he's dealing with the crumbling, remoteness of his marriage; the different reactions of the twin children that he can't remember fathering; the antagonism of their mother Sheila; the disintegration of the local doctor that had helped him so much in his earlier years; the changes in other friends and contacts and even in the town itself.
In ICE TRAP the crime element is fraud, deception and theft. The community of Moose Creek is a small, isolated, insulated community with a lot of secrets and past baggage being dragged around. This change in focus from the more traditional crime story involving murder, kidnapping or personal threat of some kind makes for a significantly different styling. One of the major impacts of this is that the story moves very very slowly, taking a considerable part of the book to fill in the back story and then the current circumstances of Dafydd's time in Moose Creek before getting to any indication of the extent of the crimes. The other impact is that the story is all about Dafydd - it's seen through his eyes and because he is ultimately a victim of those events, it's self-involved, even self-indulgent in some places.
Not having a traditional form of crime / investigation / solution is not a barrier to having a good book, in fact, if handled well it provides a difference in approach that is extremely refreshing. Whilst there were some good elements of that change in approach in ICE TRAP there are also elements that let the book down. The focus on the central character of Dafydd, in the role of victim, did get a bit tedious after a while. There were some inconsistencies in how he was reacting to the disintegration of his marriage and the amount of space in the book that the subject got - that element of the storyline could have been tightened up and given a more realistic feeling. The true story of the fathering of the children was pretty well telegraphed early on in the book and it wouldn't have hurt to bring out the truth of the goings on in Moose Creek earlier to keep the interest level higher. Throughout the book, there are a number of points where the reader's attention is allowed to wander with nothing much being revealed and the story going nowhere. Towards the end of the book when the full story of the people and the town is being revealed and Dafydd is forced into taking some positive steps towards answering his own questions about the parentage of the children and the circumstances around their mother and the local hospital personnel; the pace picks up, the story becomes more interesting and the reader's attention is more firmly held.
February 7, 2011
Surgeon Dafydd Eoddruff is leading a pretty good life. That is, until he receives a letter from the sub-Artic wilderness of Canada. A young girl writes him telling him that he is her father and that she has a twin brother.
Dafydd, fifteen years ago, found himself in this desolate area of Canada because he was trying to overcome what may have been a child's death. A child's death, which he may have caused due to an oversight during a routine operation. The oversight may well have been the result of his being hung over from a night of drinking.
He cannot remember any actions of his that would have made him the father of these twins, however, he is unable to convince his wife. He agrees to a DNA test and the test comes back proof positive that he is the father. Still he is unable to accept that he is their father, so he travels back to Canada to confront the mother of the children.
He goes back to tha small hospital that he was working at and renews his relationship with his former workers, some good - some bad. He finds that the mother was the head nurse at the hospital and that he had a very rocky relationship with her.
Dafydd is convinced to help out at the hospital while he is there, and befriends an old native who becomes a very important part of his life. He enters into a relationship with his daughter that leads to more difficulty in his life. Remember he is married and has a wife in England, he is faced with positive DNA that he has fathered twins in Canada to a nurse he cannot remember having relationships with, and presently he is having an affair with a native girl while he is trying to unravel his life.
Although you will probably work all of Dafydd's problems out before he does, this does provide a very satisfying read. One should be aware that there is quite a bit of sexual content in the book. Some of it was necessary to the telling of the story, but unfortunately some of it could have easily been left out.
Dafydd, fifteen years ago, found himself in this desolate area of Canada because he was trying to overcome what may have been a child's death. A child's death, which he may have caused due to an oversight during a routine operation. The oversight may well have been the result of his being hung over from a night of drinking.
He cannot remember any actions of his that would have made him the father of these twins, however, he is unable to convince his wife. He agrees to a DNA test and the test comes back proof positive that he is the father. Still he is unable to accept that he is their father, so he travels back to Canada to confront the mother of the children.
He goes back to tha small hospital that he was working at and renews his relationship with his former workers, some good - some bad. He finds that the mother was the head nurse at the hospital and that he had a very rocky relationship with her.
Dafydd is convinced to help out at the hospital while he is there, and befriends an old native who becomes a very important part of his life. He enters into a relationship with his daughter that leads to more difficulty in his life. Remember he is married and has a wife in England, he is faced with positive DNA that he has fathered twins in Canada to a nurse he cannot remember having relationships with, and presently he is having an affair with a native girl while he is trying to unravel his life.
Although you will probably work all of Dafydd's problems out before he does, this does provide a very satisfying read. One should be aware that there is quite a bit of sexual content in the book. Some of it was necessary to the telling of the story, but unfortunately some of it could have easily been left out.
