During a snowstorm near a tunnel high in the Norwegian mountains, a train crashes killing the driver and stranding close to 300 passengers. Luckily, there is an isolated train station with a large hotel complex nearby, Finse 1222, where the survivors and the injured are taken for shelter.

But things aren't going well in the forced confinement. Not only is a storm of epic proportions raging outside, but inside people are turning up dead. When it's obvious two of them were murdered, the small band of people trying to keep the chaos under control turns to one of the survivors for help. A difficult, unfriendly woman who's had a ski pole driven through her thigh in the wreck, Hanne Wilhelmsen, retired from the Oslo police, is also paralyzed from the waist down after being shot on duty. Hanne may be short- fused and uncompromising, but her mind is still sharp, as the murderer soon finds out.

From the start, Hanne is not a very likable heroine, and the large cast of characters (and potential murderers) makes the various plot twists a bit confusing. Hanne's backstory doesn't help much, and it takes some time for her personality to improve. The plot is suspenseful enough to keep readers turning the pages to solve the mystery of the murderer's identity, but the abrupt ending was a bit disconcerting.