by Riley James
Publisher: Allen & Unwin, 2024
Publisher’s blurb
An unputdownable thriller set in the pressure-cooker environment of an Antarctic winter.
An isolated research station. A storm approaching.
There’s nowhere to run. But so much to hide.
Keen to flee the wreckage of her marriage, Australian scientist Kit Bitterfeld accepts a coveted winter research position at Macpherson Station in Antarctica. On the way there, Kit and her fellow researchers field a distress call from a nearby ship.
By the time they reach the vessel it is on fire and the crew has vanished. A lone survivor is found, but he can’t remember who he is or what has happened.
They bring the survivor, identified as geophysicist Nick Coltheart, to Macpherson but it’s clear that something is wrong. More and more of Kit’s colleagues are acting strangely. And she can’t shake the suspicion that Nick knows more than he’s letting on. With the winter darkness setting in, Kit must figure out the truth before they are completely cut off from the outside world. But is the danger lurking out on the ice, or is it closer than she thinks?
The Chilling offers a compellingly icy twist on the winter thriller setting, transplanting the most haunting elements of Scandi noir to the southern hemisphere, and announces Riley James as a brilliant new talent writing in a fresh corner of Australian crime fiction.
Review
by Lidia Kathrine
Set against the backdrop of Antarctica, Riley James takes the reader on an unrelenting and spine-chilling journey to not only unmask what happened to the crew of the iced-in Snow Petrel, but to discover the mystery of why Nick Coltheart was the only person left on the ship. He said he’d lost his memory and had no answers and no idea of the whereabouts of his fellow crew members.
The Chilling is primarily told through the perspective of main protagonist, Kit Bitterfield. Her story is interspersed with narrative perspectives from other characters she meets while on board the Southern Star, then once she arrives at Macpherson Station. What a terrific setting for a story; one of the world’s most isolated and confined spaces. This heightened the suspense and added to the tension that was like an undertow throughout the story.
Riley James uses such vivid imagery and language to describe the desolation and isolation that people experience at Macpherson Station. The setting is harsh, unforgiving and utterly cut off from the rest of the world. The author highlights how existing in such cold and confined spaces creates challenges for people’s psychological states of mind, and the way it impacts their interaction with others – and how quickly and easily people can turn on each another. As medical practitioner Duston Witherall explained to Kit, “…the chilling … is the stage of winter when the smallest tic starts to get on everyone’s nerves, and people lose their sense of fellowship”.
The Chilling opens with Kit agreeing to accompany her friend, Sally, on an expedition to Antarctica as her assistant. Sally is researching Weddel Seals and the impact of climate change on their diets. Kit’s experience as a forensic dentist will be invaluable for examining the seals’ teeth. The main reason Kit agreed to go was personal: to escape the trauma she had been experiencing at home due to her mother’s dementia diagnosis, and to run away from her failed marriage. Kit’s husband left her for another woman, who is now pregnant.
This idea of trusting men and betrayal is explored by Riley James throughout the novel, as Kit is forced to question this, and the role her own trauma has played in her distrust of Nick Coltheart. She has seen some major red flags about his past, and about his role in events on the Snow Petrel. Is it Nick she can’t trust? Or herself?
Coupled with this narrative arc, Riley James examines how people aim to manipulate those around them, and to exert their power and control. The doctor, Dustin Witherall, seems to be using this isolated community for his own scientific curiosity. Yet nobody suspects a thing.
Marion and Curly are part of the missing crew who were able to escape the Snow Petrel, and it’s Marion’s narrative that finally allows the reader to understand the mystery of the near-abandoned ship. How did the fire break out on the Snow Petrel? How did everyone, apart from Nick, manage to escape. Through the character of Marion, the author explores the lengths that people will go to survive, and the actions they are capable of when pushed to their psychological limit.
There are many other themes that Riley James explores, such as greed, corruption, redemption, and trust. However, a surprising theme, but which gave the reader some lighthearted moments, was the budding romance between Kit and Nick.
A thoroughly enjoyable, captivating, and riveting read!!