Winter Frost

A Chris Matheson Cold Case Mystery, Book 2

By: Lauren Carr

Narrated by: Mike Alger

It all started with a chance encounter in the city with Blair, his late wife.

Chris Matheson and the Geezer Squad, working under the guise of a book club, dig into the events surrounding his late wife’s supposed death halfway around the globe. A state department employee shoots himself in the back three times. A CIA operative goes missing. A woman is targeted by an international assassin three years after being declared dead in a terrorist attack overseas.

Nothing is as it seems.

In his most personal cold case, Chris fights to uncover why the state department told him that Blair, the mother of his children, had been killed when she was alive. What had she uncovered that has made her a target? Who terrified her so much that she had gone into hiding, and why are they now after him?

©2019 Terri Lynn Zaleski (P)2019 Terri Lynn Zaleski

Winter Frost

I am just loving this series. The stories are fun and you are never sure who to trust in the Spy business. Except family and the Geezer Squad of course. I just love the Squad they bring so much to this series. I like that Lauren Carr keeps you guessing until the end. The dog and his hats(clothing collection) and card counting are just too much fun. Mike Alger does a nice job on this series.

Incredibly complex series of plots and sub-plots

Whoa! WINTER FROST: A Chris Matheson Cold Case Mystery starts off with a bang – literally, as the first of many deaths happens in a book with a high body count and a lot of action. For readers like me who are familiar with and fans of book one in the series, ICE, you’ll be delighted that the same endearing cast of characters returns in all its glory. If you haven’t yet jumped on this series, get to it, but don’t be concerned about starting here. Each of the books stands alone, but I do feel like you get a leg-up by having read book one first.

“It was bad enough that his date with Helen had been ruined by him being forced to kill an international assassin threatening to kill the wife he had thought was dead.”

Yeah. That is how WINTER FROST rolls. Don’t daze-out while you’re listening to this story or you may never find your way back. Author Lauren Carr has designed an incredibly complex series of plots and sub-plots that totally come together to provide a fabulous story – even if I was a bit lost some times. I feel like I might have done better reading this one with my eyes because part of the complexity lies in the cast of characters, and in this book, the groupings of them: there are a couple of good guy/gal groups and a couple of bad guy/gal groups, and there are a couple of secret organizations, and there are an abundance of people involved in each of them, so it’s hard to keep them straight when listening to the story. (I believe that in the print copies, Carr provides a list of the characters at the start of the book – that would be super helpful.)

“Helen didn’t know whether to be impressed or frightened by the 65-year-old librarian. Within two minutes of learning about the two unidentified men in the SUV, Doris had concocted a plan to capture them. She’d read it in a book, though she couldn’t remember the author or the title. She did recall that it had a red and black cover.”

Regardless of my confusion with the new characters, the familiar and favorite characters kept me grounded in the story. Doris, our main character’s sassy mother, kept me laughing and is so realistically written that I truly feel like she exists in the world. What a hoot! Additionally, the Geezer Squad “book club” is back and is the backbone of getting to the root of the mysteries and kicking butt and taking names in the process. Also returning to the spotlight is the fabulous retired police dog, Sterling, whose scenes are always spiked with a comic element.
“Politics is like carbon monoxide. As soon as politics touches anything, it drains every ounce of life and sanity from it.”

Chilling chase scenes, multiple crises, explosions, death, destruction, and general mayhem are all placed within the context of some rotten political shenanigans where the name of the game is powerful people doing whatever it takes to stay at the top and having fixers to clean up the messes. With this angle, Carr hits pretty close to what’s in the headlines with WINTER FROST. With the exception of some odd, heavily religious moments that seemed to come out of nowhere, WINTER FROST is solid and well written.

Readers will be slammed from side to side as the story takes its corners quickly and sharply. Just as you catch your breath, there’s a serious mic drop moment with only thirty minutes or so left in the eight plus hour audio, and then the loose ends are rapidly tied and issues resolved as the story pulls into park. There’s no way I’ll miss reading the next book in this series. Hooked.

ABOUT THE NARRATION. Narrator Mike Alger returns and does another terrific job of voicing the massive cast of characters. There is a fair amount of internal monologue, and some effects have been added so listeners can easily distinguish it from regular dialogue. Alger’s pacing is good, and he does every voice, from sultry secret agent to geeky tech guy, with style. I listened to the audio at 1.25x speed due to my typical audio impatience.

Thank you to iRead Book Tours and the author for providing me an audio book download in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give. This full review and other special features on Hall Ways Blog.

Chris Matheson is Back!!

After reading about Chris and how the loss of his wife affected his family I was very excited to see how things were going with Helen. But then he sees Blair, his wife that has been dead for three years. Of course he gives chase just to save her and have her disappear. Then her body does show up and Chris, with the help of the Geezer Squad look into what really happened to Blair.

I have loved this series from the first book and was curious at where it was going to go just from the blurb. But when I started listening to the book and learned that Blair decided to play dead for her job I got so mad with her that I had to walk away. I mean how could she do that to Chris and the girls?!?! Yes, this is the sign of an amazing author to me.

Once I calmed down I proceeded with the book and was quickly sucked into a fantastic story of terrorists, love, betrayal, and loss. Yes, I do admit that I felt for Blair and understood her decision, reluctantly. What an emotional roller coaster for Chris and his family!! Thankfully they are full of strong people that have each others backs.

This book has everything from action and adventure to romance and comic relief. The Geezer Squad is as feisty as ever and of course Sterling has to show up his human counter parts. Mike Alger does a marvelous job breathing life into these characters. This would be a wonderful read but listening to the audiobook adds so much more to the tale.

