A Killing Frost

If you’ve seen the talented David Jason’s portrayal of Detective Inspector Frost on television, then you will certainly recognise much of that bluff, cheeky, living-in-his-raincoat image in R. D. Wingfield’s original novels. Jason reputedly read one and was instantly attracted to the idea of adapting the character for television.

The word ‘adapting’ is crucial here. I was familiar with the Yorkshire TV series, and felt ready to check out one of the original books. This is the sixth and final instalment in the Frost series, and I understand the author was terminally ill while he was writing it (he died in 2007 and the novel was published the following year). While many were saddened at his death, and the inevitable consequence show more of no more duties for Jack Frost, I understand that Wingfield was not especially fond of his character. On this reader’s experience, I have to say it shows...

In A Killing Frost the detective is faced with a range of crimes on his patch that are particularly nasty – rape, missing children, blackmail and murder. Add to that a determined effort by Superintendent Mullett and another senior officer to remove Frost from Denton, and life becomes ever more troublesome for the slovenly policeman. David Jason tidied up the image for television, but here on the page the character is earthy at best. His appearance and personal habits are understandably irksome to those higher up the ranks, while his determination to bring felons to justice by putting in more effort than his higher-salaried counterparts is to be admired. There are many occasions when Frost’s lack of respect for his superiors is artfully and sympathetically illustrated, with those same officers depicted as shallow, cowardly and all too ready to pick up credit for the achievements of those at the sharp end of duty. But I do find myself wondering how accurate those impressions might be of our modern police force, and perhaps it would be easier to acknowledge a more realistic and well-balanced view in the screen adaptations.

I do admire Wingfield for one particular area of writing: the dialogue scenes are excellent. Given that he wrote over forty radio plays, the spoken word was clearly his strength, and the gritty verbal cut and thrust in A Killing Frost is especially effective because of the author’s skill in this department. The characters are well-drawn on the whole, although some might be slightly prone to caricature. (One unfortunate police constable had an annoying habit of being so unreliable that I found it impossible to believe he could ever have been accepted into the force.) But my main complaint was Wingfield’s tendency to be anachronistic with some elements of his plot.

As already touched upon, a good portion of the story is taken up by a running battle between Frost and his superior officers, who finally manage to coerce the hapless detective to take a transfer by holding up evidence that he had been fiddling expense claims (the chief example being handwritten receipts for petrol). Bearing in mind this was written in 2007, and the fictional setting of Denton is a large urban community, I found it highly unlikely that anyone would be presenting petrol receipts in a format where a number 5 could be amended to an 8, purely because it had been written out by hand! I could only assume that it had been a very long time since Mr Wingfield had personally purchased any petrol.

But the worst anachronism appeared as early as the second page, with the first instance of spoken text – “Operator, get me the police... Denton Police.” That would be an understandable call from a man whose dog has just unearthed a human foot while out on a walk, but spoken into a mobile phone?! For the benefit of the younger generation I should explain that at one time you could dial 0 from a phone and speak to a person who could provide live assistance in connecting you to a person or place for which you might not have the full number. But to my certain knowledge that service was only ever available on landlines.

This particular fictional detective was certainly ‘old school’, and something of an anachronism himself in the modern world of policing. But he had his place in our hearts. I was one of many who thoroughly enjoyed the television interpretation of R. D. Wingfield’s popular creation, and I just feel disappointed with this final, personal farewell from the author. While the media interpretation sent Jack Frost off with a view of life like the proverbial glass that is half full, the pages of the book depict someone who just drained it completely, with nothing left in his wallet for a taxi home. A bitter taste to end with. show less

Confession up front - I don't read these books for their plots, their scenarios or even in an attempt to find the flaws in the procedural elements. I read them because I love Frost, Mullet, George Toolan, Ernie Trigg and the ever changing assortment of DS's that come and go in Frost's world. I love Denton, (wouldn't want to live there - the constant crime waves would do your head in after a while), but really, the point of the Frost books for me, at least, is more about time with old friends than it is necessarily about strong police procedurals.

I guess I should also admit that it's now pretty well impossible to read a Frost book without seeing and hearing David Jason in the title role from the TV series, which is possibly also why I show more don't see some personality characteristics that other readers often comment on. I "see" the dialogue with a twinkle in the eye, with a strong coating of irony or self-deprecation. I hear a quintessentially tongue in cheek bit of a rogue policeman with a way of needling away at a case until it gets solved. Regardless of the resourcing problems, regardless of how much he annoys the upper echelons, and how many favours he calls in from his colleagues.

