The Chilling by Riley James
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Fern

Keen to flee the wreckage of her marriage, Australian scientist Kit Bitterfeld accepts a coveted winter research position at Macpherson Station in Antarctica. On the way there, Kit and her fellow researchers field a distress call from a nearby ship. By the time they reach the vessel it is on fire and the crew has vanished. A lone survivor is found, but he can’t remember who he is or what has happened.

They bring the survivor, eventually identified as geophysicist Nick Coltheart, to Macpherson but it’s clear that something is wrong. More and more of Kit’s colleagues are acting strangely. And she can’t shake the suspicion that Nick knows more than he’s letting on. With the winter darkness setting in, Kit must figure out the truth before they are completely cut off from the outside world. But is the danger lurking out on the ice, or is it closer than she thinks?

Kit Bitterfield is at the end of a rather long and bitter divorce. An Australian Scientist, she’s eager for a fresh start preferably somewhere far away. So when an opportunity comes for her to take on a coveted winter research position at Macpherson Station down in Antarctica, she jumps at the chance. Only her and the teams arrival is delayed when a nearby distress signal from another ship comes in, and by the time they reach the signal there is no sign of the other crew and only the charred remains of a burnt out ship. They find one lone survivor, but he has no memory of anything including himself and soon Kit is doubting everything around her, including her colleagues and her own safety.

I am always a total sucker for a book revolving around adventure or scientific research around Antarctica so I happily grabbed this even though I’ve never heard of the author before. I quickly found myself sympathetic to Kit, finding her an enjoyable and relatable character and when she joined the crew heading into the cold I was absolutely hooked. I did feel at times, especially towards the middle of the book, that Kit was a little paranoid – I never really grasped 100% why she felt so suspicious of Nick and his amnesia. The best rationale I could make was she’d been burned badly by her ex-husband and her near paranoia was linked to that, but I did feel it jarring me out of the book a few times.

Overall though I really enjoyed the mystery, eager to discover what happened on the other ship and hoping Nick would be able to recover his memories and help the crew work out what happened. It was clear there were at least a few sub-plots swirling in the mists with this book and quite a few undercurrents that kept me eagerly turning the pages.

Readers who are hoping for an action packed or fast paced novel might not find this quite fits the bill for them. I found this to be a slower burn of a story – plenty of characters and plots intertwining and everyone with their own agenda and perspective. So I really feel there is loads crammed into this story and I definitely thought it all was woven together very well, but in the deadly cold and with ships being a big part of the transportation this is not a Bond style of action adventure filled with adrenaline and chases. There were a number of solid plotlines – some which I guessed and others that were a delightful surprise as they unfurled throughout the book.

I will be certain to keep an eye out for any future books coming from this author.