I love Lauren Carr’s books and recommend everyone check them out. Although they are part of a series they are written so you can read each book as a standalone.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.

lots of action

this book has lots of action, lies, spies, and dirty government secrets. the narrator is awesome and I got a kick out of the pets. There's violence but not graphic, a little bit of cursing, no adult content. in all an excellent audio book.

This is one of Lauren Carr's Best books!

This was a unique idea, full of multiple characters and events. it covered over a decade of Chris Matheeson’s life. The action and suspense never stopped until the very surprising end.

As always, Laure Car’s characters seemed wonderfully real and the events described were very easily visualized.

I previously read this book in print and thoroughly enjoyed it! I, additionally, enjoyed listening to Mike Algiers performance, who did an amazing job in his narration. He performed each recognizable role in a professional manner, with a consistent voice of each character, with much energy, and expression.

Lauren and Mike, once again, “knocked this one out of the park”!

This book was gifted me with no pressure for a positive review. This is my honest review

Awesome Plot!

Lauren Carr has created an amazing book in Winter Frost. I loved how the book is full of unexpected twists, great imagery, and fitting humor. Chris has believed his wife has been dead for over 3 years, and when he’s ready to move on, his life is turned upside down. This book is both a standalone listen and part of a series. I really enjoy how the author has developed the characters and included realistic details. Her descriptions of the German Shepherd’s antics are spot on. The Geezer Squad sounds like such a fun book club! They add to the story too. This book has so many endearing characters. I love how some of them are incorporated from other books by this author. It’s like catching up with old friends. Mike Alger performance of this book is perfect. He adds the right emotions and has distinguished voices for the various characters. I requested this review copy audiobook and have voluntarily written this review. I will most definitely listen to more books by this author.

A good read

Winter Frost (A Chris Matheson Cold Case Mystery #2) by Lauren Carr was another great audio book. The narration was well done and the narrator did a great job with handling the different characters. I really liked that this book followed Chris again as he was my favorite character in the first book. I liked how this case had a more personal feel to it as it made me feel more emotionally connected to Chris. I'm excited to start book 3!

Entertaing from beginning to end!

When Chris spots his supposedly deceased wife and, moments later, kills the assassin who’s after her, the retired FBI agent is thrust into the center of his own mystery, one that will take a large cast of retired and current members of all sorts of law enforcement agencies to figure out. Along the way to solving what turns out to be a complex, intriguing puzzle, all these people sift through a plethora of clues but it’s not all just a lot of mental work for the reader; some of these folks, and a number of pets, bring an air of lighthearted humor to the proceedings.

Chris is part of the Geezer Squad, a group of retirees who ostensibly belong to a book club that meets at odd times but, in fact, keep their minds sharp and entertained by looking into cold cases and, since Blair “died” several years ago, this certainly qualifies as a cold case. I am in love with the Geezer Squad, all of whom care deeply about their cases and especially this one and the way they work together like a think tank is impressive. With the help of others in their wider orbit—CIA operatives, the state department, Chris’s mom, Doris, etc.—a nebulous truth begins to take shape, one that may just endanger the world.

There are so many characters here that I like, for a variety of reasons, and even the bad guys are vividly drawn and entertaining. Doris is a hoot and, like most librarians, is not to be trifled with but the crowning glory is a bunch of pets that add extra life to the story. Chris’s German Shepherd, Sterling, is a supersmart retired police dog whose talents include playing and cheating at cards and he’s the love object of the smitten Spencer, an exuberant Sheltie. Doris’s Doberman, Sadie, retired from the law and golden lab, Mocha, used to do search and rescue but it’s Thor who absolutely stole my heart. Thor isn’t a retiree from law enforcement but he’s probably the most loveable and scene-stealing large rabbit dressed in pink frills I’ve ever come across.

Lauren Carr’s Winter Frost is a terrific mystery lightened by a good deal of humor but, for an audiobook listener, one more thing is really important for full enjoyment and that’s the narration. At first, I thought Mike Alger was going to be a bit irritating but he soon changed my mind with his wonderful array of voices and his perfect pacing and sensing of the proper mood to fit the story. I do believe he may be one of my favorite narrators.

P.S.: See that dog in Lauren Carr’s picture beside her bio? That’s the real-life Sterling but I don’t know if he actually changes car radio stations or plays poker 😉

Great characters

I chose to listen to this book after receiving a free copy of the audiobook. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. I’ve read several of Lauren Carr’s books including the first Chris Matheson novel, ICE. I enjoy her books and I like how the characters from different series are intertwined.


Chris Matheson’s wife Blair died overseas, and he has moved on and is dating his childhood sweetheart, Helen. On what is supposed to be a special date night, Chris sees his dead wife! He follows her but instead of catching up to her, he kills a hitman who was after Blair. Now Chris and the Geezer Squad are on the case along with Murphy, a character from another of Lauren Carr’s series.


Winter Frost is fast-paced and full of action and mystery. The characters are great, especially Chris’s mom, Doris, and his dog, Sterling. Doris is one of a kind and takes matters into her own hands when she needs to, sometimes with hilarious results. Sterling is a smart dog and can even change radio channels and win at card games.

I like the narrator. He's narrated a lot of these books (if not all). He's got a good voice and has good pace and timing.


If you like a good mystery with unique characters, a lot of action, humor, and a touch of romance, you’ll enjoy this book. Even though it’s the second book in a series, it stands on its own.

Great political thriller!

This book will have you in stitches with the antics of The Geezer Squad...and Chris’s mother. Yet, the political thriller will keep you engaged. Somehow this author makes the combination work and the result is a book that you won’t want to put down until the end.