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The Ice Hotel
'Refreshing . . . I look forward to reading more' Alex Gray
'First-rate' Sunday Sport
A seasonal hotel where murder can be made to disappear with the sun . . .
Maggie Stewart travels with friends Liz and Harry to the Ice Hotel, a surreal building in Swedish Lapland constructed from ice cut from the nearby river. During the day, it is a museum housing ice sculptures, but at night it becomes a novelty hotel. Shortly after their arrival, the holiday turns into a nightmare. A near-miss snowmobile accident is followed by the discovery of the frozen body of one of the hotel's American guests. Maggie is shocked to learn that this was no the American was drugged and pushed out of his sleeping bag to freeze to death in the room.
As the body count rises and Maggie finds herself in mortal danger, she realises that the only person she can trust is Thomas Hallengren, the detective leading the case. But can he uncover the killer's identity before the Ice Hotel and other buildings - the Ice Chapel and Ice Theatre - melt back into the river, taking the clues with them?
Praise for Hania Allen
'A fresh new find for crime fans' Sunday Post
' Nicely nasty in all the right places . . . The story rattles along until bringing the curtain down with an unnerving twist ' Craig Robertson
' Captivating characters and an intriguing plot . A great new find for crime fans' Lin Anderson
' Pitch-perfect . . . a witty, tense crime novel written in a highly readable style' Russel D McLean
'First-rate' Sunday Sport
A seasonal hotel where murder can be made to disappear with the sun . . .
Maggie Stewart travels with friends Liz and Harry to the Ice Hotel, a surreal building in Swedish Lapland constructed from ice cut from the nearby river. During the day, it is a museum housing ice sculptures, but at night it becomes a novelty hotel. Shortly after their arrival, the holiday turns into a nightmare. A near-miss snowmobile accident is followed by the discovery of the frozen body of one of the hotel's American guests. Maggie is shocked to learn that this was no the American was drugged and pushed out of his sleeping bag to freeze to death in the room.
As the body count rises and Maggie finds herself in mortal danger, she realises that the only person she can trust is Thomas Hallengren, the detective leading the case. But can he uncover the killer's identity before the Ice Hotel and other buildings - the Ice Chapel and Ice Theatre - melt back into the river, taking the clues with them?
Praise for Hania Allen
'A fresh new find for crime fans' Sunday Post
' Nicely nasty in all the right places . . . The story rattles along until bringing the curtain down with an unnerving twist ' Craig Robertson
' Captivating characters and an intriguing plot . A great new find for crime fans' Lin Anderson
' Pitch-perfect . . . a witty, tense crime novel written in a highly readable style' Russel D McLean
384 pages, Paperback
First published February 4, 2021
24 people are currently reading
192 people want to read
About the author
Hania Allen
9 books36 followers Hania Allen was born in Liverpool of Polish refugees. She always wanted to go into space and came a fair way (but not far enough) in the Project Juno competition to find Britain's first astronaut. Her career in education culminated in information management at the University of St Andrews, a post she left to write full-time. When not writing, she plays the piano with her musically gifted godchildren, making up for in enthusiasm what she lacks in talent. Hania has lived in Scotland longer than anywhere else and loves the country and its people, despite the nine months of rain and three months of bad weather. She currently resides in a fishing village in Fife.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
January 5, 2022
What I liked: the location and weather descriptions
What I disliked: everything else.
My first quarrel is the back blurb gives a lot of the plot away and the book doesn’t venture into anything new until well past page 200. Why do publishers do this? It takes any tension out of the story and we spend so much time waiting for the shoe to drop that it just gets boring.
Secondly, the writing style was dreadful. This book was written in a very detached and clinical way. It’s far too long and drags on like crazy. It thinks it’s so clever with all its “twists” but really the whole thing just spins off into the ridiculous after they leave Sweden rendering most of the Swedish story irrelevant. The monotone way of telling the story did it no favours and made it feel a lot longer than it was.
Thirdly, whoever edited this or translated this book needs to be sacked. The language choices made this book read like a dodgy translation. So many misuses of words, spelling mistakes, and grammar errors! It felt like this had been run through an dodgy English translator and left at that. [Edit: Apparently this wasn’t a translation or even a first novel - yikes!]
