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Gatineau Hills Mystery Series #1
Iced Under
Stunned by the abrupt end to her marriage, Sara Wolesley abandons her comfortable life in Toronto and with her daughters in tow, takes possession of a rundown Quebec cottage on a frozen lake. But a life of solitude is not the idyll Sara imagined it would be. When she discovers the body of a missing child under the ice, Sara is drawn into the dark secrets and lies of two mothers in the tightly-knit community and her fragile security is shattered.
- GenresCanada
240 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2008
3 people are currently reading
156 people want to read
About the author
Nadine Doolittle
29 books30 followersNadine Doolittle is a Theatre Arts graduate from Studio 58 in Vancouver. She was a casting associate, then a reporter and now writes full time from her home in Quebec.
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I'm shut out from Facebook. They think I made up my last name. However, you can:
Visit my website
http://www.nadinedoolittlebooks.ca
Subscribe to The Butler Didn't Do It to find out what I'm up to and receive a free short mystery for your trouble.
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/9v9u59fq4a
---
I'm shut out from Facebook. They think I made up my last name. However, you can:
Visit my website
http://www.nadinedoolittlebooks.ca
Subscribe to The Butler Didn't Do It to find out what I'm up to and receive a free short mystery for your trouble.
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/9v9u59fq4a
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
October 31, 2010
I spent the past week sick with a cold and found myself only able to concentrate on lighthearted smut while drugged up on antihistamines. Don't get me wrong, the smut has its purpose. But after a week of it I realized I might be getting well enough to graduate to minimal doses of cough drops and some solid reading material. My realization paid off when I remembered that I was a lucky first-reads winner of Nadine Doolittle's Iced Under.
I love this book, which surprises me considering the subject matter. A newly divorced mother of two escapes to a country lake cottage and finds the body of a missing young girl beneath the ice on the lake. While she copes with her new setting the mystery of the young girl's death slowly unfolds around her. Pretty sad material, but the writing is outstanding. I found myself chilled from the cold weather and felt the desperation of the women within the story while reading it. It's always a treat for me, as well, when an author can create characters who are as lovable as they are despicable. Doolittle does that with not one but several of the characters in this novel, and I look forward to future novels by her.
My one complaint in the edition I received is the poor editing. Wait! I just remembered that my edition is signed by the author, which clearly cancels out the poor editing and makes it awesome!
I love this book, which surprises me considering the subject matter. A newly divorced mother of two escapes to a country lake cottage and finds the body of a missing young girl beneath the ice on the lake. While she copes with her new setting the mystery of the young girl's death slowly unfolds around her. Pretty sad material, but the writing is outstanding. I found myself chilled from the cold weather and felt the desperation of the women within the story while reading it. It's always a treat for me, as well, when an author can create characters who are as lovable as they are despicable. Doolittle does that with not one but several of the characters in this novel, and I look forward to future novels by her.
My one complaint in the edition I received is the poor editing. Wait! I just remembered that my edition is signed by the author, which clearly cancels out the poor editing and makes it awesome!
April 8, 2015
This was the first of Nadine Doolittle's books I've read. I tried to make it last because I was enjoying it very well, and I failed. Those are both excellent signs, and I'm looking forward to reading another in her Gatineau Hills mystery series.
What I especially liked about this book, what in fact blew me away were the characters. Charlene, and all that crazy illogic and shifting rationale and talk and pushing drinks and not drinking, all that "everyone else's fault but mine, I'm a really good generous (completely screwed up) person", and Dean's little bit, and the Nicky character....whoa. There were parts where I actually just stopped reading and put the book down because it was making me edgy, uncomfortable, and anxious trying to deal with her, and I was having trouble watching Sara deal with her too. I read a lot of books, and that doesn't happen. You don't often end up engaging with book characters as though they were real people, like the ones you know...and it's that engagement that makes you care, that drives every good book. In this case there's some people I was glad to have met, some people I recognize, and a couple I hope I never meet.