August 20, 2017
Heel mooi geschreven (soms misschien iets te lange zinnen). Het boek had me van bij het begin in de ban en heeft me niet meer losgelaten. Ook door de niet te lange hoofdstukken leest het vlot weg. Blij dat ik dit boek uit het nog te lezen stapeltje heb gehaald!
December 2, 2014
I was so sure I was going to stop reading this book. I didn't like the main character and there was so much 'bad luck' around him, I thought, what a moron. But I stuck it out, curious to see what happens to him. It's like watching a bad movie, its terrible, but you can't turn the channel. Once part 2 started in the book and the back ground of the story had been told, the story really progressed much faster in 'real time' and honestly, I couldn't put it down. I had to see what happened and I finished it late into the night. WOW. This book is about a guy down on himself, who runs away from his problems, only to meet a psychopath who eventually takes everything he held dear, but inadvertently, gives him the path to peace and happiness in a way the never expected.
I recommend this book.
I recommend this book.
February 19, 2019
Dit boek stond al zo lang in mijn boekenkast, maar opeens ben ik helemaal voor het lezen van oudere boeken. Het verhaal speelt zich af in Canada en in Cardiff, Wales. Hoewel dat laatste nauwelijks van belang is. Maar Canada speelt wel een grote rol. Kou, sneeuw en ijs, afgelegen dorpen, de inheemse bevolking, tradities en een beetje geloof in bovennatuurlijke zaken.
Dafydd krijgt een brief uit Moose Creek waarin een jong meisje zegt dat hij haar vader is en ook van haar tweelingbroer. Dafydd is inderdaad op het juiste moment in Moose Creek geweest als vervangende chirurg. Maar hij en de moeder, Sheila Hailey, konden echt niet met elkaar overweg. Hij kan zich totaal niet herinneren van iets dat ook maar lijkt op een intieme relatie met Sheila. Maar de dochter, Miranda, blijft schrijven en Sheila begint te praten over alimentatie. De vrouw van Dafydd, Isabel, staat op een DNA-test en als ook die positief is en reist Dafydd af naar Moose Creek en het verleden.
Dafydd krijgt een brief uit Moose Creek waarin een jong meisje zegt dat hij haar vader is en ook van haar tweelingbroer. Dafydd is inderdaad op het juiste moment in Moose Creek geweest als vervangende chirurg. Maar hij en de moeder, Sheila Hailey, konden echt niet met elkaar overweg. Hij kan zich totaal niet herinneren van iets dat ook maar lijkt op een intieme relatie met Sheila. Maar de dochter, Miranda, blijft schrijven en Sheila begint te praten over alimentatie. De vrouw van Dafydd, Isabel, staat op een DNA-test en als ook die positief is en reist Dafydd af naar Moose Creek en het verleden.
March 22, 2017
This debut novel by Ms. Sewell is ambitious and, for the most part, beautifully done. She populates a world with characters who are frequently flawed in ways that make them vulnerable but never weak, at least not in the traditional sense. Her characters are as real as any you'll ever read, and Ice Trap is definitely driven by them more than by the plot. At times, in fact, it seems unclear what that plot will be except in very general terms. It comes together fairly quickly in the back half of the novel, which trades in the back in forth-in-time narration style for a purely present day one. Though parts of it are a bit predictable by the end, a no-no for a self-proclaimed psychological thriller (which this book really isn't), it still manages enough surprising moments to make it worth sticking with it even after you've had your ah-ha moment as a reader. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to readers who enjoy rich, realistic, imperfect characters.
Quickly, the premise of the plot is that Dr. Dafydd Woodruff, who committed a surgical blunder while intoxicated years before and who fled to Canada to temporarily avoid coming to terms with his error, finds out he is the father of twins back in the little Canadian province in which he found refuge for nearly a year. The difficulty for him is that he never had sex with the children's mother, a beautiful but cold and calculating woman. When proof emerges that he is the father, he decides to head back to the frozen north to find out for himself what happened those years before. Could he have blacked out and slept with a woman he despised? Stranger things happen in Moose Creek every day. What he finds when he arrives is both more and less than he expected, not the least of which is an obvious mystery surrounding the twins' mother and his former best friend and colleague.
Will Dafydd expose the truth he finds in Moose Creek, a secret much deeper and darker than the one he came to investigate? And can he live with the consequences for those he's come to care about if he doesn't?
Quickly, the premise of the plot is that Dr. Dafydd Woodruff, who committed a surgical blunder while intoxicated years before and who fled to Canada to temporarily avoid coming to terms with his error, finds out he is the father of twins back in the little Canadian province in which he found refuge for nearly a year. The difficulty for him is that he never had sex with the children's mother, a beautiful but cold and calculating woman. When proof emerges that he is the father, he decides to head back to the frozen north to find out for himself what happened those years before. Could he have blacked out and slept with a woman he despised? Stranger things happen in Moose Creek every day. What he finds when he arrives is both more and less than he expected, not the least of which is an obvious mystery surrounding the twins' mother and his former best friend and colleague.