All of the characters were horrid. They were suspicious of and rude to each other, the “friendships” were all telling and no showing (we’re told how close Liz, Maggie, and Harry are, yet they do everything separately and don’t seem to get on at all… never mind the totally inauthentic and the conversational dialogue that’s somehow supposed to convince me that they’re mates!). I couldn’t stand any of the characters: Harry and his casual racism against “foreigners” (and disdain for those speaking non-English languages - while on holiday in Sweden ffs) and Maggie’s insistence that millionaires earn their money through “hard work”, Liz was foul and fake as hell, Mike was a total sleazeball… it was utterly ridiculous. The supporting characters were dull as ditchwater and not flushed out at all. (For example, why was Leo asking Maggie’s advice about what to tell the police? I mean, if he was worried he probably would have approached a colleague or his manager, not a random customer?)
The preoccupation with shoehorning sex into this book was embarrassing. It was entirely gratuitous and added nothing to the plot or dialogue (the way these middle-aged idiots talked about sex was similar to how rude teenage boys talk about sex). The was rapey, weird, and uncomfortable. What was the point of any of that? Just leave it out.
The ending did my nut. I already thought Maggie was a moron slinking around trying to SoLvE tHe MuRdEr but Honestly, with that ending, I was annoyed I even bothered finishing this book!
TL;DR - I should have followed my gut and DNF’d this. Weak characters, terrible writing, and a ridiculous and stupid ending make this book a chore to read and immensely unsatisfying. I can’t recommend this at all, I’m afraid.
What I disliked: everything else.
My first quarrel is the back blurb gives a lot of the plot away and the book doesn’t venture into anything new until well past page 200. Why do publishers do this? It takes any tension out of the story and we spend so much time waiting for the shoe to drop that it just gets boring.
Secondly, the writing style was dreadful. This book was written in a very detached and clinical way. It’s far too long and drags on like crazy. It thinks it’s so clever with all its “twists” but really the whole thing just spins off into the ridiculous after they leave Sweden rendering most of the Swedish story irrelevant. The monotone way of telling the story did it no favours and made it feel a lot longer than it was.
Thirdly, whoever edited this or translated this book needs to be sacked. The language choices made this book read like a dodgy translation. So many misuses of words, spelling mistakes, and grammar errors! It felt like this had been run through an dodgy English translator and left at that. [Edit: Apparently this wasn’t a translation or even a first novel - yikes!]
All of the characters were horrid. They were suspicious of and rude to each other, the “friendships” were all telling and no showing (we’re told how close Liz, Maggie, and Harry are, yet they do everything separately and don’t seem to get on at all… never mind the totally inauthentic and the conversational dialogue that’s somehow supposed to convince me that they’re mates!). I couldn’t stand any of the characters: Harry and his casual racism against “foreigners” (and disdain for those speaking non-English languages - while on holiday in Sweden ffs) and Maggie’s insistence that millionaires earn their money through “hard work”, Liz was foul and fake as hell, Mike was a total sleazeball… it was utterly ridiculous. The supporting characters were dull as ditchwater and not flushed out at all. (For example, why was Leo asking Maggie’s advice about what to tell the police? I mean, if he was worried he probably would have approached a colleague or his manager, not a random customer?)
The preoccupation with shoehorning sex into this book was embarrassing. It was entirely gratuitous and added nothing to the plot or dialogue (the way these middle-aged idiots talked about sex was similar to how rude teenage boys talk about sex). The was rapey, weird, and uncomfortable. What was the point of any of that? Just leave it out.
The ending did my nut. I already thought Maggie was a moron slinking around trying to SoLvE tHe MuRdEr but Honestly, with that ending, I was annoyed I even bothered finishing this book!
TL;DR - I should have followed my gut and DNF’d this. Weak characters, terrible writing, and a ridiculous and stupid ending make this book a chore to read and immensely unsatisfying. I can’t recommend this at all, I’m afraid.
August 23, 2022
Veey good read and a big twist at end. 😊
October 3, 2022
Gripping, but l kept wanting to shout at Mags, who put herself in danger many times. A good twist at the end.
