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S. K. Tremayne

The Ice Twins: A Novel Hardcover – May 19, 2015

by S.K. Tremayne (Author)

2,436 ratings

Editors' pick Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

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In the tradition of The Girl on the Train comes the UK bestseller The Ice Twins, a terrifying psychological thriller with a twisting plot worthy of Gillian Flynn.

One of Sarah's daughters died. But can she be sure which one?

A year after one of their identical twin daughters, Lydia, dies in an accident, Angus and Sarah Moorcroft move to the tiny Scottish island Angus inherited from his grandmother, hoping to put together the pieces of their shattered lives.

But when their surviving daughter, Kirstie, claims they have mistaken her identity--that she, in fact, is Lydia--their world comes crashing down once again.

As winter encroaches, Angus is forced to travel away from the island for work, Sarah is feeling isolated, and Kirstie (or is it Lydia?) is growing more disturbed. When a violent storm leaves Sarah and her daughter stranded, they are forced to confront what really happened on that fateful day.

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Grand Central Publishing
Publication date

May 19, 2015
Dimensions

6.25 x 1.13 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

1455586056
ISBN-13

978-1455586059
See all details

S.K. Tremayne
426
Paperback
46 offers from $4.99

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'The Ice Twins' is by turns a thriller, a mystery and a ghost story. Tremayne, the pseudonym for a London journalist and best-selling novelist, melds all these ingredients, coming up with enough twists, insights and chilly moments to make the story his - or her? - own and to keep a hungry reader savoring every spoonful. . . . A story set on an island known informally as Thunder deserves a thundering finish, which Tremayne deftly serves up, along with a touching coda that would play well on film."―Washington Post

"The family Moorcroft has taken up residence in a remote corner of Scotland not unlike The Shining's isolated Colorado mountains. It's a suitably eerie setting for the haunting incidents that transpire after one of the family's 6-year-old identical twins falls to her death."―O Magazine, "The Season's Best Mysteries and Thrillers"

"Will have you binge-reading to the end."―Redbook

"The death of one of the twin daughters of Sarah and Angus Moorcroft jump-starts this superb tale...Tremayne effectively delivers a psychological gothic thriller with supernatural overtones while avoiding clichés. Grief's debilitating effects on children and adults further elevate this gripping story."―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The chilling story of the death of one identical twin sister and the effect that it has on her family. . . . Filled with secrets and lies, this gripping psychological thriller will keep readers absorbed until the final page."―Library Journal

"Tremayne (a pseudonym) does a terrific job of building suspense until events reach their climax in the midst of a violent storm."―Library Journal

"Unbearably gripping and suspenseful."―Sophie Hannah, internationally bestselling author of The Wrong Mother and The Dead Lie Down

"Richly evocative and profoundly eerie, The Ice Twins is a mesmerizing story of grief, loss and betrayal set against a backdrop that's as beautiful as it is haunted, just like the tragic family at the story's center."―Kimberly McCreight, New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia

"The next Gone Girl . . . [An] eerie literary spine-chiller."―Sunday Times Travel Magazine (U.K.)

"With its creepy premise and bleak but beautiful settings, S. K. Tremayne has created a haunting, powerful thriller."―Paula Daly, author of Just What Kind of Mother Are You?

"Chilling and utterly compulsive . . . As the action plays out in the claustrophobic confines of the cold, creepy island, it builds to an incredibly tense and shiver inducing conclusion."―The Sunday Mirror (UK)

"Very eerie."―Marie Claire (UK)

"A tense psychological thriller that builds with every page."―The Sunday Post (UK)

"Stunning."―The Mail on Sunday (UK)

"Beautiful paced, teeming with psychological shivers, The Ice Twins is a notable debut."―The Times (UK)

"The Ice Twins has grip, pace and bags of atmosphere... It also has one of the cleverest endings of recent thrillers."―Sunday Times (UK)

"Strange and moving.... complex and dramatic... The advantages and hardships of island life are well depicted and the Gothic old is suitably creepy."―Sunday Herald (UK)

"A knife-sharp debut thriller . . . Gripping, sad and desperately poignant, this is a debut to die for."―The Daily Mail (UK)

