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  1 The Ice Twins: A Novel
Author: Tremayne, S. K.
 
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Class: Fiction
Age: Adult
Language: English
LC: PR6120.R
Print Run: 100000
ISBN-13: 9781455586059
LCCN: BD15043155
Imprint: Grand Central Publishing
Pub Date: 05/19/2015
Availability: Out of Stock Indefinitely
List: $26.00
  Hardcover
Physical Description: 306 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm H 9.25", W 6.25", D 1.125", 1.17 lbs.
LC Series:
Brodart Sources: Brodart's Insight Catalog: Adult
Brodart's TOP Adult Titles
Bibliographies:
Awards: Publishers Weekly Starred Reviews
Starred Reviews: Publishers Weekly
TIPS Subjects: Suspense/Thriller
BISAC Subjects: FICTION / Ghost
FICTION / Family Life / General
FICTION / Psychological
LC Subjects: Mistaken identity, Fiction
Psychological fiction
SEARS Subjects: Identity (Psychology), Fiction
Psychological fiction
Reading Programs:
 
Annotations
Brodart's TOP Adult Titles | 02/01/2015
Angus and Sarah move to a Scottish island to try to regain a normal life after losing their daughter, Lydia, in a tragic accident. But their world is rocked again when Lydia’s identical twin, Kirstie, claims they’re mourning the wrong sister. 320pp., 100K, Auth res: London, UK
Starred Reviews:
Publishers Weekly | 03/23/2015
The death of one of the twin daughters of Sarah and Angus Moorcroft jump-starts this superb tale from the pseudonymous Tremayne. A year after the tragedy, the once well-to-do Moorcroft family leaves London to live in a lighthouse on Eilean Torran, a remote Scottish island that Angus inherited from his grandmother. Angus's fond memories of the island give way to harsh reality: the place, accessible only by boat, is nearly uninhabitable with rats, leaks, and mold. But the dilapidated building and the island's eeriness pale next to the family's deterioration. The surviving twin, seven-year-old Kirstie, insists she is Lydia, the child who fell to her death. The girls were monozygotic, or perfectly identical twins, but Sarah could tell them apart. Did the parents, whose fragile marriage continues to corrode, misidentify the deceased child? Tremayne effectively delivers a psychological gothic thriller with supernatural overtones while avoiding cliches. Grief's debilitating effects on children and adults further elevate this gripping story. Agent: Jay Mandel, WME Entertainment. (May). 320p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2015.
Journal Reviews
BookPage | 06/01/2015
It’s difficult to imagine anything more traumatic than a child’s death. But when the deceased child is a twin, the living sibling can be a constant reminder of what’s lost. That’s the case for Sarah Moorcroft, whose twin daughters were so perfectly identical that Sarah and her husband Angus relied on the girls’ word and personalities to determine who was who. Lydia and Kirstie were born on the coldest day of the year, earning them the nickname “the ice twins,” which was borne out by their blonde hair, blue eyes and pale skin. After Lydia dies in a fall, each family member’s sorrow reveals itself in different ways. Angus gets into a work argument that leaves him unemployed with a London-sized mortgage. Sarah struggles to get along with her husband and find work of her own. Most disturbingly, Kirstie begins claiming that she’s actually Lydia, and that Kirstie is the twin who died. The family seeks a new start—and a less expensive lifestyle—on a Scottish island Angus inherited. Sarah is determined to put their lives back together as they live in and restore a squalid, barely inhabitable lighthouse, the island’s only structure. And if that means learning that the couple buried the wrong twin, well, Sarah is convinced they can move forward. In The Ice Twins, S.K. Tremayne depicts a family as isolated as the tiny isle they call home. Sarah, Angus and Kirstie (or is it Lydia?) have separated themselves from one another and their normal lives. They’re left metaphorically circling one another warily, trying to deduce what’s going on inside. As the Moorcrofts aim to unravel what, exactly, happened when one twin died, readers are given glimpses into each character’s thoughts. The resulting tale, written by a best-selling author under a pseudonym, peels back one layer at a time in a fast-paced, thrilling race to understanding. Carla Jean Whitley. 320. BOOKPAGE, c2015.
