Hard Freeze: A Joe Kurtz Novel (Joe Kurtz Novels) (Hardcover)

by Dan Simmons (Author) "Joe Kurtz knew that someday he would lose focus, that his attention would wander at a crucial minute, that instincts honed in almost twelve years..." (more)
Key Phrases: titanium case, Joe Kurtz, Little Skag, Emilio Gonzaga (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Having proven he can write hard-nosed noir with 2001's Hardcase, prolific genre-crossing author Dan Simmons reintroduces his gritty protagonist Joe Kurtz and promptly pitches him into the icy waters of Hard Freeze. Two pages into the book, the ex-private investigator is just minding his business on the frozen streets of Buffalo and already he's got a contract on his head. As Kurtz says, "It was shaping up to be an especially tough winter." When he finds out who the money behind the hit is, Joe's already outgunned and outmanned but never outsmarted. This wily warrior is always one step ahead of whoever is chasing him, be they crooked cops, calculating serial killers, corpulent mob bosses, or not-so-distressed damsels.

Simmons has crafted a perfectly ruthless crime novel with a relentless pace that doesn't let up until the final page. The single-minded Joe Kurtz is a wonderfully flawed and deliciously soiled noir icon. He's smart, salty, literate, smushy in all the right places, and not somebody to cross. In all, Hard Freeze is a fast-paced thriller that successfully interweaves amazingly disparate plot threads in an explosive--really explosive--climax. --Jeremy Pugh

From Publishers Weekly
Hannibal Lecter meets the Godfather in multitalented Simmons's hard, brutal crime thriller, set in Buffalo, N.Y., and second in the series after Hardcase (2001). Ex-private eye Kurtz, recently released from prison after serving 11 years for killing the murderers of his beautiful partner, Samantha Fielding, finds himself stalked by the Attica Three Stooges Moe, Larry and Curly. After a bloody shootout that leaves one Stooge dead, Kurtz takes Curly for a ride in a speeding car and says: "You can take one in the head.... Then I dump you. You can take one in the belly, maybe we crash. Or you can take a chance and tuck and roll. Plus, there's some snow out there. Probably as soft as a goosedown pillow." Exit Curly. Kurtz soon learns that he's been marked for death by a local Mafia don and that the man actually responsible for Samantha's death is alive and well. And that's just for starters. Meanwhile, Kurtz is approached by John Wellington Frears, a world-famous violinist dying of colon cancer, to find his daughter's murderer a serial child-killer so adept at changing identities he could give lessons to Ferdinand Demara, the Great Impostor. Violent, fast-paced, with a high body count and plenty of sanguinary and pyrotechnic detail, this high-octane thriller should please both hard-boiled addicts and Simmons devotees. Whatever qualms one may have about Kurtz surely one of the darkest, most amoral protagonists of recent crime fiction it's Simmons at his hard-driving best.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur; 1st edition (August 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312278543
• ISBN-13: 978-0312278540
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,030,282 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars JOE KURTZ IS BACK AND EVERYBODY WANTS HIM DEAD!, August 20, 2002

