Dear Doctor Woodruff, I hope you don't mind me writing to you. I think I'm your daughter.... This international bestseller is a startlingly assured first novel of deception, ambiguity, and shattering revelations. At the height of his career, a British surgeon has found success in both the hospital and at home. He and his wife have everything they want out of life, except the child she longs for, the child Dr. Woodruff secretly believes he may never be ready to parent. Suddenly, the delicate equilibrium of their relationship is blown apart by the arrival of shocking news. Deep in the desolate sub-Arctic wilderness of Canada where Woodruff lived and worked years before, a woman claims he is the father of her thirteen-year-old twins. Woodruff knows it cannot be true -- but DNA tests don't lie. To make sense of the impossible, he must return to that frozen wilderness, where no rules and few laws apply. Leaving his shattered relationship behind, he finds that his well-guarded secrets have even deeper and more sinister layers. But the people he once knew in that godforsaken place guard secrets of their own, and no one -- least of all the ruthless woman at the dark core of this maelstrom -- will help him uncover the truth. The past quickly gains a stranglehold, threatening to unravel everything Woodruff has built -- his marriage, his career. And a man who has made one mistake may pay dearly for another -- and risk destroying his entire future.... A Bertelsmann Book Club International Book of the Month A Literary Guild Main Selection Shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger Award Shortlisted for the Hay Festival Welsh Book of the Year "Compelling fiction from a newcomer...laced with erotic scenes...dark and intriguing..." -- Kirkus "Intriguing...compulsively readable." -- Publishers Weekly "Every page quivers with exquisite tension. Erotic and deeply haunting, Ice Trap is a stunningly beautiful debut that you will not soon forget." -- Tess Gerritsen, author of The Bone Garden "Chilling and compelling." -- J.A. Jance, New York Times bestselling author of Hand of Evil and Justice Denied " Ice Trap is a gripping thriller set in a fascinating and exotic locale. You won't want to put this one down as you follow the compelling characters across an icy Arctic landscape toward a powerful and extraordinarily moving conclusion." -- Peter Robinson, author of Friend of the Devil "Dark and erotic." -- Mail on Sunday "An involving narrative, a sharply observed cast and an atmospherically evoked and unusual setting." -- The Guardian "Highly intriguing, evocative and atmospheric. Deception, manipulation and painful pasts are slowly unveiled. I loved it." -- Bookseller "Brilliant debut...a fine novel of psychological suspense that takes hold and doesn't let go." -- The Globe and Mail (Canada) Kitty Sewell , a psychotherapist and a sculptor, was born in Sweden but met her husband, a young English doctor, while living in Northern Canada. Sewell and her family now divide their time between Wales and Spain, where they own and operate a fruit plantation. Translated into more than ten languages, Ice Trap is Sewell's first novel. Ice Trap PROLOGUE Shores of Coronation Gulf, Arctic Ocean, March 2006 He didn’t take the snowmobile as the elders advised. Like most boys, he enjoyed the roar of a noisy engine, but lately he had started to appreciate the sound of his own thoughts. He liked the rumbling and cracking of the sea ice, the rare gust of wind, the crunch that his mukluks made in the snow as he walked—and making progress by his own exertion made him feel more able, more in control. He packed a knapsack with a few supplies, just enough for the day, and clipped a rope to the collar of his dog. The husky had belonged to an elderly neighbor, but over time, and with some stealth, the boy had made her his own. She was a large furry devil, fierce when provoked, loyal but unaffectionate. He hung his rifle over his shoulder and slipped a flare gun into his outside pocket. He would be unlikely to need them for self-defense; the dog would see off any unwanted company. He double-checked his gear as he’d been told so many times to do, and then they set off from the village toward the sea. First he had to cross the shoreline. He stopped there for a moment to consider the way forward. Massive ice sheets were crushed against the coast by the sea. Giant slabs had slid on top of one another or been pleated like paper, incandescent peaks reaching toward the sky, pinnacles, some felled and shattered, as he imagined a forest of ancient trees would look. He was a strong boy, tall and broad for his age, but when clambering across the jagged ice and shouting words of encouragement to the dog—sometimes muttering impatiently in the language of his people—his voice betrayed his youth. He was anxious to be out there, wanting to be a man. Panting from the exertio