Booklist | 03/01/2015
Devastated by the accidental death of Lydia, one of their identical twin daughters, Sarah and Angus Moorcock decide to leave London and move to remote Eilean Torran (Thunder Island) in the Hebrides. They hope that getting away and restoring the old lightkeeper's cottage that Angus inherited from his grandmother will help them and seven-year-old Kyrstie, the surviving twin, put the past behind them. But things don't go exactly as planned. The island is beautiful but isolated, the cottage is primitive, and the Moorcocks are short of funds. Fissures in the marriage deepen. Most disturbing of all, Kyrstie has been acting strangely, insisting that she is Lydia and it was Kyrstie who died. The fact that Sarah and Angus may have made a terrible mistake causes their mutual distrust, which started with the keeping of secrets before the accident occurred, to grow; and as the book progresses, the reader is not sure whom to trust, either. Tremayne (a pseudonym) does a terrific job of building suspense until events reach their climax in the midst of a violent storm. Quinn, Mary Ellen. 320. Booklist Online. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2015.
Kirkus Reviews | 03/15/2015
Still reeling from tragedy, the Moorcroft family leaves London for a remote Scottish island only to find their problems increase tenfold. Thirteen months earlier, one of Sarah and Angus' identical twin daughters, 6-year-old Lydia, died following a freak accident. Tremayne explores the circumstances of Lydia's death in retrospect as the novel alternates between Sarah's first-person perspective and less-effective third-person chapters focused on Angus. No longer the picture-perfect family, all of the Moorcrofts buckle under the strain of grief: Angus' increased drinking leads to a blowup at work and the subsequent loss of his job; Kirstie, Lydia's twin, is withdrawn and friendless; and Sarah is barely hanging on to her sanity. Then Kirstie tells Sarah something shocking and, for readers, requiring a healthy suspension of disbelief: "It was Kirstie that died. I'm Lydia." The revelation causes Sarah--she doesn't share Kirstie's secret with Angus--to re-evaluate everything she thought she knew about the accident and its aftermath. Looking for a fresh start, Angus and Sarah decide to leave London and start anew in a dilapidated lighthouse cottage on Eilean Torrran, a tiny Scottish island accessible only by boat. This is wise only in that it furthers the increasingly audacious plot--for the characters' mental health, it's a terrible idea. Tremayne ably spins numerous variations of the which-twin-is-really-dead idea, playing into the inherent creepiness of wholly identical twins like Kirstie and Lydia, indistinguishable even on a DNA level. 320pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2015.
Library Journal | 03/15/2015
British author Tremayne's first novel is the chilling story of the death of one identical twin sister and the effect that it has on her family. Angus and Sara Moorcroft and their surviving daughter, Kirstie, leave London for a cottage on a Scottish island that has been in Angus's family for centuries and that he hopes to eventually sell, having lost his job after the family's tragedy. Torran Island's isolation promises to give the Moorcrofts a chance to heal, and a new school for Kirstie is expected to help her adjust to the terrible loss of her sibling. However, things don't go as planned, and Sara is deeply disturbed by Kirstie's claims that she is actually her dead twin, Lydia, and the thought that perhaps she has misidentified her surviving daughter. Struggling with her concern for her daughter, her isolation and increasing doubts about her husband, Sara is tortured by the past and about what actually happened that fateful day when one of her children died. VERDICT Filled with secrets and lies, this gripping psychological thriller will keep readers absorbed until the final page. [See Prepub Alert, 11/24/14.]. Lisa O'Hara, Univ. of Manitoba Libs., Winnipeg. 306p. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2015.
Library Journal Prepub Alert | 11/24/2014
After the death of one of their identical twin daughters, Lydia, Angus and Sarah Moorcroft move to the tiny Scottish island Angus inherited from his grandmother with surviving daughter Kirstie. Then Kirstie claims that she's actually Lydia, and she's growing weirder by the day. Huge rights sales for this pseudonymous author; with a 100,000-copy first printing. Barbara Hoffert. 320p. LJ Prepub Alert Online Review. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2014.
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