What I especially liked about this book, what in fact blew me away were the characters. Charlene, and all that crazy illogic and shifting rationale and talk and pushing drinks and not drinking, all that "everyone else's fault but mine, I'm a really good generous (completely screwed up) person", and Dean's little bit, and the Nicky character....whoa. There were parts where I actually just stopped reading and put the book down because it was making me edgy, uncomfortable, and anxious trying to deal with her, and I was having trouble watching Sara deal with her too. I read a lot of books, and that doesn't happen. You don't often end up engaging with book characters as though they were real people, like the ones you know...and it's that engagement that makes you care, that drives every good book. In this case there's some people I was glad to have met, some people I recognize, and a couple I hope I never meet.
October 10, 2011
The characters are weak. The plot confusing although transparent. No Mystery about "Who done it".
A plot that would be closer to the writers heart would perhaps be: A woman goes to the cottage every summer with her kids, ends up having an affair while her husband goes to work every day of the holiday. While with her married lover in the sugar shack a little girl see them. The lover being terrified the girl will expose him chses her and she drown in the lake. He doesn't try to save her as he dosen't want his wife to discover the affair as she is the bread winner in the family............ When the woman goes back to the area in the winter having abandoned her husband and children, the body of the child is found. The woman then goes about trying to cover up and lying to the community to try to put the blame on some-one else.............Maybe next time.
A plot that would be closer to the writers heart would perhaps be: A woman goes to the cottage every summer with her kids, ends up having an affair while her husband goes to work every day of the holiday. While with her married lover in the sugar shack a little girl see them. The lover being terrified the girl will expose him chses her and she drown in the lake. He doesn't try to save her as he dosen't want his wife to discover the affair as she is the bread winner in the family............ When the woman goes back to the area in the winter having abandoned her husband and children, the body of the child is found. The woman then goes about trying to cover up and lying to the community to try to put the blame on some-one else.............Maybe next time.
April 23, 2023
The ice was clear that year, clear as rain, like black cellophane stretching as far as the eye can see.
Stunned by the abrupt end to her marriage, Sara Wolesley abandons her comfortable life in Toronto and with her daughters in tow, takes possession of a rundown Quebec cottage on a frozen lake. But a life of solitude is not the idyll Sara imagined it would be. When she discovers the body of a missing child under the ice, Sara is drawn into the dark secrets and lies of two mothers in the tightly-knit community and her fragile security is shattered.
This is a great story and it kept me interested right to the end. I didn't like the main character, Sara, mainly because she couldn't keep her big mouth shut; however, the story moved along every time she blurted something out to someone she shouldn't have. Her excuse was always "I thought you already knew that". Anyway, great story and I do highly recommend it.
My only real complaint isn't with the story but with the extremely poor editing of missed words, repeated words, left out words, etc. I lost count of how many I corrected (in pen) in the copy I have. I hope it makes reading it a little easier for the next person to get mine. No excuse for that nowadays with computer editing for you.
Stunned by the abrupt end to her marriage, Sara Wolesley abandons her comfortable life in Toronto and with her daughters in tow, takes possession of a rundown Quebec cottage on a frozen lake. But a life of solitude is not the idyll Sara imagined it would be. When she discovers the body of a missing child under the ice, Sara is drawn into the dark secrets and lies of two mothers in the tightly-knit community and her fragile security is shattered.
This is a great story and it kept me interested right to the end. I didn't like the main character, Sara, mainly because she couldn't keep her big mouth shut; however, the story moved along every time she blurted something out to someone she shouldn't have. Her excuse was always "I thought you already knew that". Anyway, great story and I do highly recommend it.
My only real complaint isn't with the story but with the extremely poor editing of missed words, repeated words, left out words, etc. I lost count of how many I corrected (in pen) in the copy I have. I hope it makes reading it a little easier for the next person to get mine. No excuse for that nowadays with computer editing for you.
September 15, 2022
Kept me reading and pulling me in!
