The Ice Twins by S. K. Tremayne

Blurb from www.goodreads.com:

"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 isolated, 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?"

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I am in two minds about this one.

What I liked:

The premise of the book was excellent; who could resist a creepy story about identical twins? This was a psychological thriller with twists and turns throughout which kept me guessing about what happened from the beginning to the end. The surviving twin - is it Lydia or Kirstie? - is the best and most likeable character in the book and one I really felt for throughout and what she was experiencing touched me, I just wanted to give her a cuddle. The pace of the book was good and the way the story was told from the two different perspectives helped to increase the confusion as you are never quite sure who is telling the truth or recalling events as they actually happened.

What I didn’t like:

I found some of the dialogue was unnatural and a bit stilted and although I thought the description of the island and the weather really helped to bring atmosphere to the story, there were times when it was a little over-descriptive . For example when the author described someone having “ginger Jewish hair” … what? Is the ginger hair Jewish and what difference does this make? I also found the 2 main characters, Angus and Sarah, not particularly likeable and therefore found it hard to have any sympathy with either of them however, I wonder if that was the author’s intention.

Overall though, there was more that I liked than didn’t like and I kept going back for more primarily because I wanted to find out how the twin had died and which one it was - all became clear at the end. I haven’t quite worked out whether I liked the ending or not, the jury is still out on that one but I would like to thank the publisher, HarperCollins UK/HarperFiction/Blue Door and Netgalley for my copy in return for an unbiased review.