Will Dafydd expose the truth he finds in Moose Creek, a secret much deeper and darker than the one he came to investigate? And can he live with the consequences for those he's come to care about if he doesn't?
March 5, 2009
Ice Trap is a clever novel written from the point of view of the classic "unreliable narrator." Sewell weaves a tale of a Welsh doctor who finds himself in the Northwestern Territories of Canada after performing a botched medical procedure, after which he needs to get away and regroup. This temporary assignment has permanent consequences for the young surgeon, who undergoes spiritual and psychological upheaval due to his experiences in the bleak town on the edge of the Arctic.
I liked the portrayal of native spiritual beliefs and the power of a transformative experience in one's life. The mystery, if there is one, is that of Dafydd (Welsh form of David) himself, and the process of understanding the character and sorting his perception and faulty memory from reality as the story develops.
Anyone who has a soft spot in their heart for any town in the Northwest Territories will probably not like Sewall's portrayal of the life there as bleak and depraved, and the people lawless and unprincipled. There are a few good characters in the end, which more or less save the story from being a tale of Dafydd against the universe. But basically the author sees the NW Territories as an overall nasty place where no one would want to live. I think it was well done, and I would like to read another novel by this author.
I liked the portrayal of native spiritual beliefs and the power of a transformative experience in one's life. The mystery, if there is one, is that of Dafydd (Welsh form of David) himself, and the process of understanding the character and sorting his perception and faulty memory from reality as the story develops.
Anyone who has a soft spot in their heart for any town in the Northwest Territories will probably not like Sewall's portrayal of the life there as bleak and depraved, and the people lawless and unprincipled. There are a few good characters in the end, which more or less save the story from being a tale of Dafydd against the universe. But basically the author sees the NW Territories as an overall nasty place where no one would want to live. I think it was well done, and I would like to read another novel by this author.
February 24, 2017
Welch surgeon Dafydd Woodruff cannot forgive himself after making a heartbreaking mistake during a child’s operation. His life in disrepair, he relocates to Moose Creek, a desolate outpost in the Canadian sub-Arctic, where a typical winter day hits 40-degrees below zero. The town’s motley inhabitants seem to embrace the harshness, the nights that last for months, because they also seek solace from past deeds. After a year in this clime, Dafydd is ready to let go of the past. He returns to Wales, resumes his practice, and eventually marries.
Fast forward 13 years. A seductive Moose Creek nurse makes an outlandish claim—Dafydd is the father of her 13-year-old twins and demands money for their care. What’s more, DNA tests bear out the nurse’s claims, though Dafydd swears to his wife he was never intimate with the nurse. Dafydd’s wife, however, begins to have doubts and the couple’s marriage—already strained by childlessness—descends into free fall. Dafydd returns to the Canadian sub-Arctic to learn the truth.
This is an engrossing book. I loved how the landscape became a central character—at first, cold, harsh, unbelievably desolate—and later, a source of unexpected beauty and Dafydd’s salvation.
Fast forward 13 years. A seductive Moose Creek nurse makes an outlandish claim—Dafydd is the father of her 13-year-old twins and demands money for their care. What’s more, DNA tests bear out the nurse’s claims, though Dafydd swears to his wife he was never intimate with the nurse. Dafydd’s wife, however, begins to have doubts and the couple’s marriage—already strained by childlessness—descends into free fall. Dafydd returns to the Canadian sub-Arctic to learn the truth.
This is an engrossing book. I loved how the landscape became a central character—at first, cold, harsh, unbelievably desolate—and later, a source of unexpected beauty and Dafydd’s salvation.
September 17, 2010
An enthralling and tense psychological thriller set primarily in the arctic which draws you in until you reach the stage you can't put it down as it explores the impact of a long lost "secret" on the relationships between a number of people. It is an emotional journey as we see the main protagonist's marriage break down despite his best efforts while at the same time he is subject to emotional blackmail of the worst kind by a brilliantly drawn evil character. In fact the principal characters are very well defined and one can feel empathy, sympathy and intense dislike (as appropriate!) for each of them. The creation of atmosphere via vivid descriptions of the arctic location and the characters' actions not only demonstrates the author's knowledge of the region but also her knowledge of the motivations behind people's actions. Overall a great read without any violence - it's all mind games!