"A well structured thriller with a high creep factor. . . . Spectacularly eerie and breathtakingly imaginative."―Toronto Star

About the Author

S. K. Tremayne is a bestselling novelist, award-winning travel writer, and regular contributor to newspapers and magazines around the world. The author has two daughters and lives in London.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grand Central Publishing; First Edition (May 19, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1455586056
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1455586059
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.13 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,184,457 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #15,013 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #19,555 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)
- #32,710 in Family Life Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
2,436 ratings

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5

2,436 global ratings

5 star		44%
4 star		26%
3 star		21%
2 star		6%
1 star		2%

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Kaylyn Meyers

A great novel for a creepy Halloween read!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 30, 2015

Verified Purchase

"Mummy Mummy come quickly, Lydie-lo has fallen. Again, it strikes me, with painful force, how those words are, really, the only evidence we have for believing it was Lydia that died, not Kirstie. But why did I believe those words?"

Synopsis: "A year after one of their identical twin daughters, Lydia, dies in an accident, Angus and Sarah Moorcraft move to the tiny Scottish island Angus inherited from his grandmother, hoping to put together the pieces of their shattered lives. But when their surviving daughter, Kirstie, claims they have mistaken her identity-that she, in fact, is Lydia- their world comes crashing down once again. As winter encroaches, Angus is forced to travel away from the island for work, Sarah is feeling isloated, and Kirstie (or is it Lydia?) is growing more disturbed. When a violent storm leaves Sarah and her daughter stranded, Sarah finds herself tortured by the past- what really happened on that fateful day one of her daughters died?"

Atmospherically, in the story telling, the characters, and the constant confusion (WHICH FREAKING DAUGHTER IS SHE?!) - this book was so heavily addicting. I had to read it at home, at a red light, and even at work. Please don't tell my boss. I just could not put this down!

"Could we have got it wrong? I do not know. I am lost in the hall of mirrored souls. And again that terrible sentence pierces me. Mummy mummy come quickly, Lydie-lo has fallen. That's when my life cracked open. That's when I lost my daughter. That's when everything went black"

I became so engrossed in this novel because it holds so many elements of scary story telling. Paranormal activities, children acting downright creepy (identical twins nonetheless), plots of revenge, the constant struggle of wondering whether or not the characters are just losing their minds. You really don't know until the end, and even then, I was left wondering if I really understood.

"Kirstie says nothing. Clutching Leopardy with her two fisted hands. Her smile is cold, and blank, and yet somehow knowing. It is the kind of smile Lydia would sometimes do, Lydia, the quiet one, the soulful one, the more eccentric of the twins. My favorite."

This novel has all the makings of a scary read: identical twins, a dark and forboding atmosphere, everyone with secrets, and a scary and isloating storm during the big ending. And man, did it deliver. If you want a creepy read to get you in the Halloween mood, definitely grab this one.

"But what if we have made a terrible mistake? The most terrible mistake imaginable? How would we unravel it? What could we do? What would it do to all of us?"

One person found this helpful

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S. Caughie

This would have been SO good if only...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 7, 2017

Verified Purchase

So - a hard book to review. I was looking for a better-than-average psychological/paranormal thriller, and this is that. Well, almost. In terms of suspense and family drama, it delivers in spades. But I have a major gripe, which involves SPOILERS, so if you don't want to know, read no further!

The set-up is a family who has lost one of their young twin daughters in mysterious and horrifying circumstances, moving from London to a remote island off of Isle of Skye in Scotland for a life change. Which (and I have many connections to Skye) is a HUGE life change, in any circumstances. In the ones set out by the book, it just seemed insane from the start. Skye itself is remote without moving farther off of the island, but this is just what grieving parents Angus and Sarah do with their bereaved and clearly disturbed 7-year-old daughter, Kirstie/Lydia.

The slash? Well, that's because one twin fell off of a balcony in her grandparents' house in Devon and died, while the other survived. It seems cut-and-dried, but it isn't. It takes a LONG time to come out (about half way through the book) that Dad knows more than he's been telling about the 'accident.' Meanwhile, he's got a good job in the nearest big town, while Mom is left on the island, alone, to carry on with repairs and deal with their remaining daughter's splayed-out breakdown, which begins with her insisting that she is Lydia, not Kirstie - the twin everyone believed died in the accident.

