The Ice Twins

Started out a bit slow. Only read it for a challenge I'm doing. Had me guessing how it would end.

Oooh this is such a tense and atmospheric book! The descriptions of the cold and stormy weather on the island set such a scene, especially as I read it during a storm! The story was fast paced, creepy and gripping. It lost a star for me as there were just a few times when I thought ‘don't take the story there', it just felt like it would have all unwound and been for nothing had that suspicion turned out to be true. I thought the end wrapped it up very well considering the plot, and I was truly still questioning which twin died right until the last few pages!

Sarah and Angus, parents of Lydia and Kirstie, two blonde haired, blue eyed twins, notably called, The Ice Twins, must grapple with the reality that one twin has died in a terrible fall from a balcony. The Ice Twins takes the reader on a twisted ride of twin psychology, parental angst, marriage deterioration and more on a small remote island in Scotland. This is a very mysterious story that unfolds slowly while everyone begins to fall apart at the seams though the story takes place a year after the death of the little girl. There is a lot of fascinating psychology in this book, such as why does the dog, Beany, behave differently between the twins and why does he act a certain way with the surviving twin? There is some good stuff in this book. The twin aspect I found to be super interesting. In this story, they are identical and hard to distinguish.

While reading this book, I found there is no one to trust in the story making it very unsettling. The surviving twin seems to be self com-busting while the parents try to amble along to find remedies, solutions, justifications and blame for all of their problems which begin to have a very claustrophobic feel due to their decision to move to the lighthouse island to an aged house that once belonged to Angus's grandmother. Once there, things really go haywire. Is the kid having an identity crisis? Maybe she is being haunted? Or, is her behavior based on more sinister happenings within the family?

Angus and Sarah are facing some serious troubles in their marriage. You get alternating viewpoints and narration throughout the book from Sarah and Angus who don't really communicate well to each other due to the loss of their daughter and other events. It's hard to believe either one of their stories and you never know if either is telling the truth.

This is a pretty good, taunt psychological mystery. I was interested, intrigued and creeped out by The Ice Twins. I found Tremayne's writing to be very good and I would read future books by this author. This story was well done and, for a nice change, I was glad to hit on a good mystery that combined psychological twists with a great setting and well distinguished characters. Well done.