August 28, 2014
In the thriller debut from Kitty Sewell in Ice Trap, you'll be in for a cold thrill ride from both sides of the earth. For Dr. Dafydd Woodruff, it all started with a letter from a thirteen-year girl claiming she's his daughter--and that she has a twin brother named Mark. That's when the flashbacks started for him, which took us to Moose Creek, a tiny outpost in Canada, where he worked over a decade ago. From the past to the present in Cardiff Wales, we get to know him better, while his marriage to Isabel comes unraveling apart. We watched Dafydd interact with his friends and colleagues at the small clinic where he worked at, especially with one cold-hearted, conniving, manipulating woman named Sheila Hailey, the twins' mother who have a wicked bone to pick with him. Later on, Dafydd return to Moose Creek to notice how things change and how wicked she was then, and learned the truth behind the secrets with a shocking conclusion.
April 20, 2020
I'd certainly have skim-read this in a day or two if I'd been reading it in English. But I read it in Spanish, and I'm not a quick or fluent enough reader in that language, so it took me a while. It was good reading practice, but I never really cared that much about the characters, and there were parts of the plot that seemed thoroughly implausible. Why on earth would Dafydd believe he had fathered Sheila's twins and she hadn't bothered to inform him for 14 years? I guess Kitty had to make Dafydd an alcoholic in order to make it slightly credible that he forgot he'd raped someone. Seems kind of unlikely for a successful surgeon though. What's more, why would his wife instantly take the word of someone she's never met, as opposed to her actual husband? Why does every woman who meets Dafydd want to have sex with him immediately?
Anyway, I did like the descriptions of the frozen north and life in Moose Creek, so those were positive points.
Anyway, I did like the descriptions of the frozen north and life in Moose Creek, so those were positive points.
January 19, 2009
Yeck!! So I stuck with it until the end, but it's never a good sign when you are two hundred pages in and still waiting for it to get good. None of the characters in the story were worthy of the reader's respect, and often I was disgusted with just how lowly and pathetic they could get. This is not a book I would recommend and am more than a little astonished that such a lame attempt at fiction made it to publishing. My advice to the author---keep your day job.
May 7, 2009
Pretty good book, especially evoking the sense of the Arctic and living in a place at the end of the world. Unrealistic aspects, such as the immediate demise of a marriage, accepting a claim of parentage, and keeping in touch for 14 years of someone only known for a day or so.
November 16, 2011
I don't know if words can describe how much I love this novel. Dafydd's character is gorgeously flawed and Sheila Hailey is the ultimate bitch. The flashbacks to the Canadian wilderness were insightful; and I really enjoyed when the past met the present.
July 12, 2014
This is one of the most satisfying novels I've read. I would recommend it to any one who enjoys a multi-layered story with well written characters. this is Kitty Sewell's first book. I look forward to reading more from her.
May 12, 2016
Pretty good book that mostly takes place in frozen Canada. Worst part of it was remembering the main character's name...Dafydd! I had to "read" David to get through it. Dr that is falsely accused of having fathered a child 13 years previously, has to prove his innocence by using unusual methods.
February 18, 2017
This was a mystery, but yet a human interest story. I liked the ending and the mystery before he found out who was who. I always like stories about the arctic, whether fiction or non fiction. You'll really hate the character, Sheila.
January 10, 2018
This was pretty good.
I had a feeling that all was not as it seemed with that awful lady from the hospital.
And his wife was a cow.
All in all I think this book was pretty good but the women portrayed in this book are either pretty weak or complete wretches.
I had a feeling that all was not as it seemed with that awful lady from the hospital.
And his wife was a cow.
All in all I think this book was pretty good but the women portrayed in this book are either pretty weak or complete wretches.
April 11, 2008
Great story development. Some mystery and interesting people.
June 9, 2008
Definately many twists and turns - nice ending though.
May 31, 2009
An interesting read that took a little while to get started. Intricate plot in the completely foreign surroundings of sub-arctic circle Nortwest Terrirotires, Candada.
October 20, 2011
Lots of plot twists...how'd she pull off the DNA test? Poor Dafydd!
January 27, 2012
;Many twists..Did figure it out befor the end.. Always like Alaska settings..
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 10, 2023
I enjoyed reading this book about the far north.
February 23, 2024
It was alright. The big twist was sort of anticlimactic, but there were some things that did surprise me.
October 11, 2024
Wydaje mi się, że po przeczytaniu tej książki nikt nie będzie chciał wybrać się w regiony polarne. I tu nie chodzi o niedźwiedzie polarne i niskie temperatury...
March 17, 2022
So is Dafydd misremembering his time in Canada? Is he the father of the twins? The people of Moose Creek are protective of their own but I’m not sure why. So my suspicions were correct about Sheila. And now we know the identity of the boy from the prologue! I had all but forgotten about him.
December 14, 2022
What a great read. It's not a (mystery) in the traditional sense.. and better off for it. It takes it's atmospheric time, setting up what it wants to be about, and the joy of discovery just what that is. :0
Recommended
Recommended
Displaying 1 - 30 of 209 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.