Beneath the Ice

刀客Sep 2026

Rating 2.8
Word count
166K words
Chapters
41

Tags

Mystery and Suspense Police CollaborationUnderclass LifeCivilian InvestigationFrozen Lake BodyRevengeCase TrackingAccidental DrowningPrivate ManhuntSnowfield MysteryNorthern Town

Summary

In Shigang, a small town in the north, after a heavy snowfall, a sunken car and a woman's corpse are found beneath the ice of the fishing pond owned by Gao Weiping. The dead woman is Chen Xue, wife of Zhao Jincheng, a local transport company boss. Police initially rule it an accidental drowning, but Gao Weiping discovers that on the day Chen Xue went missing, she had been in a car with Hu Haoming, the ex-boyfriend of Gao's own wife. Suspecting Hu of murdering her in revenge and dumping the body, Gao Weiping joins forces with his brother-in-law Meng Xiaoliang, an auxiliary police officer, to investigate privately. As the investigation deepens, a carefully orchestrated plot to kill a wife and claim insurance money gradually surfaces: Zhao Jincheng, seemingly prosperous, is in fact a compulsive gambler drowning in debt. Exploiting the blind loyalty of his childhood friend Hu Haoming and Hu's hatred of unfaithful women, he lures Chen Xue into buying a huge insurance policy, then instructs Hu to stage a car accident. Even more chilling: Zhao's ex-wife Yao Yanli nearly died in an "accident" years earlier—the same method and the same accomplice!

Thus a hidden dashcam becomes the key to cracking the case, recording the entire process of Zhao Jincheng and Hu Haoming plotting the murder. In the end, two long-premeditated crimes are fully exposed, and the lies woven from greed and betrayal crumble before irrefutable evidence.

Editor's review

Under the Ice is a solid social suspense novel that uses a sunken car beneath the ice in a small northern town as a hook to peel back layer by layer a meticulous plot to kill a wife for insurance money. The author, Daoke, does not stake the suspense on showy twists; instead, he lets ordinary people's meddling and stubbornness drive the truth into the open: Gao Weiping, the fishing pond owner, is drawn into a murder case by an ambiguous clue and investigates privately with his brother-in-law, an auxiliary police officer. This "amateur detective" setup gives the investigation a palpable sense of real-world friction. The novel's greatest strength lies in its patient unfolding of criminal motives—how gambling debts, blind loyalty, and resentment toward marriage are exploited one by one by the mastermind, with the ex-wife's old case mirroring the present one, making for chilling reading. The dashcam as key evidence also binds "technological crime-solving" to "the dark side of human nature." It is suited to being read in one sitting on a winter night, and to readers concerned with social issues such as insurance fraud and marital property crime. As genre fiction, the dialogue is somewhat functional, but the overall pacing is steady, and the snowy scenery and human relations of the small town are rendered with texture.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. In the first half, pay attention to the details of Gao Weiping's interactions with Hu Haoming; when the truth is revealed later, you can look back to verify them.
  2. When you reach the old case of the ex-wife Yao Yanli, compare it with Chen Xue's case to appreciate the author's mirror-like structure.
  3. Watch for shifts in narrative pacing around the appearance of the dashcam to understand the function of physical evidence in genre fiction.
  4. After finishing, you might compare it with real insurance fraud cases and consider how faithfully the novel reconstructs the criminal chain.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 第一章 神秘之人
  3. 第二章 水深危险
  4. 第三章 破冰打捞
  5. 第四章 知情不报
  6. 第五章 各怀心思
  7. 第六章 另有其人
  8. 第七章 人心难测
  9. 第八章 旧日恩怨
  10. 第九章 意外线索
  11. 第十章 全力侦办
  12. 第十一章 迷雾重重
  13. 第十二章 关键影像
  14. 第十三章 试探深浅
  15. 第十四章 大吃一惊
  16. 第十五章 巨额保险
  17. 第十六章 惊人猜想
  18. 第十七章 尘封档案
  19. 第十八章 滴水不漏
  20. 第十九章 柳暗花明
  21. 第二十章 铁证如山
  22. 第二十一章 保持沉默
  23. 第二十二章 万无一失
  24. 第二十三章 阴阳怪气
  25. 第二十四章 脊背发凉
  26. 第二十五章 鱼死网破
  27. 第二十六章 坦白从宽
  28. 第二十七章 不寒而栗
  29. 第二十八章 罪证确凿
  30. 第二十九章 忏悔已晚
  31. 第三十章 蓄谋布局
  32. 第三十一章 诱换保单
  33. 第三十二章 谋划杀局
  34. 第三十三章 阴计连环
  35. 第三十四章 罪证败露
  36. 第三十五章 私怨之祸
  37. 第三十六章 一念心软
  38. 第三十七章 梦醒心寒
  39. 第三十八章 当庭翻供
  40. 第三十九章 舆论哗然
  41. 第四十章 真相大白

FAQ

I haven't read the author's previous works—can I start with this one? Yes. This book is a complete standalone story; the characters and case are self-contained and do not depend on prior setups. Starting from the discovery of the sunken car beneath the ice, you can enter the plot smoothly.
Are the cases in the book adapted from real events? The materials do not state whether it is based on real cases. The novel presents a fictional story set in the northern town of Shigang; plot elements such as killing a wife for insurance money and faking accidents are common conventions of genre fiction and should not be directly mapped onto real cases.
Does the ending fully solve the case, or is suspense left hanging? According to the synopsis, the dashcam records the entire conspiracy, and the two premeditated crimes are fully exposed; it is a truth-revealed conclusion, with the main suspense answered at the end.

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About the author

刀客 Author

Dao Ke is an author whose work centers on suspense and mystery fiction. Public information about the author is limited, and details such as real name, nationality, and dates of birth and death are not clearly recorded. Two works by this author are currently held in the collection: Thirteen Years on the Run and Beneath the Ice, both categorized as suspense and mystery, indicating a sustained focus on this genre. Judging from the titles, the subject matter tends to involve tense situations such as flight, concealment, and the revelation of truth, with the narrative emphasis falling on building suspense and atmosphere. Because first-hand materials such as interviews and prefaces are lacking, a more detailed assessment of the writing style is difficult to make, but the existence of the two works itself suggests the author is capable of handling full-length suspense stories. Readers wishing to understand Dao Ke's creative profile may begin with these two works and observe how the author handles plot progression and the portrayal of characters' circumstances.