Silences, freezing cold and etherial light set alongside the maths of Euclid all seen through the world of Smilla. She follows Isaiah's final steps in the snow into a dark and harsh world of greed, lies and, this is why I didn't give the five stars, a somewhat unsatisfying tangle of battles and almost, explanations.

Smilla is an interesting character with depth and insight and many of the other characters are really well drawn and engaging but sadly the possibilities of these characters is held at bay and as the story development shifted in the latter part of the story into a grand but confusing battle of good v bad and it seemed it could have offered so much more.