16 July 2008

A KILLING FROST, Progress Report

This week I'm in Denton, in particular Denton Woods, in A KILLING FROST by R. D. Wingfield.
This was his last novel, published posthumously.
Unfortunately it feels a bit like I've read bits of it before- and not all of it in a Wingfield novel.

Bits of foot and leg have turned up - was there a newspaper case last year that had this happen?
I've certainly met this idea in a couple of other plots recently, although they might not have been recently written books.
There's the hand in the truffles case in Ruth Rendell's NOT IN THE FLESH. But I could have sworn there were others. Help me out if you can.

We are back in Denton Woods with a rape case - that doesn't feel new. Nor does the case of a missing teenage girl. But is it connected to the rape case?
And we are hanging around an ATM waiting for somebody who is blackmailing a supermarket to collect money that has been paid into his account. Predictably he manages to get money out of one where we are not waiting.

Mullett has brought in a new DI to get rid of Frost. He's going to make him toe the line - as if that will ever happen!

I think perhaps some of the ideas have been explored by script writers in the TV series which I have been an assiduous watcher of. Perhaps that is what happened- it's been a long time between printed books. As you can see the signature is that the word FROST always appeared in the title.

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)

I've read criticism that the TV version of Jack Frost, David Jason, is much nicer than actual book version. I'm testing that idea out too, and not finding much validity in it either.
I'm surprised to find that I haven't mentioned Wingfield before in my blog, so I'm correcting that now.

FROST AT CHRISTMAS, My rating 4.7
Ten days to Christmas. 8 year old Tracey Uphill disappears on her way home from Sunday School. D.I. Jack Frost has been assigned a new helper, the Chief Constable's nephew, D.C. Clive Barnard. As Christmas approaches, Frost is typically behind with his paper work and the trail to Tracey seems cold. His investigations unearth information about the vicar, about a teacher who regularly visits Tracey's prostitute mother, and about a robbery that was committed a long time ago.

TOUCH OF FROST (Audio CD), My rating 4.8
This book (unabridged on this 13.5 hr CD set) could just have easily be titled FROST's WEEK. Tuesday night brings with it the discovery of the body of a junkie in a public toilet, a rape in Denton Woods, a farewell party at Denton police station for a retiree, a hit and run death at a retirement village, a robbery at the town's strip joint, a missing school girl, and the crime stats are due. This CD reading gives you to time to wallow in Wingfield's excellent writing. But if you can't get the CD and haven't got 13.5 hours to spare (no long trips coming up), then get the book. The Frost series are worth the trouble. If you can't find the books, look for the TV series with David Jason.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, a torso turns up in The Torso by Helene Tursten! (and it isn't the only one).
I'm afraid my memory is such that I can just about remember the last couple of books I've read and that's about it, so well done for remembering the Rendell (truffle dog) -- I had read that too but forgotten.

I liked the book, but then I only ever watched a couple of the TV series as I didn't like the way they softened the character, though David Jason (is that his name?) the actor, was very good, as he always is.

Kerrie said...

There's a torso in Simon Brett's TORSO IN THE TOWN too

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