I realise there is a distinct possibility that this could be seen as very odd, as often the cases are violent, and there is always a lot of simultaneous crime going on in these books, but I really do find the Frost series increasingly a bit of a comfort read. Not just because Frost is a copper who keeps going until everything's solved, not just because he's a copper who you'd trust to do the right thing, but also because there's something wonderfully English, something very realistic about the way that the cases are portrayed, the juggling that goes on everyday in an under-resourced, overworked and extremely human police force. show less

Sadly this was the last Frost book, as RD Wingfield died in 2007, but it is a fitting final piece of work which captures the essence of Frost and his colleagues, especially Supt Mullett. Although the plot is a very serious and in places grim one, about the murders of several young women, Wingfield still manages to inject much humour into the story, especially in Frost's exchanges with other characters. For fans of Jack Frost as well those new to the character, this shouldn't be missed.

I’ve read better British crime thrillers… although there are a satisfying number of threads wandering through this episode in Frost’s career, the author’s reliance on errors of judgement and oversight to draw out his story is too contrived not to be noticed. More disappointingly, this was my first reading of one of the Frost books, and the latest published after the author's death, and I expected a well-established character who needed little in the way of blatant ‘personality cues’. Frost’s sexism and tough-skin banter doesn’t bother me as part of the character, but the very standard and uninspired delivery of it is galling – Frost is not merely a misogynist, but one without original material, and worse, every time he show more is made to utter one of these lines it smacks of ‘he’s outdated but has a heart of gold’ portraiture.

Despite it’s lack of subtlety, ‘A Killing Frost’ is readable… something is happening on every page, and for all his unattractive qualities, Frost is endeared to the reader simply because he cares for his team and getting the job done; qualities we want in our characters and our police, and therefore easy to warm to.

If I read another of R.D Wingfield’s Frost series, it’ll be the very first one, to compare them and perhaps discover if his chief character was fresher before his enthusiasm for the series waned. show less

It's late at night in Denton, dark with rain, and a man walking in Denton Woods is horrified when his dog retrieves a chopped-off human foot. As usual D.I. Jack Frost has far too many cases to cover - fifteen year old Sally Marsden attacked and raped near a multi-storey carpark; the reported abduction of a two year old from his cot;two missing teenagers; a blackmailer who has poisoned baby food in a local supermarket and is demanding money; and then on top of it all, the arrival of a new D. C. I. whose sole mission in life is to rid Denton police station of scruffy, irregular, and unconventional Jack Frost.

Published posthumously by the estate of R. D. Wingfield, after a long gap in the six book series, it seemed to me as I said in my show more progress report earlier this week, that the early incidents in A KILLING FROST owed their existence to some of the episodes in the very popular television series. In all there have been 42 episodes in 13 series, made, "based on the characters created by R. D. Wingfield". A KILLING FROST seemed to me to contain a compilation of some of these episodes.

His very continuance as part of the Denton police force under threat because of scheming by the new D. C. I. and Superintendent Mullett, to get him to volunteer to transfer to another station, overburdened with an enormous workload, continually under-resourced, Frost continues to show as he connects the dots in the puzzles, why he is among the best.
If I had to compare him to another fictional detective then I think it would be Fred Vargas' Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg. Like Adamsberg Frost is able to connect the seemingly unconnected. Nor does Frost do things by the book. If he doesn't get a search warrant then he is devious enough to do without. His mind continues to gnaw at problems, trying make sense of what he knows he has seen.

I liked A TOUCH OF FROST more as the central story of missing teenagers surged on. Frost complains at the amount of work piled on his plate, but he never shirks, and he always shoulders the blame when it is his.

As the threat of having to leave Denton looms, Frost is haunted by thoughts of his dead wife. They were not close in the final years of their marriage, constantly driven apart by the demands of his job, and the fact that he really is a workaholic. That strand inserts an element of pathos into the story. But it's easy to see how the job separated them.

So this book is Wingfield's last. It is sad to think there will be no more.
If you haven't read any at all, do start from the beginning.
Here's the list to look for
1. Frost at Christmas (1984)
2. A Touch of Frost (1987)
3. Night Frost (1992)
4. Hard Frost (1995)
5. Winter Frost (1999)
6. A Killing Frost (2008) show less

The late R D Wingfield has produced yet another very readable book. Frost is as cynical as ever and almost as big a rogue as some of the criminals but he always gets his man. And the-powers-that-be also get their come-uppance.
What a shame this has to be the last of the series.

READ IN ENGLISH

I received this Inspector Frost novel as a Birthday present, as it is no secret among my friends that I liked the Inspector Frost series on television.

I was thrilled to go and find out to see if Frost would be as witty and sarcastic as he is on TV, and I was not disappointed. =D Besides, there was a nice and interesting detective story. How could I possibly ask for anything more?