AN ALPINE TALE OF PEAKS AND PREDATORS
Kathryn brings us the third in her whodunnit series
Relish the joy of the mountains jumping from every page of this fabulous whodunnit, based in the fictional ski world of Grondère, says Yolanda Carslaw
A twisted body beneath the north face of Le Monstre; a stash of diamonds behind a gilt mirror in an après-ski bar; a $50m theft from an Arab state… and a lone female wolf patrolling the pine forests.
Such intrigue forms the bones of the third in a series of murder mysteries set in the fictional alpine resort of Grondère – which is unabashedly based on Verbier.
This ski-infused page-turner follows the adventures of British ski instructor Lucy Wilson, around whom the action centred in Kathryn Adams’ preceding novels, Death in Grondère and Summer Shadows in Grondère. And while the lively storyline involves revenge, money laundering and at least one brutal killing, the real draw of Winter Wolves lies in being magically transported to the mountains (in a Covid-free world, thankfully).
Lucy’s circle of friends, and the wider band of characters who work and play in Grondère, incorporate almost everyone you might come across in a ski resort. There’s fresh-faced Milly, the naive new seasonnaire; dashing Rory, the predatory show-off; ambitious Alessandra, the hard-nosed businesswoman;
Gluey Hughey, the perpetual uninvited guest – and many more. Lucy’s boyfriend Alain, a capitaine in the Police Judiciaire, and his colleagues also feature strongly, especially Laurent Blonnay, whose obsession is to master quirky English – which Adams milks tirelessly as Blonnay goes about his business. (He is overjoyed after a visit to England to be seated on the plane next to Grondère regular Charles Sidforth-Sykes, “a goldmine of fabulously outdated, pompous and snobby vocabulary”.)
Central to the storyline is the Grondère Diamond Ski Club, a decidedly snooty version of our own Ski Club of Great Britain. “Look at that skin-tight outfit with the fur trims and gold bling. Only a member of the Grondère Diamond Ski Club would be seen dead wearing such an outfit!” remarks Lucy’s friend Sally on spotting one of its founder members on the slopes.
SCGB, by contrast, is portrayed as the club of down-to-earth visitors, such as Jilly, Blonnay’s girlfriend and a detective inspector at Scotland Yard, who comes on holiday and winds up helping solve a murder case. The author also includes Ski4All Wales, a real-life adaptive skiing charity that brings out everyone’s best side: “Lucy was all in wonder as some of the lifties she knew as being normally grumpy went through a personality transformation as soon as they were needed to help.”
Kathryn captures the festive atmosphere when a local girl achieves her first World Cup podium, the fun of skinning up in the dark to watch the fireworks at New Year, and of celebrating carnival with locals in the valley. Snowplough drivers are hailed when a blizzard blows in: “The drivers, perched in their high cabins, like kings on thrones, thrived on conditions like these; it was what they were trained for and nobody was left in any doubt as to who was in charge in Grondère today.”
In among all this, Kathryn finds opportunities – in a light-hearted way – to explore the ethics of heliskiing, the dangers of spiked drinks and the status of wolves in the Alps. Which brings us back to the wolves of the title. Suffice to say that our forest wolf has a bearing on events after somebody skis over her tail; and when Alain dreams about a woman with a wolf’s face he could be onto something… I’ll reveal no more: grab this Grondère whodunnit and relish the joy of the mountains leaping from every page.
WINTER WOLVES IN GRONDERE
by Kathryn Adams
is available from YPD Books (ypdbooks.com), priced at £6.99