Winter Frost (edition 2005)

At the risk of repeating myself, I am once again singing the praises of DI Frost and his creator, R.D. Wingfield. Winter Frost which is the 5th book in this police procedural series is as good, if not better, than his previous four. Frost is still the sloppy, funny, seemingly inept policeman that eventually solves his cases. He is still aided and abetted by a wonderful cast of characters including his dogmatic, rule imposing, boot licking superior and his new assistant who is even lazier and more slovenly than Frost himself but excels in fiddling both Frost’s expenses and the Crime Stats Report.

Don’t get me wrong, these books are far from cozy, they are very dark. This time out Frost is searching for missing children and hunting a serial murderer who targets prostitutes. As one missing child turns up brutally raped and strangled, the pressure mounts. Thrown into the mix are the numerous other cases that Frost and his cronies must deal with, from armed robbery, hit-and-run accidents and the thirty year old remains of a skeleton.

These books are great reads, dark, intense, yet able to make you laugh out loud. An old-fashioned policeman, Frost very rarely goes by the book, he muddles through and eventually arrives at the correct finish. Deep down he is a very honourable man and is doing his best for the public Slightly formulaic in nature, I like to spread these reads out, and it is my great sadness that after this book I only have one more to look forward to. ( )

I do not usually read mystery novels, but I find the Frost stories fun to read. In this case, Frost is looking for someone who abducts young girls, sexually assaults them and then abandons them in isolated areas. While trying to get a handle on this case, he is also trying to stopped a serial killer from killing more prostitutes. Other characters who hinder his investigations are his incompetent assistant, Morgan and his supervisor, Chief Superintendent Mullet whose main concern is to look good to his superiors. Wingfield's Frost novels are an odd combination of dark, evil, crime ridden streets and laugh out loud humour mainly provided by Frost's sarcasm. I could not put this book down until I reached the conclusion. ( )

Escapism of a pleasant kind - there's nothing too serious in all the bad things that happen here. Everything is a little predictable but I found a lot of it amusing and I like the setting. Wingfield's Frost books are so easy to read that I'm surprised he found writing them such an onerous task. Still, you need a bit of a break between reading them so I'm saving 'killing Frost' until later but I'm looking forward to it already. ( )

Usual well written Jack Frost detective novel, with humourous dialogue leavening the sometimes bleak plotline of serial killer and dead prostitute. ( )