November 21, 2022
I loved this book. I read it on the train. I could not put it down. Good story. A page turner.
September 1, 2012
‘Iced Under’ by Nadine Doolittle
Published by Bayeux, October 2008. ISBN: 978-1-897411-04-9
Following a painful divorce from her TV director husband, Sara Wolesley takes as her settlement a cottage on Hennessy Lake in West Quebec. It was previously the home of her late friend Lester, but it is not until she moves there in late December with her two children, Darcy and Brittany, that she realises that in her distraught and unhappy state of mind she has accepted a very bad deal. The cottage is both isolated and dilapidated, the pipes are frozen, there are no comforts of any kind, and she has no money, and very little chance of earning any.
It is said that things look better in the morning – but they don’t. As Sara takes stock of their situation she realises that she has taken city kids and dumped them in a cold isolated place where the temperatures are minus forty degrees Celsius, they do not have the right clothes to combat the cold, and she cannot seem to get the cottage warm. With the battery gone in the jeep, and almost out of food, Sara treks to the nearest village and the one and only store. She sees a young girl smiling from a bulletin board, and from the store owner Iris Ramsey she learns of the disappearance of seven-year-old Oralee Pelletier some five months before.
With her husband now in a new relationship and threatening to obtain custody of the two children, Sara reaches desperation point and goes out to the frozen lake to try and break through the ice to get some water. She sees a young girl, who must be Oralee, trapped and frozen beneath the ice.
Desperate for money, Sara answers an advertisement for a cleaning job and discovers it is for a man in the cottage across from hers. She learns that he is the sole survivor of a tragic family accident. Through her trips to the village, where she meets Oralee’s mother, Sara hears much speculation about Oralee’s death, but nothing seems to hang together and slowly she is drawn into the mystery.
This book kept me enthralled. There is one part where I actually felt the rising panic that was gripping Sara as matters began to spiral out of her control. So clever was the writing that I put the book down for a moment and tried to think how I could have resolved the situation, and I could only feel panic. The sense of place, the cold, the fear, and the isolation seeps into your bones as you read. Highly recommended.
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Lizzie Hayes
Published by Bayeux, October 2008. ISBN: 978-1-897411-04-9
Following a painful divorce from her TV director husband, Sara Wolesley takes as her settlement a cottage on Hennessy Lake in West Quebec. It was previously the home of her late friend Lester, but it is not until she moves there in late December with her two children, Darcy and Brittany, that she realises that in her distraught and unhappy state of mind she has accepted a very bad deal. The cottage is both isolated and dilapidated, the pipes are frozen, there are no comforts of any kind, and she has no money, and very little chance of earning any.
It is said that things look better in the morning – but they don’t. As Sara takes stock of their situation she realises that she has taken city kids and dumped them in a cold isolated place where the temperatures are minus forty degrees Celsius, they do not have the right clothes to combat the cold, and she cannot seem to get the cottage warm. With the battery gone in the jeep, and almost out of food, Sara treks to the nearest village and the one and only store. She sees a young girl smiling from a bulletin board, and from the store owner Iris Ramsey she learns of the disappearance of seven-year-old Oralee Pelletier some five months before.
With her husband now in a new relationship and threatening to obtain custody of the two children, Sara reaches desperation point and goes out to the frozen lake to try and break through the ice to get some water. She sees a young girl, who must be Oralee, trapped and frozen beneath the ice.
Desperate for money, Sara answers an advertisement for a cleaning job and discovers it is for a man in the cottage across from hers. She learns that he is the sole survivor of a tragic family accident. Through her trips to the village, where she meets Oralee’s mother, Sara hears much speculation about Oralee’s death, but nothing seems to hang together and slowly she is drawn into the mystery.
This book kept me enthralled. There is one part where I actually felt the rising panic that was gripping Sara as matters began to spiral out of her control. So clever was the writing that I put the book down for a moment and tried to think how I could have resolved the situation, and I could only feel panic. The sense of place, the cold, the fear, and the isolation seeps into your bones as you read. Highly recommended.
