Hard Frost

By: R. D. Wingfield

Narrated by: Robin Browne

Detective Inspector Jack Frost knelt down beside the tiny body. Who did this to you, sonny? he asked, his face tight with compassion. The boy was eight years old, bound and gagged, and stripped naked. He had been dead for some seven or eight hours.

Frost should have been on holiday, he had sneaked back into the station late at night to help himself to some of Divisional Commander Mullett's cigarettes and this case had been dumped on him as no other officers were available. And then another boy is reported missing. The following day, the ransom demand: £250,000 or the boy dies like the first.

Coarse and insubordinate, fearless and intuitive, D.I. Jack Frost stumbles from crisis to crisis as he tries to cope with a child-stabbing pervert, the discovery of a decomposing body in a coal bunker, a suspicious suicide, an equally suspicious burglary and the abduction of a teenage girl.

©1995 R. D. Wingfield (P)1997 Isis Publishing Ltd

I LOVE Frost!

Clever, sincere, bawdy, brilliant— Frost is all this and more! This is a book I listen to at least once a year.

Great story

RD Wingfield created a memorable character in DI Frost.. Hard Frost is a great addition to the series

TV is better

What would have made Hard Frost better?

The TV series has eliminated the ugly sexism of the novels and left an eccentric larrikinism. This makes the series quite acceptable with very little political correctness emanating from the character of Frost making him all the more acceptable.

What was most disappointing about R. D. Wingfield’s story?

Probably ok for its time, but my feeling is that R.D. Winfield was always an awful person. Charles Dickens characters can be utterly repulsive but we're not expected to like them or nudge, nudge, wink, wink excuse them. We are expected to like Frost as he is written. I can't stomach him as he is written. I will never listen to this book to the end. The main character is just too awful. It's all brainless tits and smut to him yet he's given the hard cases!

What didn’t you like about Robin Browne’s performance?

I didn't notice the performance, I was in shock that a favourite tv series had been made from such appalling books. I'll never watch the series again. It's been sullied totally by hearing one book!

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Anger that people find Frost's shallow smutty behaviour acceptable. No thanks.

Any additional comments?

No. I don't want to think about it and that's why it's taken so long to review. I've never hated anything quite so much. I kept expecting the Frost character to grow and improve. He deteriorated.