September 3, 2021
Most of the story takes place in the north of Sweden though it starts and ends in Scotland. Several people die and the main character is in danger but I did not find this to be an engaging read. It was perhaps a little too complicated though I had no idea who the real killer was until the final reveal. Sadly not really my kind of book.
June 11, 2024
I have been fortunate to have become a willing recipient of the novels my brother-in-law reads, which has introduced me to quite a few new crime thriller novelists over recent years, as that’s a genre he particularly enjoys. Sometimes this is a good thing, but sometimes I quickly realise why I had never heard of the novelist before now and despite having a well-established series of novels, I found Hania Allen to be among the latter.
Three friends, Maggie, Harry and Liz find themselves in need of a holiday and settle on the unique venue of the Ice Hotel, just outside Kiruna in Northern Sweden. The hotel is built from ice dug from a nearby frozen river and doubles as a museum for the ice sculptures in every room during the day, but offers the opportunity to sleep there overnight for guests of the main hotel next to it. When this is combined with the wilderness which offers plenty of winter activities and great views of the aurora borealis, it’s a great place to go.
However, it seems that crime does not take holidays and after an accident involving some snowmobiles, a wealthy American Wilson Bibby is found dead in the Ice Hotel one morning and it quickly transpires that this was not an accident or natural causes. Suspicion falls on his son, especially as important pages from his diary are missing, but then harry is also brutally killed and Maggie is convinced that a figure is following her and that she may be next as she potentially knows too much.
This all sounds very exciting, but the execution is lacking and the novel is much better in precis than it is in reality. None of the characters are terribly well-drawn and most are written with an eye on stereotypes; Harry is an old gay academic, Liz obsessed with her children, the Irishman obsessed with gambling, the Danes permanently drunk and the policeman taciturn. On top of these there is a cast of characters which blend into the background until required, which happens so rarely that I mostly forgot who they were and what they were doing there between mentions.
This also extends into the plotting, as there is a vague supernatural element which gets mentioned a couple of times early on and never happens again and there are buildings which seem to be there purely to distract all of the characters except for the one or two who are needed for a scene, shifting them conveniently out of the way without having to work too hard to move them into position. This may be less lazy writing than passing over what all these people are doing so that they can’t be witnesses and don’t need to be mentioned later, but it’s so transparent and such a frequently used device that it becomes blatant and annoying.
What is very lazy is the very end of the novel, as the denouement comes out of nowhere and requires information about some of the characters which had not been mentioned even obliquely throughout the whole novel before now. Indeed, people have had to act so contrary to their characters for this to work that it feels shoehorned onto the end and the pretend ending feels far more reasonable than the actual one. This is les a plot twist and more a plot twist-off cap, as if you twisted it off and threw it away, the reast of the novel would still be perfectly fine without it.
That said, when Allen finds her passion, she is a decent writer. Although very slow and taking up too much time early on in the novel, her descriptive work is fantastic. The bleak icy landscapes around the hotel are written in such a way that you can feel the cold seeping from the page and when the ice sculptures seem to have shifted slightly between viewings, you can picture the differences and feel the strangeness coming off them and had this been written as a travel book, it would have been far more successful in reaching a target audience than it was as a crime thriller.
There is some decent writing here, but only in the scene setting and the time this takes in comparison to actual plotting shows where Allen’s attention was whilst writing this novel. The whole thing feels like she found and was entranced by the location and the idea of the location and couldn’t resist writing a novel set here, but hadn’t given any thought to the novel itself, which meant the scene setting and descriptive work were great, but everything else, from the characters, dialogue, plotting and pacing had been thrown together with little thought, leaving us with a bad novel in a great location.
Three friends, Maggie, Harry and Liz find themselves in need of a holiday and settle on the unique venue of the Ice Hotel, just outside Kiruna in Northern Sweden. The hotel is built from ice dug from a nearby frozen river and doubles as a museum for the ice sculptures in every room during the day, but offers the opportunity to sleep there overnight for guests of the main hotel next to it. When this is combined with the wilderness which offers plenty of winter activities and great views of the aurora borealis, it’s a great place to go.