By	Wayne C. Rogers (Las Vegas, Nevada United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was actually praying last year that Dan Simmons would write a follow-up novel to his excellent "private eye" thriller, HARDCASE. Think of the early "Burke" novels by Andrew Vachss, and you have an idea just how dark, violent, suspenseful and entertaining this debut series is. When I found out that a new "Joe Kurtz" novel was in the works, I jumped up and down, singing praises to the gods above, wondering if I could hang in there till the book was published. Well, I made it, and HARD FREEZE is finally out. That's not all, either. Not only is HARD FREEZE better than the first "Joe Kurtz" novel (if that's even possible), but Mr. Simmons is now working on a third book in this fabulous series about an ex-P.I./ex-con who's hard as nails, yet has a code of honor reminiscent of the Japanese samurai. This time around, Kurtz has to do battle on several fronts. First and foremost, there's a contract out on him. Stephen "Little Skag" Farino, who's still in Attica, wants Kurtz dead because the P.I. knows too much about the Farino family business, especially with regards to the deaths of his father and older sister. Little Skag has his younger sister, Angelina, hire the necessary killers to take Kurtz out, but they prove to be no match for our dark hero. When Angelina sees just how good Kurtz really is, she decides to use him to kill mobster Emilio Gonzaga, who's trying to take over the Farino business, and to neutralize her older brother, who's due for parole in a few months. As if this wasn't enough to deal with, Kurtz is also being followed by two cops who want a little helping of revenge for the death of Detective Hathaway six months before. While Kurtz is trying to stay alive, his homeless friend, Pruno, gets him to help a dying concert violinist, John Wellington Frears, hunt for a serial killer that murdered his daughter. But wait, that isn't all. Kurtz is also keeping an eye on Donald Rafferty, the legal guardian of Rachel Fielding (the daughter of Kurtz's dead partner, Samantha). He's afraid that something bad is going to happen to Rachel and is ready to kill Rafferty, if it does. On top of everything else, Kurtz's secretary, Arlene, is pushing him to help find some new office space and to come up with $35,000.00 to start a new Internet business. Last but not least, Buffalo, New York is having the worse snowstorm of its history, and when the snow finally melts, there's going to be a dozen dead bodies scattered around the city for the local police to deal with, compliments of Joe Kurtz. HARD FREEZE is an intensely dark and utterly violent novel with touches of humor mixed in and a hero that isn't always the most likeable person in the world. It starts out at a brisk pace with the Three Stooges (three ex-cons from Attica) trying to take Joe Kurtz out and doesn't let up till after the final battle at the end when Kurtz will have to tangle with one of the most deadly serial killers around and a skilled martial arts expert that makes Bruce Lee seem like a Boy Scout. Not only does author, Dan Simmons, manage to expertly juggle a large number of intricate plot points and to tie up each one by the end of the book without it seeming forced or contrived, but he also creates a somber atmosphere with Buffalo, New York as the backdrop that is perfect for this type of story. The reader is with Joe Kurtz throughout the entire journey, rooting for his survival and for him to take out the bad guys. Mr. Simmons not only fulfills the reader's expectations in every way imaginable, he leaves the reader wanting more, and that is a skill only an accomplished writer can achieve. I'm now eagerly awaiting the third book in the series, knowing that it will probably be at least a year or longer before I can once again enter the thoroughly entertaining world of Joe Kurtz. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Bad, but Overly Praised, June 30, 2005

By	R. T. "robert2323" (GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hard Freeze: A Joe Kurtz Novel (Joe Kurtz Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

Having done almost everything else, I guess Dan Simmons thought he would tackle the genre of hard-boiled mystery as a way to say that he had now done everything. The only thing is, this genre isn't as easy as it looks. It's not the literary equivalent of a fast-food hamburger that any old would-be cook can throw together. The writers who are best at it use subtle ingredients and years of experience to come up with the perfect recipe for a hard-boiled thriller.

My main problem with Hard Freeze is that it just drips with stereotypes. There is the detective himself, an ex-con with an attitude. There is the sexy secretary. There is the meeting in a jazz club with a client. There are the Italian gangsters and the creepy, scary hit-man. One ingredient that just didn't seem to belong was the Hannibal Lecter-ish serial killer who apparently wandered over from another genre of books also filled with stereotypes. Basically everything in this book was well-worn and so cliched that I felt like I had read this book a dozen times before. The dialogue was not especially catchy---too many of the main character's tough-guy lines sounded like they had been recycled from Schwarzanegger movies of the 1980s. None of the characters were fleshed-out enough to be truly interesting. Even the main character, who seems to appeal to so many other readers, was a shapeless, faceless non-entity without much personality or flavor.

Other than a few four-letters words and one or two very violent scenes, I honestly wouldn't even refer to this book as "hard-boiled." Compared to your average book by Andrew Vachss, Hard Freeze seemed about as tough and threatening as a Nancy Drew mystery. All in all I would have to say that it made a fairly enjoyable vacation read, but I won't be picking up the rest of the books in the series.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good start - bad finish, December 6, 2003

By	W. Thielemans "script editor extraordinaire" (Belgium) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Hard Freeze: A Joe Kurtz Novel (Joe Kurtz Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

I feel both Kurtz novels have the same problem. They start off great, set up a ton of enemies for Joe Kurtz to deal with, each nastier than the next, the reader is looking forward to a bloodbath of John Woo-like proportions for the finale...
... And then it all goes to pieces. Too many bad guys take each other out, the invincible Kurtz suddenly becomes extremely vulnerable and only triumphs because Simmons resorts to some Deus Ex Machina-type plotting.
The books are very gritty (almost up to Andrew Vacchs-level), Kurtz is a unlikeable yet fascinating thug-hero, the writing is effective (though not great), the reader is never bored - but the end result is not really fulfilling. Strange, because I've always liked the plotting in Simmons' science fiction novels.
Anyway, the deserved if mean-spirited attack on the Spenser novels (which I used to love - a looooong time ago) is probably the highlight of this book!