Reviews for Ice trap

Library Journal
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Sewell's first novel is an unusual tale of suspense set in the Canadian subarctic. Early in his career, Dr. Dafydd Woodruff spent a year in the town of Moose Creek working with Sheila Hailey, a nurse who made no secret of her dislike for him. Thirteen years later, as Dafydd and his wife are struggling with infertility, he receives a bombshell of a letter from Sheila's daughter claiming he is her biological father. While Dafydd knows this is impossible, a DNA test seems to prove the matter beyond a doubt. Dafydd's life in Wales begins to collapse, and he returns to Moose Creek to investigate, finding that while some things have changed, others have remained the same, including Sheila's hatred toward him. While the plotline is compelling and readers will want to know how matters is resolved, none of the main characters is very sympathetic, and the ending is predictable. Recommended for public libraries with mystery/fiction collections because of the unusual premise and Sewell's descriptions of the Canadian Arctic. [Published in the United Kingdom in 2005, Ice Trap was short-listed for the Crime Writers' Association's New Blood Award and the Hay Festival Welsh Book of the Year.-Ed.]-Lisa O'Hara, Univ. of Manitoba Libs., Winnepeg (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.


Publishers Weekly
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At the start of Sewell's intriguing if uneven debut, Dafydd Woodruff, a surgeon in present-day Cardiff, Wales, receives a letter from a 13-year-old girl claiming to be his daughter and to have a twin brother. Flashback 14 years to Moose Creek, a tiny outpost in Canada's Northwest Territories, where Dafydd took a year-long post to clear his conscience after botching the surgery of a young boy in Wales. In that isolated community, Dafydd met Sheila Hailey, an acerbic head nurse, who would later accuse him of fathering her twins. Predictably, Dafydd returns to Moose Creek after learning that the DNA test he demanded proves he's the father of Sheila's children. In his bumbling efforts to unearth the truth about the past, the empathetic Dafydd stumbles on long-buried town secrets. Despite her unusual locale and a strong supporting cast, Sewell is less sure at creating suspense, often stretching out moments of little narrative importance and skimming over others that later prove vital. Still, readers will find this first novel, which was shortlisted for the CWA's New Blood Dagger Award, compulsively readable. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved


Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* Fourteen years ago, young Welsh doctor Dafydd Woodruff made a terrible mistake that nearly cost the life of a child. Filled with remorse, he decides to get as far away from Wales as he can and accepts a position as doctor at Moose Creek, a remote Canadian settlement near the Arctic Circle. It's a strange and often frustrating experience, but after a year, Dafydd's soul has healed, and he's ready to face life again. Moving back to Wales, he marries and establishes a successful medical practice. He rarely thinks of Moose Creek, so he's stunned to receive a letter from a teenage girl there who claims to be his daughter. Her mother is Sheila Hailey, head nurse of the clinic where Dafydd practiced, but Dafydd has no recollection of ever having had sex with the woman. At first puzzled, then alarmed, Dafydd submits to a DNA test that proves that he is the father, prompting him to go to Moose Creek to find the truth. Dark, gripping, stark, and suspenseful, Sewell's thriller features a devilishly clever plot, unforgettable characters, and vivid descriptions of life in the Arctic. First published in Wales in 2006 and winner of several UK first novel awards, this is an outstanding debut.--Melton, Emily Copyright 2007 Booklist


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Sewell, the Swedish-born wife of a physician, pens a dark and intriguing first novel about a young doctor whose tragic mistake during a child's surgery leads him to run to a far corner of the world. Dafydd Woodruff's marriage to Isabel has already hit rocky shores with the couple's passionless attempts to conceive a baby. In fact, Dafydd isn't really sure he wants to be a father in the first place, which is why a letter from Moose Creek, written in a childish hand, comes as such a surprise. The message, from 13-year-old Miranda, claims Dafydd, a Welsh doctor, is the father of Miranda and her twin brother Mark. Dafydd relocated to Moose Creek, a miserable hardscrabble town in the Canadian sub-Arctic, for work, after the botched surgery. Like all misfits who've come to Moose Creek to shed demons, he finds life in the place depressing and difficult. But it is Sheila Hailey, the hospital's head nurse, that turns the experience sinister. Hailey—a beautiful but cruel and manipulative woman—makes life difficult for the contrite Dafydd, but she also wants him sexually. No choir boy, Dafydd doesn't usually avoid sex—Sewell's novel is laced with erotic scenes—it's just that he's not interested in Sheila. When DNA tests come back positive, Dafydd, who is certain he never had sex with Sheila, leaves his crumbling marriage to return to Moose Creek and work through the puzzle. While there he encounters the nasty Sheila, an old friend fallen on very hard times, his newfound family and a few ghosts that won't go away. Compelling fiction from a newcomer, but readers will find the settings—both in Wales and Canada—to be extremely bleak, and they'll wonder how someone as nasty as Sewell's overdrawn villain could manage to survive with so many enemies. Copyright ŠKirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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