LOOKING FORWARD TO 2025: DEATH IN THE ARCTIC by TOM HINDLE

Still two months to go in 2024, but already the books are piling up for 2025. One New Year release that I have already read is the latest revamping of the classic murder mystery by Tom Hindle, Death In The Arctic (Century, 16 January 2025).

Hindle has been described as the “new heir to Agatha Christie” and his forthcoming book certainly contains most of the elements of the traditional mystery: a locked room murder, a group of suspects isolated from the rest of the world, a slew of motives and guilty secrets, and an engaging amateur sleuth. All of which has been updated for the 21st century and placed onboard a modern airship flying towards the North Pole.

When aspiring travel writer Chloé Campbell is invited at the last moment to join the select group of passengers on a luxury airship flying on its maiden voyage to the North Pole, she thinks she’s bagged the opportunity of a lifetime. The airship is the brainchild of Ezra Day, who has been working towards this trip all of his adult life, and sees it as the perfect homage to his father who died in the Arctic when he was a child. Also onboard the airship are a small group of passengers and crew, all of whom have issues with each other, and with Ezra and his business partner, Howard Barnes. For Chloé it is a chance to break into the big time, but when things start to go wrong and the first death occurs, she realises that those dreams are about to be dashed, and that she is trapped at the top of the world with a killer.

This is a stylish and very enjoyable ‘whodunit’. Hindle wastes little time in establishing the various backstories of the passengers, and the key members of the crew, and setting the groundwork for possible motives when the first murder occurs at the 150 page mark. The tensions between the collection of old school friends, conniving crew members, and opportunistic social media influencers certainly create a good array of suspects, and Hindle skilfully misleads and deceives all the way to the end.

The carefully concocted plot is nicely supported by a good sense of place, and the central conceit of a luxury airship is vividly described and quite believable. A constantly shifting point of view is well used, and the cast of characters are adequate for the job. Chloé is no Miss Marple, but she is credible, pleasant and a lot more astute than she first appears. It is a little tricky at the beginning keeping all the suspects and their motives in mind, but a Passenger and Crew Manifest at the start of the book is certainly a big help.

Most importantly, Hindle is very good at spreading red herrings, unexpected developments and twists throughout, and the identity of the killer came as a surprise to me. There are well planted clues for those cleverer than me, and Hindle’s engaging style easily compensates for the slowish start.

A must for fans of classic mysteries.

Death In The Arctic is released in Australia on 18 January 2025 and the United Kingdom and the United States on 16 January 2025.