-------
Lizzie Hayes
July 11, 2015
This was really good. At first, I didn't think I'd like it, but as I got reading, it became a don't put it down for me. a really bizarre story that just really dealt with a lot of issues that many folks face in our modern society. A woman who is struggling with divorce from a cheating spouse when she has no really marketable skills and is now living in a strange new community where English is not the first language so that adds to her frustrations. It also tells the story of how small towns can be very insular and everyone thinks they know all your business, but really only know the rumors that abound and have only a passing wave at reality. On top of this is the murder of a little girl whom the protagonist finds under the ice of the lake that is in her back yard. Kind of scary and yet frustrating when one of the main characters is a liar and user who belittles everyone around her to use them for her own benefit. It's a good read, and perhaps a bit deeper than most of what I read, but I am sure there are a few of my friends who will really get and like this one.
September 27, 2016
A fun sort of read. Canadian, and very local to me, taking place north of the Gatineau Hills in Quebec, but in-your-face-Canadian, not in a subtle, intelligent, or powerful way. I liked the protagonist at first, a woman with 2 daughters leaves her cheating husband and settles in an isolated cottage, scrapping together a new life. But she makes such poor choices, and as soon as she let a "friend" who she knew was having issues, take her daughters to her house where she lives with an abusive partner, I was done, I was no longer on board with the protagonist. I finished the story, largely but not entirely predictable, and still think that it is a fun read.
November 19, 2015
Not really your traditional mystery
I choose this book because I like mysteries and it is written by a Canadian author. It is not your traditional who dunit. Great characters, very believable. The interactions are well crafted and the language is beautiful. You can picture the settings and can imagine being in on the conversations. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who likes a fast paced mystery with a well defined hero. I would recommend it to those who like the more psychological, character driven mysteries, harder to solve, but ultimately more satisfying.
I choose this book because I like mysteries and it is written by a Canadian author. It is not your traditional who dunit. Great characters, very believable. The interactions are well crafted and the language is beautiful. You can picture the settings and can imagine being in on the conversations. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who likes a fast paced mystery with a well defined hero. I would recommend it to those who like the more psychological, character driven mysteries, harder to solve, but ultimately more satisfying.
August 6, 2009
Sometimes a murder is just a pretext to develop the cahracters in a book. this book is about three womwen and their difficulties with men. that a child is murdered makes an interesting background but the story is more about love and hate and trying to survive whenyou are a woman alone with children. well written.
October 14, 2010
I won this book here on Goodreads. The author mailed it to me herself. She signed it and included a bookmark, such a thoughtful touch. I really loved the book, it was dark and gothic. You could really identify with the main characters. Feel the desperation of the poverty and the disillusionment when the home was not what she imagined.
November 10, 2010
Even though about halfway through the book, I foresaw the outcome, I loved it! Very entertaining read, and that is what a book of fiction is supposed to accomplish, no? I was a bit surprised at the bad proofreading that went into it. Many many mistakes, especially towards the end of the book. Made me feel as if the person doing the work was getting sloppy and tired.
July 23, 2009
I had trouble putting it down. Great plot, very interesting characters!
Want to read
October 13, 2010I won Iced Under from First Reads. I'm looking forward to reading it now that it's arrived. It's in my queue.
January 7, 2011
I'm a bit of a slow reader but I am loving how this book is developing, I'll keep you informed!
April 9, 2012
Almost gave it a four for the excellent writing style and story line but held back because the main character, Sara, needed to open her eyes a page or two sooner.
July 14, 2014
Good
this story is all about how things happen in Canada and how people handle live changes and the way psychotic people are involved.
this story is all about how things happen in Canada and how people handle live changes and the way psychotic people are involved.
Read
November 15, 2014Local setting... I know these places. A dark story , and a little bit easy to solve the mystery ..but still a good read.
Want to read
June 14, 2009Started it but had to put it down because several books came in from the library.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews