Frozen Fire

Title: Frozen Fire
Author: Tim Bowler
Location: YA Bowler
Reading Level: Young Adult

Late on New Year’s Eve 15-year old, Dusty receives a call from a strange boy. He claims he is dying, but he seems to know things about her brother, who disappeared two years ago. Desperate to hear news of her brother and his fate, Dusty goes out to look for the mysterious boy. However, other people are searching for the boy as well and their motives have more to do with revenge than intrigue.
Frozen Fire is a powerful psychological thriller. Just as Dusty feels cold and isolated from her life since the disappearance of her brother, so too does the reader when immersed in this wintery English landscape with possible enemies around every snow covered bend. Considering Bowler dumps the reader in Dusty’s life in the middle of a crisis, instead of at the beginning, he is very effective at immediately convincing the reader to care about this girl. The mystery surrounding the boy that eventually envelopes Dusty’s small town drives the plot forward. Dusty is unsure of whether to treat him as dangerous, like the rest of her town, or trust him as the only one who might be able to lead her to her brother.

The Bottom Line: I enjoyed this book but I would not recommend it to everyone. One major plot line in the book is tied up neatly, but the other is left open which may frustrate many readers. Teens who love a good supernatural mystery, should like this book but, due to the ending, it lacks broad teen appeal.