Fierce snowstorms have battered Upper Austria, paralysing the region in the grip of an early and unforgiving winter.

Nine-year-old Traudi wakes up to find she's alone in the house. Cut off from the nearby hamlet of Hallstatt, she senses something is wrong. Then, when daylight fades and she catches sight of blood stains on the snow, she realises she may not be as alone as she had previously thought.

As Traudi prays for her family's return, the local mountain rescue team receive an emergency call. Leo Hirsch, the group's leader, is battling a loss of his own and finds the mission a welcome distraction, little knowing that this rescue will turn out to be like nothing he has encountered before.



From the critically acclaimed author of Born Under a Million Shadows and Aphrodite's War, this haunting thriller charts the frozen rivers of the mountains as they deliver up the mysteries of the past.


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Andrea Busfield was born in Warrington, England, and worked for UK national newspapers for 15 years before leaving for Afghanistan where she worked as a civilian editor for a NATO hearts-and-minds publication. Whilst in Kabul, she wrote her first novel, Born Under a Million Shadows, which was published in 2009 by Transworld and sold to 18 territories. Her second novel, Aphrodite's War, was published a year later, also by Transworld, and sold to five territories. She currently lives in Cyprus with five rescue dogs and a horse.