Review: "The Frozen People" by Elly Griffiths

 

The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths Viking, 2025     Elly Griffiths’ latest mystery, The Frozen People—which is scheduled for release on July 8—is a likable first in a new and wholly original mystery series. In fact, it is a hybrid of sorts, since Ali Dawson, part of a secret cold case team with the meaningless title of the Department of Logistics, is tasked with solving cases so cold they use a new, and not completely understood technology, to travel back in time and gather evidence. The team’s operating procedures are simple: watch, bear witness, don’t interact, and stay safe. To date these rules have been easy to follow since the time jumps have been reasonably short and the people being watched were unable to see Ali. But things change when the politically connected Isaac Templeton—a Tory MP and the boss of Ali’s son, Finn—asks the Department to travel to the Victorian London of 1850 to clear his ancestor, Cain Templeton, of the suspicion that he killed three women. Isaac believes the whispers about Cain has sullied his family’s name and that Ali and the Department can clear it. Ali takes the challenge. With the help of an expert, she studies the era, readies the proper attire, and, not completely successfully, attempts to adopt the meek attitude of Victorian women. Of course, things go wrong quickly, the natives can see her, Ali gets stuck in 1850, and her son, Finn, is accused of murder back home in 2023. The Frozen People is a solid traditional mystery with an original concept and enough personality, in the form of Ali, to give it zing. While it starts slowly—the confusing number of characters introduced early-on is the primary culprit—the narrative picks up quickly when Ali jumps into the past. The Victorian London setting, from the attitudes and clothing to the colder than expected weather, is splendid. Ali is beset by one catastrophe after another until it seems her plight, and that of Finn, is doomed. And the time travel element? What isn’t great about a detective solving multiple murders across nearly 200 years?

Find The Frozen People on Amazon—click here for the Kindle edition and here for the hardcover.