A Touch of Frost [Import] [Paperback]

RD Wingfield (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Corgi; New Edition edition (1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0552139823
• ISBN-13: 978-0552139823
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,505,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Chilling Frost, August 4, 2003

By 

Michael Olson (Victoria, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Touch of Frost (Mass Market Paperback)

Detective Inspector Jack Frost of Denton CID is an aging, scruffy, undisciplined, irreverent and intuitive sleuth who manages to solve all those nasty cases that baffle his more conventional colleagues. A Touch of Frost, the first in a five-novel series by playwright and former comedy writer, R.D. Wingfield, is an engrossing whirlwind of rape victims, body bags and multiple suspects that drive Frost and Webster, his newly-demoted side-kick, over four sleepless days and nights.

Utilizing plain language, expert composition and the bawdy humour that is the series hallmark, Wingfield deftly steers the plots interwoven complexities, such that the reader is immediately hooked by this irresistible page-turner. The entire cast of characters, from the odious Commander Mullett to the unwashed derelict, Wally Peters, is vividly and believably drawn. And, as befits the title, a chilling frost clings to the gruesome crime scenes and suitably shrouds the corpse-strewn town.

A word of caution, however: The relentless irreverence and grim humour that limns virtually every page of this novel are bound to offend some sensibilities and annoy others, especially those readers accustomed to drawing-room mysteries, or to the literary school of detective fiction. But for those of us with the wit and the grit, the Frost books are a refreshing and welcome throwback to an earlier style, when the protagonist was not a recovering alcoholic with dysfunctional offspring, but was simply an honest copper who went out and got the job done, with a minimum of fuss. Highly recommended.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Unexpectedly Entertaining Read!, July 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Touch of Frost (Mass Market Paperback)

I have watched without any great enjoyment the televised A&E mystery series featuring DI Frost, and I therefore found myself disinclined to read any of Wingfield's work. However, I picked up a copy of A Touch of Frost on my way out of the library one day, and I found (much to my surprise) that I truly enjoyed the novel!

I am now looking forward to reading other books by R.D. Wingfield, and I would recommend this particular book to anyone who enjoys British mysteries. This book is humorous and fast-paced, and the hard-nosed DI Frost is made less obnoxious and much more bearable by way of his dry sense of humour and an unpretentious intolerance of sycophants and their political maneuvering.

This was definitely an unexpected find!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My first Frost book won't be my last!, January 14, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: A Touch of Frost (Mass Market Paperback)

Having seen the tv show from the UK, I was intrigued (but not surprised) to learn there is a book series behind the program. The book keeps you guessing not only about "whodunit," but also about whether or not the crimes are inter-related. Frost's character is amusing, as is his co-workers' reactions to him. I think there is more than a little shock value in Wingfield's humor. All in all, an entertaining read! I can't wait to get started on the rest of the novels!