However, it seems that crime does not take holidays and after an accident involving some snowmobiles, a wealthy American Wilson Bibby is found dead in the Ice Hotel one morning and it quickly transpires that this was not an accident or natural causes. Suspicion falls on his son, especially as important pages from his diary are missing, but then harry is also brutally killed and Maggie is convinced that a figure is following her and that she may be next as she potentially knows too much.
This all sounds very exciting, but the execution is lacking and the novel is much better in precis than it is in reality. None of the characters are terribly well-drawn and most are written with an eye on stereotypes; Harry is an old gay academic, Liz obsessed with her children, the Irishman obsessed with gambling, the Danes permanently drunk and the policeman taciturn. On top of these there is a cast of characters which blend into the background until required, which happens so rarely that I mostly forgot who they were and what they were doing there between mentions.
This also extends into the plotting, as there is a vague supernatural element which gets mentioned a couple of times early on and never happens again and there are buildings which seem to be there purely to distract all of the characters except for the one or two who are needed for a scene, shifting them conveniently out of the way without having to work too hard to move them into position. This may be less lazy writing than passing over what all these people are doing so that they can’t be witnesses and don’t need to be mentioned later, but it’s so transparent and such a frequently used device that it becomes blatant and annoying.
What is very lazy is the very end of the novel, as the denouement comes out of nowhere and requires information about some of the characters which had not been mentioned even obliquely throughout the whole novel before now. Indeed, people have had to act so contrary to their characters for this to work that it feels shoehorned onto the end and the pretend ending feels far more reasonable than the actual one. This is les a plot twist and more a plot twist-off cap, as if you twisted it off and threw it away, the reast of the novel would still be perfectly fine without it.
That said, when Allen finds her passion, she is a decent writer. Although very slow and taking up too much time early on in the novel, her descriptive work is fantastic. The bleak icy landscapes around the hotel are written in such a way that you can feel the cold seeping from the page and when the ice sculptures seem to have shifted slightly between viewings, you can picture the differences and feel the strangeness coming off them and had this been written as a travel book, it would have been far more successful in reaching a target audience than it was as a crime thriller.
There is some decent writing here, but only in the scene setting and the time this takes in comparison to actual plotting shows where Allen’s attention was whilst writing this novel. The whole thing feels like she found and was entranced by the location and the idea of the location and couldn’t resist writing a novel set here, but hadn’t given any thought to the novel itself, which meant the scene setting and descriptive work were great, but everything else, from the characters, dialogue, plotting and pacing had been thrown together with little thought, leaving us with a bad novel in a great location.
October 25, 2023
I finished this one only yesterday.....and I've already forgotten the name of the main character! It seemed to take me quite a while to get through this one, even though I was doing 2 or 3 chapters each evening, and more at the weekend. I think I found the introduction of so many characters a little confusing in trying to keep tabs on each of them. I perhaps feel this took away from the character development, too, as I haven't really come away from the book with any strong emotions or empathy for any of them.
That aside, I loved being transported to a winter wonderland in this book, with the awe and wonder of the snow, ice sculptures, hotel, and also the Northern Lights, which unfortunately when Maggie (just checked on the blurb) does get to see them, is only very briefly, and not much is made of it. Well, that's from what I remember!
As for the "who dunnit" element, I didn't guess the murderer at all, possibly because of the little we seem to know about some of the characters? And to tell the truth, I remember who murdered Harry, but now I can't even recall if the same person murdered Wilson, or if that was a cover up for a different motive by someone else. And then there's the storyline of the Stockholm murderer with yet another character. Finally, as for the ending....really?
Oh dear, I feel there was too much going on in this book for me to be secure with the story, and it turned into a laborious read rather than one of my beloved mystery themed page turners. Only a 2 I'm afraid! There's a rare low score! 😮
That aside, I loved being transported to a winter wonderland in this book, with the awe and wonder of the snow, ice sculptures, hotel, and also the Northern Lights, which unfortunately when Maggie (just checked on the blurb) does get to see them, is only very briefly, and not much is made of it. Well, that's from what I remember!
