The Ice Retreat cover art

The Ice Retreat

A Spine-Tingling Winter Thriller From The Bestselling, Richard & Judy Book Club Pick Author

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The Ice Retreat

By: Ruth Kelly
Narrated by: Polly Edsell, Daphne Kouma, Alex Wingfield
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About this listen

'Queen of the chilling thriller' - Veronica Henry, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Impulse Purchase

'A breathtaking thriller with an evocative setting and some excellent twists - Ruth Kelly at her best' – Catherine Cooper, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Chalet

From bestselling author Ruth Kelly, The Ice Retreat is a spine-tingling thriller set in the world of controversial wellness treatments. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell and Sarah Pearse.

HEALER?

Meet Hollie Jenson, presenter of the smash-hit docu-series Bad Medicine, which exposes the perils of extreme therapies. Her next target: a new retreat run by wellness guru Ariel Rose, who claims to have discovered the secret to healing pain through her three-day ice rebirth treatment.

LIAR?

Acting on a mother's plea to find her son, who vanished soon after his stay, Hollie ventures into the Swiss mountains where the retreat occupies a former observatory. There she will search for the boy, and hopes to expose Ariel as the charlatan she believes her to be.

KILLER?

As the isolation of the valley sets in, Hollie finds herself in an increasingly dangerous situation. There is much more to the retreat than meets the eye, and she must confront explosive secrets from her own past if she is to ever make it out alive . . .

Praise for Ruth Kelly:

'Sinister, atmospheric and deliciously chilling - with a twist that made me gasp' – Mark Edwards, bestselling author of The Darkest Water

'Deliciously addictive' - TM Logan, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Daughter

'A great thriller writer' - John Marrs, Sunday Times bestselling author of What Lies Between Us

'Beautifully paced and darkly twisted' - Katy Brent, bestselling author of How To Kill Men and Get Away With It

'THE thriller you need to read this winter!' - Sara Ochs, author of The Resort

'Addictive' - Woman's Weekly

'Original and well-told' - Daily Mail

'Tantalizing twists' - Heat

Genre Fiction Holidays Mystery Psychological Suspense Thriller & Suspense Women Sleuths Exciting

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Critic reviews

Sinister, atmospheric and deliciously chilling - with a twist that made me gasp (Mark Edwards, author of The Darkest Water)
Prepare for a heart-racing read with this brilliant thriller!
Queen of the chiller thriller (Veronica Henry, author of The Secret Beach)
One of the most successful parts of the story is the illustration of how vulnerable people suffer chronic pain. An original and well-told tale
A breathtaking thriller with an evocative setting and some excellent twists - Ruth Kelly at her best. (Catherine Cooper, author of The Chateau)
A haunting, hugely suspenseful and compulsive read, packed with action and intrigue, I raced through the pages, while the ending left me reeling! (A. A. Chaudhuri, author of Under Her Roof)
Taking the oft-used 'danger in a remote and isolated destination' trope and then sending it nuclear, you won't see the end of this one coming
Ends with a fun helter-skelter race to the finish line and a great twist
A heart pounding, chilling thriller with spine tingling twists. Hits the ground running and doesn't stop until the final chapter (John Marrs, author of The Family Experiment)
Ruth Kelly is my go-to for destination thrillers (Andrea Mara, author of No One Saw a Thing)
A breathtaking thriller in an unusual setting with some incredible and unexpected events to shock the reader. This is an exhilarating read
Kelly keeps us guessing, masterfully building suspense which culminates in a shocking revelation and concludes with some thrilling action sequences . . . The Ice Retreat is a perfect escapist read for the holiday season
With a remote location inspired by the famed Piz Gloria in the Swiss Alps, The Ice Retreat is a sinister and suspenseful page-turner
All stars
Most relevant
Well, the build up and character development was excellent and I was heavily invested in the story. Though the last 3-4 hours was like a car crash of trying to be too clever and too far fetched. Sometimes the simplest story is most scary but by over complicating and going into realms of fantasy I was lost. I did preserver to the end and it was just meh.

A usually fantastic author going through the motions in this one and I don’t recommend

60% excellent and then….

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Started out quite interestingly but got more and more unbelievable as each so called twist was revealed. Far too long as well.

Ludicrous twist after ludicrous twist

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I liked the pacey, page turning style of the story. However, the later chapters of the book were so fast moving that the storyline started to became a fantasy rather than something you could believe would actually happen! That said it was an enjoyable read.

Tense thriller

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This book is chock full of very upsetting abelism. Implications that disabled people are better off dead that go completely unrebuked by the text. as a disabled person myself I found it hard to sit through and the book really isn't great anyway. Definitely a bad time.

Questionable ideological subtext

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