AustLit

'"A clever and complex cross-genre novel that doesn't quite fit your typical time-travel or dual era genre."  -- Money in the Mattress

'Loretta Groombridge thinks she's made a friend when Tikki Foy arrives in Venice as her employer's house guest. Professor Bryn Awbrey is renowned for his brilliance in solving literary puzzles ... and for his cluttered home, which Loretta is paid to organize. 

'But the newly-arrived guest distracts the professor and pulls him away. Something she's found hints of lost papers by Franz Kafka, famous Czech short-story writer of the 1920s. The possibility is tantalizing, but Loretta suspects a more sinister side to Tikki's story. Her weird behaviour and the danger and complication she attracts seem exaggerated and unwarranted. Who is pushing her to this; her library colleague, or a weird character who doggedly follows them? A chase takes place, tugging the women to Perth on a dizzy pursuit.

'Loneliness, suspicion, and fear of losing her place in Bryn Awbrey's life whirl Loretta into a spiral of distrust and disappointment. Tikki pitches against her. Venice becomes a haunting, suspicious place.

'What is found in the end confounds even the professor's logic.
 

'The Frozen Sea is a literary adventure, a chase for treasure and truth, and an exploration of what it means to be lonely. Historical vignettes bring Kafka and his 1920s contemporaries to life, and weave together history and present-day dilemmas.

'You'll think of it as one of those novels you couldn't put down.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)