{"id":6801,"date":"2025-11-18T06:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T14:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6801"},"modified":"2025-11-18T06:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T14:58:07","slug":"elly-griffiths-the-frozen-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/elly-griffiths-the-frozen-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Elly Griffiths: The Frozen People"},"content":{"rendered":"

Series Debut<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I had decided to skip this book because of the time travel element, but what a huge mistake.\u00a0 A friend and book club member listed it on her favorites of the year list, and since I trust her taste, I dove in.\u00a0 I should also, of course, have trusted the great Elly Griffiths, who has one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary crime fiction, not to mention extraordinary storytelling skills.\u00a0 She has a way of writing that draws the reader in.\u00a0 Readers, I was all in with this book.<\/p>\n

The story, while complicated, in Griffiths\u2019 capable hands is simply a purely enjoyable ride.\u00a0 The main character, Ali Dawson, is a detective on a cold case squad (cases so cold they\u2019re frozen) that actually utilizes time travel as a detection device.\u00a0 The way it\u2019s explained is quite similar to the way Madeleine L\u2019Engle explains it in A Wrinkle in Time,<\/em> a sort of compressing of the time line.\u00a0 So far the detectives have used it and stayed for an hour in the past, never going further back than 1976.\u00a0 However, when a very powerful MP asks the squad to look into the supposed crimes of a Victorian ancestor of his, they agree to it, with Ali taking time to research the Victorians (and of course find the proper clothing).<\/p>\n

Ali\u2019s son works for the MP.\u00a0 He only becomes concerned after not hearing from his mother for several days, despite friendly texts about her cat, and when he goes to her house he finds the cat both angry and starving.\u00a0 He goes to her boss to demand an answer and he\u2019s told she\u2019s back in 1850.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in 1850, Ali is finding it almost like being stranded on an alien planet, even though she\u2019s in the same area of London she lives in in the present.\u00a0 The darkness, the different food \u2013 the commodes! \u2013 all are unsettling.\u00a0 What\u2019s worse, when she goes to the agreed upon \u201cgate\u201d to return to the present she finds it\u2019s not working, and she seems to be stuck in 1850.<\/p>\n

While she\u2019s there, the MP her son Finn works for is murdered.\u00a0 The squad figures out how to get her back, only for her to discover that her son is in prison, accused of killing his boss.\u00a0 She goes full on mama bear and she and the squad use every means at their disposal to discover the real killer, who Ali suspects might actually be someone from 1850.<\/p>\n

To describe much more of this gorgeous plot would be unfair \u2013 you have to experience it for yourself.\u00a0 I will just say that Griffiths\u2019 vivid writing, wonderful characters and her portrayal of 1850\u2019s London are all indelible.\u00a0 I really loved this book.\u00a0\u00a0— Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Series Debut I had decided to skip this book because of the time travel element, but what a huge mistake.\u00a0 A friend and book club member listed it on her favorites of the year list, and since I trust her taste, I dove in.\u00a0 I should also, of course, have trusted the great Elly Griffiths, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2352,2349,80,254,2353,1276,2350,2351],"class_list":["post-6801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-1850-london","tag-ali-dawson","tag-elly-griffiths","tag-london","tag-pamela-dorman-books","tag-robin-agnew","tag-the-frozen-people","tag-time-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6803,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6801\/revisions\/6803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}