The plot gets weirder and weirder from there - the parents seem to have no functional way of communicating, Lydia/Kirstie spirals further out of control, the island's isolation gets to all of them, and the dubious psychological "expert" in Glasgow makes veiled suggestions that send the whole mess into a death-spiral.

The ending? Predictable. And yet the supernatural influence is left in limbo, which is annoying. But honestly, what annoyed me most about this book's ending was that all the blame, and all the punishment (remember, SPOILERS!) seem to fall unfairly on mum Sarah. In the course of the story we learn that both parents have cheated; Sarah on the fateful day that her daughter died. But dad Angus has also cheated - moreso than he admits to his wife when he's confronted. And he's done other horrific things - IMO much worse things, in deliberately confusing his daughter's memory of events so that she will believe what's not true. Which of course drives her mad. And which poor Sarah doesn't know, so that, in trying to save her remaining daughter, she suffers the ultimate consequence.

I could have lived with all of this, if it weren't for the "six months later" epilogue, in which Angus is suddenly a millionaire with a cured daughter who's loved by all her peers in town (who used to shun her to the extreme). Oh, and Sarah? She's a footnote, despite the fact that she was found drowned, clutching a child's jacket and some blond hair.

Why was Angus given a pass, plus a new life as a millionaire, for his awful behavior, and Sarah had to die for it? This book would have been five stars for me if it had had a more equitable ending. They were both bloody awful parents. I'd have much preferred to see them have to work it out. Oh and one more spoiler - why on earth did the grandparents keep the house where their grand-daughter died?? Wouldn't you sell immediately, esp. in a desirable place like the Devon coast? Argh!

20 people found this helpful

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madbooklove

Great suspense!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 26, 2016

Verified Purchase

On rare occasion, I think the atmosphere in which you are reading may have a direct impact on your overall reading experience, and I suspect that may be the case here. I read this during Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon and it was the last book I picked up, so I was starting to wear down a little bit (read: perhaps a little more susceptible to the mood of the book). I was out of town for the weekend, by myself, in a beautiful little inn on the Maine coast. A fog rolled in as I was driving into town, and the whole weekend was overcast, foggy, misty, and sometimes rainy. Great background for a spooky read. And I was seriously in the mood for one when I picked up The Ice Twins. In this rare case, I feel like I was primed to be a little spooked.

I devoured this book, completely enthralled by the story. At no point did I have a complete picture of what the ending was. It was a lot of “What the hell is going on here???” and even at the end I was all “What the f#?! just happened?!?!?”. The suspense and suspicion built up beautifully throughout the story. Not sure intense is the right word to use, but the tension was palpable. You start to think you know which end is up, and then something comes up that makes you question what you were thinking. Little bits of truth are wrapped up in misdirection and incomplete recollections. There is a suggestion of a paranormal element, a very strong suggestion, but…well, I can’t say because spoiler. And at the end, lots of questions were answered, and some weren’t.

If you are looking for a moody, suspenseful, smartly written thriller, The Ice Twins is for you. One of the best I’ve read this year to be sure.

6 people found this helpful

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Candygirl

I couldn't recommend this

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 13, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is the weirdest book, the opening chapters and first 30% I really enjoyed, I even put other of the authors books onto my wish list, but then something went wrong. The characters got sillier and started behaving very oddly, with wild leaps from a tiny scrap of information to making huge assumptions. I couldn't believe that parents outdoor just allow a child to tak on a new identity without seeking any professional help or support. I didn't find the Scottish island creepy the story just seemed to drag. By the time I got to 75% I couldn't wait for this to end and it ended so abruptly it felt like the author was told he had an hour left and needed to finish his book by then and just galloped to an unbelievable conclusion. I think it felt as though the author had plucked out a random selection of themes and felt he had to include all of them even though they didn't all work and some were very sketchy and unecessary i.e. the infidelity theme. Needless to say I won't be reading any more from this man, one book was enough.

