Ice Trap

Written by Kitty Sewell

Narrated by Pete Bradbury

Dear Doctor Woodruff, I hope you don't mind me writing to you. I think I'm your daughter.... 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...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 3, 2008
• ISBN: 9781436116923

Kitty Sewell

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.

Reviews for Ice Trap

[judithrs · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ice Trap, Kitty Sewell. 2005. I downloaded this on my kindle to take to the beach, and it was a good book to read at the beach. Dafydd Woodruff is a successful surgeon in Cardiff, Wales. He has a wife he adores and they are trying to conceive a child. Their life is turned inside out and upside down when David receives a letter from the Northwest Territory from a girl claiming to be his daughter. He knows this is impossible especially considering that she says that her mother is a nurse David found despicable. The story is told in flashbacks from David’s first stay in Canada and the present when he returns to straighten out the mess. This is a readable suspenseful novel, but not a great one.

[stang50logan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book while some of the other reviews were pretty hard on Kitty Sewell. I believe that the book had a very intriguing plot that was not slow at all. Pretty shocked Dafydd's wife gave up on him so quickly but I guess it worked out better for him in the end. Full of twists and turns.

[sjmccreary · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After making a mistake in surgery on a young boy, Dr Dafydd Woodruff flees to the Northwest Territory of Canada for a year. Several years after returning home to Wales and resuming his life, Dafydd receives letter from a girl in Canada claiming to be his daughter, wreaking havoc on his marriage in the process. Having no memory of a relationship with the girl's mother, he demands and is provided with DNA evidence supporting the claim. He returns to Canada to meet the girl and her twin brother and sort out the situation. He finds himself enmeshed in the lives of his old friends and acquaintances and searching for answers when questions begin arising in his mind.Well-written and enjoyable. Sewell keeps us guessing about each character's intentions and motivations, but despite being subtitled as a novel of suspense, there are no real surprises in the end. Still, a fine first book by a new author. I will be watching for more.

[miyurose_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This wasn’t too bad. It had its good and bad points. I didn’t really buy that Dafydd’s marriage was ever happy, but his actions in Canada were believable. It was an interesting conspiracy that I didn’t really figure out any sooner than he did. Some weak parts, but a worthwhile read overall!

[bobbieharv · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Don't read this book! It's a waste of time. Don't ask me why I finished it - though I really just turned the pages fast after I figured out the denouement halfway through. The plot and characters, especially the main villain, are implausible; the writing pedestrian.

[bigorangemichael_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Kitty Sewell's debut novel is one that's stuck with me in the time since I turned the last page but it's not for all the right reasons. A middle-aged doctor receives a letter saying he's the father of twins from an alleged one-night stand 13 years before. Only problem is the doctor doesn't recall said one-nighter. After the allegations get worse and a DNA test shows him to be the father, shattering his marriage, Dayffd head to Canada to solve the mystery.Until that point, Ice Trap is a well-done, page-turning suspense thriller. But into the second half of the novel, the story loses steam and the twist will have you rolling your eyes. And it's that that has kept me pondering this book, wondering how a book that started so well could end with such a whimper.

[omphalos02 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Tepid "novel of suspense" in which Dr. Daffyd Woodruff is told by a former co-worker that he fathered her twins 14 years earlier while living in sub-arctic Canada. Sewell has difficulty getting this tale off the ground - it takes about two-thirds of the book for it to happen. In the meantime, she employs stale and lackluster devices to (I'm guessing here) prolong the suspense. At one point you read that "he wanted to ask, but he was too tired." (not a direct quote, but you get the idea). The Daffyd character is a bit of a twit, too, and I had difficulty liking him. But, hey, the cover is nice.