Cover image of "Girl in Ice," an Arctic novel of suspense

Greenland is the setting for one of the most original novels of suspense I’ve come across in many years. As you may be aware, it’s anything but green. And it’s the world’s largest island, more than one-fifth the size of the United States. But Greenland supports fewer than 60,000 people, nine out of 10 of whom are Greenlandic Inuit. And with the possible exception of an obscure Danish author, you’re unlikely to find a thriller set there. Leave it to American novelist Erica Ferencik to visit the place and do the research for Girl in Ice. It’s an extraordinary story that blurs the lines between genres about an eight-year-old girl who bounces back to life from within a block of ice. Yes, I know it sounds unlikely at best. But Ferencik imbues this gripping Arctic novel with plausibility. And Girl in Ice reeks of intrigue and suspense.

The puzzle of a scientist’s lifetime

The novel is rooted in the stories of a handful of scientists. Val Chesterfield is a young American linguist who specializes in “dead languages: Latin, Sanskrit, ancient Greek. But it’s the extinct tongues—Old Norse and Old Danish—that enrapture me.” So it’s no surprise that Wyatt Speeks would email her with news of his discovery. Dr. Speeks is a climate scientist on an extended mission in Greenland to drill out of the glacial ice the oldest ice cores ever recovered.

“We found a body in the ice out on Glacier 35A,” he writes. “A young girl. We were able to cut through the ice and bring her back to the compound. Val, she thawed out alive. Don’t ask me to explain it, I can’t. She’s eight, nine years old, I’m guessing.” And he attaches an audio file of the girl speaking a language Val can’t decipher.

The girl’s speech sounds a little like West Greenlandic, one of the three dialects widely spoken on the island, But Val detects no correlation. The puzzle is challenging enough to draw her out of her agoraphobic isolation at the university in Boston where she teaches. But there’s a big problem. Dr. Speeks is the former faculty advisor of Val’s twin brother, Andy. Andy, a climate scientist like their father, had died in Greenland under what seemed strange circumstances. And Val’s ninety-one-year-old dad is convinced that Speeks murdered him.

Girl in Ice by Erica Ferencik (2022) 300 pages ★★★★★

Photo of an island off the Greenland coast like the setting of this Arctic novel of suspense
An island off the coast of Greenland, like the site of the action in this novel. Image: Westend61 – CNBC

Suspicion and drama in the Enormity

Val wangles a flight to Thule from the US Air Force, along with a pair of polar marine scientists. They then depart on a smaller plane 300 miles north into the Arctic Circle to the island where Speeks and his partner had discovered the girl. “We were in it now,” Val muses, “what I privately referred to as the Enormity, an emotional or physical place so overwhelming I couldn’t face it without drugs or alcohol.” The primitive setting of the base Speeks had built for his research is truly daunting for her. Then the girl proves to be uncooperative, unwilling for days on end even to speak to Val. Only very gradually over the weeks does she manage to grasp a little of the girl’s language. An isolated word or two at first, then a picture of the unfamiliar syntax.

Meanwhile, however, quizzing Dr. Speeks and his companion about the circumstances of Andy’s death, Val encounters what she believes is stonewalling. She is gradually beginning to share her father’s suspicion that Speeks had played a role in the event. And tension rises steadily between her and the older man. It’s clear after a time that the situation is explosive. And it will all come together in spectacular fashion as the novel rushes toward a close.

About the author

Erica Ferencik,, author of this Arctic novel of suspense
Erica Ferencik. Image: Kate Hannon – author’s website

Wikipedia characterizes Erica Ferencik as “a Massachusetts-based novelist, screenwriter and stand-up comic.” She is the author of five novels spanning the years 2008 to 2022. Ferencik was born in Illinois in 1958 and educated at the University of Massachusetts and Boston University, from which she received an MA in creative writing.

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