Elizabeth Edmonson: Frozen Lake

FROZEN LAKE (2004) was the debut of one of my favourite authors: Elizabeth Edmondson.

Christmas 1936, Lake District/Noth West England. It is a really cold and snowy winter (reminds you of something? well, maybe you should look out of your window - now!) and the lake is freezing. Two families, the Richardsons and the Grindleys are coming together to celebrate Christmas - and go ice skating. But there are dark secrets buried - and now they are up to be solved.

As I thought - this book was to become one of my favourites in 2010. I loved it!! The female characters are great - even the dislikable ones!

If you're interested in the history part of the book: The politicial situation in Third Reich is discussed and there are some English fascists, too - actually the followers of Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley are mentioned very often. I did not know anything about him - for that matter I am better imformed about the German part in this era - and I wish this wouldn't be such a big part.. Actually my wishes concerning this are much more far-reaching... But let's skip that for now.

In the beginning I was a little bit confused with all these persons - and their relations to each other, but this did not hold up for long. The German edition has an index of persons - which was a great help in the beginning. I did not need it after page 100. *yay*

I would love to see the books of Elizabeth Edmonsen picturized! (Please, dear BBC-folks, would you? Could you? Please!?!)

The German title is LADY HELENAS GEHEIMNIS -> Lady Helena's secret. - I really don't know why they changed the original one, becouse it would have worked in German, too - and there is no such novel with that title yet. And it's not Lady Helena who has the secrets..

You may have recognized that I like book covers. I like the original cover which shows almost exactly the setting of the novel: a big house, a frozen lake, snow, ice skaters and I do like the German cover with the pink rose. Doesn't scream: Winter/Christmas but it shows at least a 1930ies lady and a country house -

and here is the cover the German special edition (which only means: it's cheap)

- isn't this just dreadfull? Does a yellow tulip make you think of a winter novel - setted in deep snow, christmas time and 1930ies? *sigh*

I am going to make this novel my personal holiday classic and read it again this year. - Yes, I am actually plannig next holiday season. But that's all of my plans yet - so I am not that silly. ;") And :

I wish you and your love ones a Happy New Year 2011!! May it be even better than the last one!