As for the "who dunnit" element, I didn't guess the murderer at all, possibly because of the little we seem to know about some of the characters? And to tell the truth, I remember who murdered Harry, but now I can't even recall if the same person murdered Wilson, or if that was a cover up for a different motive by someone else. And then there's the storyline of the Stockholm murderer with yet another character. Finally, as for the ending....really?
Oh dear, I feel there was too much going on in this book for me to be secure with the story, and it turned into a laborious read rather than one of my beloved mystery themed page turners. Only a 2 I'm afraid! There's a rare low score! 😮
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
July 2, 2022DNF at p.159
Lessons from this book:
- supernatural elements need to be used with care in crime fiction—in this book, they affected pacing by slowing down the action and distracting the reader from the main game
- it’s better to create a noir or gothic vibe through description and setting than relying on the supernatural
- character inconsistency is a dealbreaker. Some of the protagonist’s choices broke my reader immersion and had me rolling my eyes hard
- you lose the reader’s interest when the inciting incident isn’t early enough
Other sins in this book:
- fat shaming
- stereotyping
- xenophobia
- ageism
Lessons from this book:
- supernatural elements need to be used with care in crime fiction—in this book, they affected pacing by slowing down the action and distracting the reader from the main game
- it’s better to create a noir or gothic vibe through description and setting than relying on the supernatural
- character inconsistency is a dealbreaker. Some of the protagonist’s choices broke my reader immersion and had me rolling my eyes hard
- you lose the reader’s interest when the inciting incident isn’t early enough
Other sins in this book:
- fat shaming
- stereotyping
- xenophobia
- ageism
October 22, 2022
Good page turner. Three friends agree to go on holiday together to Sweden, on a package holiday which will include staying at the Ice Hotel. It looks as if one person is manipulating the other two into choice of holiday, but the others are enthusiastic and so they set off.
The early chapters are descriptive of the activities the group are offered, also the extreme cold which means that guests have to don snowsuits when going outside. Very anonymous, snowsuits.
Maggie, the narrator, has some psychic abilities and is slightly unreliable. She also seems very stupid in continually putting herself in danger.
The plot is logical although stretches credibility in parts.
The early chapters are descriptive of the activities the group are offered, also the extreme cold which means that guests have to don snowsuits when going outside. Very anonymous, snowsuits.
Maggie, the narrator, has some psychic abilities and is slightly unreliable. She also seems very stupid in continually putting herself in danger.
The plot is logical although stretches credibility in parts.
April 28, 2023
A good dark read set in the depths of Norway. Harry and Liz persuade their friend Maggie to holiday with them and include a stay in the Ice Hotel off they go, not knowing what is in store. There are many coincidences, such as meeting the funder of Harry's academic research on the plane and discovering he and his son are on the same trip. Things take a sinister turn and as danger increases, Maggie turns amateur sleuth, putting herself in danger's way. I didn't predict the ending, although I had an inkling as to the person's involvement. Excellent and very atmospheric read.
June 15, 2022
A slow start but it picked up. There were a few things I didn't like e.g., Jane carrying on about the ice sculptures (which suggested some sort of supernatural element that was then dropped); the unnecessary sex scene between the Swedish detective and Maggie; unrelatable characters (except for Hallengren, the detective); a plot that ran away with itself and became too complex. Three stars because the setting was suitably Nordic Noir.
July 10, 2022
The stereotypical and slightly racist depiction of the Irish character irritated me from the word go, and eventually caused me to give up.
If the author insists on writing distinctly Irish characters, I suggest they do a little bit more research rather than creating a character who drinks “the black stuff”, whose every other word is “so”, and who, within a page of being introduced to the narrative, talks about “Catholics and Prots”.
If I could give it less than one star, I would.
If the author insists on writing distinctly Irish characters, I suggest they do a little bit more research rather than creating a character who drinks “the black stuff”, whose every other word is “so”, and who, within a page of being introduced to the narrative, talks about “Catholics and Prots”.
If I could give it less than one star, I would.
March 5, 2023
Decent story, and I loved the setting and the descriptions of the Ice Hotel and the activities one could partake in up in the Arctic Circle. But this author needs to decide whether she is writing a crime thriller or a Harlequin romance. A woman who has just lived through a horrifying experience is not thinking about doing the police detective taking her statement, I can assure you. And to write it otherwise is just silly. Other than that, the book was decently written and interesting.
