Winter Frost Book

'A Touch of Frost' was one of my favourite television police series. The British do know how to make those: Inspector Morse, Inspector Lewis, Midsomer Murders, Agatha Christie's Poirot, Inspector George Gently, Vera, Luther, and so on.

However, I've never read any of those books, which were the basis for some (or all?) of those series. Until I was given this book, albeit in Dutch translation and more precisely, a re-edition by the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws (The Last/Latest News). I'm usually very careful with translations, especially when the source language was English.

In this book, inspector Jack Frost has to solve many crimes: young children disappearing (being kidnapped), prostitutes being murdered, a skeleton being found in a back-garden, a robbery, and more. Of course, commander Mullet is also present in his typical way: obnoxious, worried about his own image, always looking at costs, KPI, and so on. He is not involved in the team-work, has a love-hate relationship with Frost (for obvious reasons) and will do anything to score with his superiors. Anything.

Frost is unorganized (in his way of working, in his administration, ...), chaotic, very arrogant in his behaviour towards Mullet and his colleagues. Insults, dry humour, ... all part of his image and style. The man smokes almost every minute of every day. He eats only (or 99.9% of the time) sandwiches with bacon and ham, and drinks lots of tea. Taking care of himself (personal hygiene, for example) is trivial to him. He also despises structure and being on time for meetings or other appointments, like at autopsies.

In many of his cases, whenever he finds a clue, he will try to solve the puzzle, but the minute he can blame someone, that's the man or woman who's guilty of crime x or y, despite their statements and the severe lack of evidence. His direct assistant, Taffy Morgan, is an even bigger pain in the ass. The young chap likes beautiful girls/women, especially blond ones with long legs and big... You know. The stuff that's described here would be screaming METOO! more than enough. Then again, when you know the book was written at the end of the 20th century...

Another proof of Frost's clumsiness: He doesn't have a bloc-note, yet writes names and places on his cigarette package. But he never, or I must have overlooked it, uses that information to make progress in his investigations.

R.D. Wingfield can write, that's for sure. I can't compare this Frost-story with the other ones, but this is a page-turner of a book. The translation also helped, of course. Hats off to Frans Bruning for his work. And how you, as a reader, think you know who did it, but in the end you're left baffled, because you did not expect that rabbit to be pulled out of the hat.

I don't usually read detective/crime stories, for several reasons, but I wanted something more accessible, lighter (so to speak), to end 2017. Due to circumstances, my reading time had to be prolonged with 24 hours. Plus, it was a gift, so...

Anyway, as an in-between story, very much recommended! Even more or especially (!) when you imagine the cast of 'A Touch of Frost' in action.