6 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

The Ice Twins

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 8, 2016

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The Ice Twins
The Ice Twins by S. K. Tremayne is a gripping novel, a ‘real page turner’ but it is a disturbing read.
The story is awful, in the real sense of the word. A middle class family is torn apart when one of their identical twin daughters is killed in a dreadful accident. But that is only the beginning.
The father, Angus, loses his job after striking his boss. Financial problems make it necessary for them to move to a tiny island in the Hebrides, inherited from his aunt, and the isolated, tumbledown cottage which was once the lighthouse keeper’s home.
Then Kirstie, the surviving twin, starts to insist that she is Lydia and that the twin that died was Kirstie.! Is it possible that parents could make such a mistake? They don’t believe it at first, but it soon becomes clear that the story of what happened to the twin they lost is definitely confused and their marriage starts to fall apart rapidly as the background gradually emerges from a mass of suspicions and secrets.
Part of the story is told in the first person by Sarah which is a clever device that works well to show the reader her ‘immediate’ state of mind. The rest is a third person narrative, leaving us to get to know and understand Angus only through his wife’s perspective and an anonymous narrator.
The plot is underpinned with strong hint of the supernatural. Is the twin who dies haunting her sister? Or is there another explanation for her bizarre behaviour and the rejection she experiences from other children at her new school? It is difficult to write about The Ice Twins without giving too much away.
The setting is grim and the atmosphere is extremely well created. The characters are flawed but empathetic and credible. The pace is excellent and the dialogue is skilfully used to create tension and show how the relationships change and to move the story along.
A difficult theme but certainly a memorable book.
Sue Almond
January 2016

12 people found this helpful

Blackadder

Not Satisfying

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 10, 2021

Verified Purchase

This is a really odd novel where one of the identical twin daughters of Sarah and Angus has been killed in an accident. At first, it looks like Lydia is the twin who is dead, and Kirstie has survived. Sarah is shocked when her surviving daughter insists that she is Lydia.

The parents are very flawed. Angus drinks way too much, and left his job after striking his boss. Sarah had an affair. Now the pair have bought a tiny Scottish island with a lighthouse.

There is a somewhat supernatural air about the story as it edges towards the real reason why Lydia/Kirstie fell to her death.

The ending is a somewhat gloomy one. I felt it could have been written a lot better.

Rocketmande

Frighteningly Good

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 17, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is the second book I've read by this author and it has, yet again, had me cursing my feeble human need for sleep because YOU CAN'T STOP READING IT ONCE YOU START. Honestly, don't even try. So start it early one morning and be prepared to read to the end because it's that good. I am trying to avoid clichés such as "genuinely creepy" and "ratcheting up the tension chapter by chapter" but I've failed dismally because these just describe it so well. Brilliant, spooky, read it on a dark winter's day with a glass of good red and then follow it with the next one he/she wrote and let yourself be transported to the thin place between this world and the spirit place.......

One person found this helpful

Bobby

More of a ghostly mystery than a psychological thriller - no major spoilers

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 14, 2015

Verified Purchase

Described in the synopsis as a psychological thriller, in my opinion this book should really be called a ghostly mystery. It's about secrets and finding out the truth, it's about relationships and the eeriness of identical twins.

The story centres on super identical twins (I did find it difficult to believe the parents couldn't see any difference between them) and life after one falls from a balcony. Fourteen months after the fall (but actually revealed in the first chapter) there is doubt about the identity of the deceased twin. Throw in a move to remote Scotland, a crumbling marriage, spooky behaviour from the surviving twin, hidden secrets and you have a mystery. It starts quite strongly but as the story progressed I found I didn't particularly warm to the family (the mother, father or either of the twins who seemed quite creepy) so I didn't feel emotionally involved in the ending, which to be perfectly honest I had already worked out.

Also in the synopsis it says perfect for fans of The Girl on the Train. As I found with that book I suspect this will also appeal more to women than men. Be prepared to read the word "mummy" uttered by the twin many times and be aware there is swearing (not throughout but in spells there is quite a lot of the f word). There are several references to sex and although the book doesn't have intimate bedroom scenes it does use some sexual words. Although violence is mentioned there is very little description of violent acts.

Despite my reservations it is quite a well written story (though at times the writing is a little overdone) with vivid description of the wildly beautiful, atmospheric, though sometimes gloomy Hebridean surroundings. It's just not what I'd call a thriller. 3 1/2 stars.

4 people found this helpful

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