January 27, 2025
Wow! I’m glad I read this after visiting The Ice Hotel and not before. I love to read books set in the places I’m visiting on holidays and picked this up, author unknown, on the library van. What a great thriller, mystery, whatever you want to call it. I could visualise every corridor, every room, the river, the huskies, I just loved it. I was right back there, in the cold and dark. I shall definitely look out more books by Hania Allen, this one was beautifully constructed.
January 13, 2022
This book takes a little while to get going. It takes place in the north of Sweden and takes a long time setting the scene. I was close to giving up but when I got into it, it picked up. I’ve given it 4 stars as I think it kept the killer a mystery the whole time, kept you guessing and engaged once things started to really happen! Worth a read and very well written
January 28, 2023
A good crime thriller that is nicely paced throughout, descriptive enough to provide a picture, but not over the top.
When a body is discovered in the Ice Hotel, it is not long before the lead, Maggie, starts to realise she is in danger, what appear to be accidents are from it.
There is a nice little twist at the end - would recommend reading the book.
When a body is discovered in the Ice Hotel, it is not long before the lead, Maggie, starts to realise she is in danger, what appear to be accidents are from it.
There is a nice little twist at the end - would recommend reading the book.
February 16, 2023
This was my first book that I read from this author. Thought it was quite entertaining, I did also grow to like the main character. There were some parts which I didn’t think needed to be added (like that scene near the end with the inspector) if you’ve read it, you know what I’m referring too. But it does have quite the surprising plot twist at the end, which I wasn’t expecting.
April 3, 2023
Felt the author tried to hard to create a sense of foreboding or eariness which ended up having the opposite effect and just seemed cheesy. I skipped WAY ahead and picked up right where it was explaining everything and was able to finish the book without missing anything. It's ok...but definitely not my favorite.
January 3, 2024
Enjoyed this for the most part. Very engrossing and gives you a real sense of the cold and visuals of Northern Sweden. Keeps you reading along trying to discover the killer or killers.
I just didn't enjoy the ending and how it was all wrapped up. The slight twist isn't too obvious and is quite startling in its discovery, but the final end was disappointing.
I just didn't enjoy the ending and how it was all wrapped up. The slight twist isn't too obvious and is quite startling in its discovery, but the final end was disappointing.
December 29, 2022
This was a so-so book with a decent twist at the end which I definitely didn’t see coming.
The story was enjoyable enough but nothing mind blowing and I feel like the author tried to put too many details into things that didn’t need it but was a good novel overall.
The story was enjoyable enough but nothing mind blowing and I feel like the author tried to put too many details into things that didn’t need it but was a good novel overall.
July 9, 2023
Book group read
I read her first book and really enjoyed the Dundee connection. Disappointed with this as I felt she just wanted to write about an Ice Hotel. Mags was annoying. If this had been my first book by the author I wouldn’t read anymore.
I read her first book and really enjoyed the Dundee connection. Disappointed with this as I felt she just wanted to write about an Ice Hotel. Mags was annoying. If this had been my first book by the author I wouldn’t read anymore.
May 5, 2021
Well, it took me 100 pages to get really in to the book. You can feel that the author is a newbie still lacking a few skills of story telling and suspense.
September 8, 2021
It started so well, it was just the ending that confused me so much!
October 11, 2021
Slow to start but I'm glad I persevered and ended up enjoying the twists and turns in the story.
December 21, 2021
First throw away true crime thriller I’ve indulged in. Not a bad twist, perfect holiday reading.
February 15, 2022
Loved this
February 26, 2022
A surprisingly good read. A thriller with a plot that needs navigating sometimes but it kept me interested and wanting to read more. Which in my mind is a sign of a good book.
May 12, 2022
I really enjoyed this book. It was very gripping and i was completely shocked at the outcome. A very good read
June 25, 2022
Excellent but too many clichés.
Read
August 13, 2022Utter shite. I didn't even bother properly reading the last quarter of the book. Don't bother, far too many good books to read than waste your time on this
August 14, 2022
A fairly easy read that keeps the reader guessing. Will seek out Allen’s other work.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews