'Sinister, atmospheric and deliciously chilling - with a twist that made me gasp' – Mark Edwards, author of The Darkest Water
From bestselling author Ruth Kelly, The Ice Retreat is a spine-tingling thriller set in the world of controversial wellness treatments. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell and Sarah Pearse.
HEALER?
Meet Hollie Jenson, presenter of the smash-hit docu-series Bad Medicine, which exposes the perils of extreme therapies. Her next target: a new retreat run by wellness guru Ariel Rose, who claims to have discovered the secret to healing pain through her three-day ice rebirth treatment.
LIAR?
Acting on a mother's plea to find her son, who vanished soon after his stay, Hollie ventures into the Swiss mountains where the retreat occupies a former observatory. There she will search for the boy, and hopes to expose Ariel as the charlatan she believes her to be.
KILLER?
As the isolation of the valley sets in, Hollie finds herself in an increasingly dangerous situation. There is much more to the retreat than meets the eye, and she must confront explosive secrets from her own past if she is to ever make it out alive . . .
'Queen of the chiller thriller' – Veronica Henry, author of The Secret Beach
'A breathtaking thriller with an evocative setting and some excellent twists - Ruth Kelly at her best.' – Catherine Cooper, author of The Chalet
Ruth Kelly is a journalist who has ghosted a string of Sunday Times top ten bestsellers – with The Prison Doctor having sold over 250,000 copies, and The Governor, going straight in at number one on the Amazon charts. Her thriller The Escape was a Richard and Judy Book Club selection.
She was inspired to write The Ice Retreat after visiting the famous Piz Gloria – a revolving restaurant high in the Swiss Alps – where they filmed James Bond’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Holiday destinations feature heavily in Ruth’s thriller writing having spent most of her life traveling and exploring the world. Her family relocated to Papua New Guinea when she was seven years old and the travel bug hasn’t let up since. The threat of what lies beneath the surface and the dichotomy of how paradise can also be hell fascinates Ruth. Making a destination a character in its own right – both a friend and an enemy, not someone to be trusted – is a thread explored throughout her writing.