From Publishers Weekly
DI Jack Frost (Night Frost; Hard Frost; etc.) returns in a relentless, and often humorous, page-turner. In this fifth outing, a serial killer is murdering hookers, while yet another is kidnapping and killing young girls. The harassed Denton (U.K.) police force also faces a host of lesser problems, including a drunken soccer mob, an extremely successful burglar and the discovery of a buried skeleton. Wingfield, author of many radio plays and comedy scripts, excels in comic episodes like Frost's attempt to date the skeleton as more than 70 years old, so he won't have to add it to his case load: "`Great Plague victim,' he pronounced firmly. `A bit later than that, I think....' `Fell out of a zeppelin then. Eighty years old if it's a day.'" The overall joking and bawdy tone (particularly from Frost's lecherous Welsh assistant) sometimes makes this book sound like a police procedural written by the late British comic Benny Hill--a good thing, unless you object to almost every female in the novel, including child murder victims, being called a "poor cow" at least once. Frost sits in on forensics sessions and interrogates suspects, as each separate investigation dovetails into another. The pace is so frantic that the DI never seems to snatch more than three or four hours of sleep at a stretch. The same may apply to those caught up in this compulsive, funny read. Fans of A Touch of Frost, the TV show based on the series, will also be smitten. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
This British police procedural features Detective Jack Frost, whose dry sarcasm masks a tender heart, and who has chain-smoked through several similar volumes, as well as a TV series. Indeed, this reads like a TV script--narrative stripped to the bone, plenty of action and dialogue--an excellent script at that, with fascinating characters, well-crafted dialogue, suspense-ful plotting. While bobbing and weaving around the politics and personalities of the force, Frost clears up a number of sordid cases--ritual slayings of streetwalkers, a missing 7-year old sexpot, a skeleton uncovered after forty years buried in a backyard. Narrator Stephen Thorne gives all characters their due, especially Frost, whom Thorne endows with rumpled charm. This actor has done his homework, for he subtly foreshadows events and shades lines in a way possible only after the careful preparation that most audiobooks do not receive. Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The sleepy English town of Denton is having more than its share of crime. A serial killer is murdering local prostitutes; a man has unearthed a long-buried skeleton in his yard; add to that a series of burglaries. But Detective Inspector Jack Frost's main concern is for a missing girl. Nine weeks earlier, eight-year-old Vicky Stuart didn't return home from school. She's not been seen since. Another girl from the same school is reported missing. Her body is found...raped and strangled. Frost's prime suspect, strongly protesting his innocence, hangs himself in his cell, leaving a note blaming Frost for his suicide. Subsequent evidence points to the man's innocence. The clock is ticking, and D.I. Frost is in serious trouble. R.D. Wingfield's earlier novels are "Frost at Christmas, Night Frost, A Touch of Frost," and "Hard Frost."

SYNOPSIS

This, the fifth novel in R.D. Wingfield's popular mystery series, finds Detective Inspector Jack Frost dealing with a grisly parade of crimes.

FROM THE CRITICS

Times

Frost is a splendid creation, a cross between Rumpole and Colombo.

Publishers Weekly

DI Jack Frost (Night Frost; Hard Frost; etc.) returns in a relentless, and often humorous, page-turner. In this fifth outing, a serial killer is murdering hookers, while yet another is kidnapping and killing young girls. The harassed Denton (U.K.) police force also faces a host of lesser problems, including a drunken soccer mob, an extremely successful burglar and the discovery of a buried skeleton. Wingfield, author of many radio plays and comedy scripts, excels in comic episodes like Frost's attempt to date the skeleton as more than 70 years old, so he won't have to add it to his case load: "`Great Plague victim,' he pronounced firmly. `A bit later than that, I think....' `Fell out of a zeppelin then. Eighty years old if it's a day.'" The overall joking and bawdy tone (particularly from Frost's lecherous Welsh assistant) sometimes makes this book sound like a police procedural written by the late British comic Benny Hill--a good thing, unless you object to almost every female in the novel, including child murder victims, being called a "poor cow" at least once. Frost sits in on forensics sessions and interrogates suspects, as each separate investigation dovetails into another. The pace is so frantic that the DI never seems to snatch more than three or four hours of sleep at a stretch. The same may apply to those caught up in this compulsive, funny read. Fans of A Touch of Frost, the TV show based on the series, will also be smitten. (Feb. 1) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile