Scan Frost At Christmas (Inspector Frost, #1) By R.D. Wingfield Readable In Audio Books
was ready to begin yet another British detective series when I delved into this one, Obviously, I've enjoyed other such books or I wouldn't have undertaken yet another, but this one was very different from most of the genre.
First of all, Inspector Jack Frost, is a flawed hero, He's not fighting addictions or hiding skeletons in his closet, but he has difficulty respecting authority and cares little to nothing for protocol or social graces.
Frost is, however, driven to investigate crime and bring the law breakers to justice but in his own way, In truth, even though Frost has a keen mind, he can be forgetful of details and hates the procedural paperwork necessary to any investigation.
While Frost finds himself at odds with his superiors due to his flagrant avoidance of following orders/procedure, he is wellliked and respected by many of his peers on the force and the beat constables.
What I wasn't ready for in this book were the "laugh out loud" moments, especially in the
early chapters of the book.
Frost has a way with words that I found witty and humorous, Inspector Frost slovenly, rumpled, insubordinate, a bit misogynistic and sexist in his remarks about the women he encounters, deeply flawed and yet cleverly successful, undermining his own successes, and giving away the credit.
In Frost At Christmas, Frost investigates several crimes the eight year old daughter of a prostitute goes missing, attempted breakins at a local bank, and the discovery of ayear old skeleton that links back to a bank robbery.
Frost also must mentor Detective Constable Clive Barnard, the nephew of the Chief Constable, much to his chagrin and the concern of his boss.
Solving of the crimes takes an exhausting circuitous path through a cast of suspects and colleagues, Wingfield has created a memorable character in Frost, Ten days to Christmas and Tracey Uphill, aged eight, hasn't come home from Sunday school, Her mother, a pretty young prostitute, is desperate, Enter Detective Inspector Jack Frost, sloppy, scruffy and insubordinate, To help him investigate the case of the missing child, Frost has been assigned a new sidekick, the Chief Constable's nephew, Fresh to provincial Denton in an oversmart suit, Detective Constable Clive Barnard is an easy target for Frost's withering satire,
Assisted and annoyed by Barnard, Frost, complete with a store of tasteless anecdotes to fit every occasion, proceeds with the investigation in typically unorthodox style.
After he's consulted a local witch, Dead Man's Hollow yields up a skeleton, Frost finds himself drawn into an unsolved crime from the past and risks not only his career, but also his life, Detective Inspector Jack Frost, scruffy, insubordinate, and a general pain in the butt to his superiors, but loved by everyone else, He hated paperwork, was always behind in anything to do with NOT being in the field, and forgot all the meetings and briefings he was supposed to attend.
But withdays until Christmas, Frost lands a case which needs to be solved quickly, A young girl, Tracey Uphill,years old, has gone missing after Sunday School, and it's bitterly cold, snowing, not weather for anyone to be out in, let alone anyear old child.
Plus he's been assigned a new man to help out, Constable Clive Barnard, who is the Chief Constable's nephew, and that makes him even grumpier!
Frost has an uncanny ability to see through even the smallest lie from the canniest crook, and with his unique ability, things start happening.
Bodies keep turning up, but he still can't find Tracey, When he finds a long buried corpse, Frost finds himself wishing he'd left things alone, until finally his career, and his life, are in great danger.
I really enjoyed this tale, certainly a different aspect to the usual Detective Inspector! This probably would have gotten a higher rating had the mystery not been resolved by the nearclueless detective bumbling into a monologuespouting perpetrator.
Also I think we're supposed to find the detective endearing, if a bit flawed, The detective discovered that a vicar took nude "provocative" photographs of a girl he knew was onlyyears old, The detective did nothing about this because the girl was physically developed and "a slut", so the vicar was not to blame.
Seriously She'sYEARS OLD! We're supposed to relate to a guy who thinks like this This Constable UK hardcover is signed by R.
D. Wingfield.
"Frost at Christmas" is the first of R D Wingfields DI Jack Frost series, "Frost at Christmas" was first published in Great Britain in, but Wingfield had written it years earlier in,
The 'Frost' books by Wingfield are:
, Frost at Christmas
. A Touch of Frost
, Night Frost
. Hard Frost
. Winter Frost
. A Killing Frost
'Rodney David Wingfield'was a prolific writer of radio crime plays and comedy scripts, some for the late Kenneth Williams, star of the "Carry On" films.
In, the first of four new Frost books was published with the approval of the Wingfield family, The books:
. "First Frost"
. "Fatal Frost"
. "Morning Frost"
. "Frost at Midnight"
Are published under the name James Henry, this pseudonym refers to James Gurbutt,
Hated this book, All of the female characters were either sex objects or old crones, And for DI Frost to defend the vicar when it was discovered that the vicar took nude pictures of a welldeveloped and promiscuousyear old is indefensible.
Frost said the vicar did nothing illegal, but child porn was certainly illegal in thes when this was written, Frost is portrayed as a bumbling Columbo type of detective, but he just seems incompetent and not vaguely as smart as Columbo was.
I was enjoying the book up until about a quarter of the way in when Frost basically blames ayear old girl for a vicar taking nude photographs of her.
NOT okay. That's when I noticed there were basically no positive female characters in the book, Even the one female policeman character seems to exist only to sleep with one of the other policemen and barely has any dialogue.
Add to that the constant wisecracks and commentary about women's bodies and what could've been a fun murder mystery turns into a howto on how to turn off female readers.
In the author's defense, all the men in the book come off a bit like sexobsessed jerks so really neither gender got off too easy.
. . Whilst some resemblance to the excellent TV series is apparent, the insane levels of misogyny I could definitely do without,
What strikes Frost as different from other detectives, at least in the television series where he is brilliantly played by David Jason, is that he really cares about the people of Denton and isn't judgemental or at least tries not to be as he is an old man constantly challenged to adapt to an ever advancing culturally and technological society.
He is often seen taking the side and listening to those on the margins of society and actually building a relationship with them and the community, built on mutual and grudgingly respect of course he has his flaws but this Frost is a juxtaposition of hate and apathy which is difficult to stomach particularly as he excuses pedophiles even with literally a trunk full evidence!
You don't cheer him on as you do on the show where his smugness and refusal to meet the demands of Mullet are borne out of principal, instead he proves to be inept and just difficult for the sake of it.
As a lot of people have stated the main flaw of the novel is it's ridiculous levels of misogyny, which is particularly vexing as it doesn't add to the character at all and leaves an unpleasant feeling in the reader.
I realise that not every character is going to be a proud feminist but i find often when this happens it's for a reason whether to show the character's backward nature or display the views of the time etc.
but I honestly believe this book does a disservice to men, portraying them as perversely depraved, which is neither fair nor true.
Although there are many examples I could use, the incident with the vicar was utterly ridiculous and offensive, particularly the way in which Frost reaccounts his old days to justify such actions.
I was left not wanting to read on but did because it was the only book I took with me on holiday and to be proven wrong.
Very disappointed as the mystery and writing style otherwise were pretty decent and as a fan of the show I was looking forward to reading the primary source.
Definitely a product of its time when it comes to attitudes to women, sex etc, Aside from that it's an interesting take on the genre, In particular, the fact that it contains more than one mystery, and that Frost has many jobs to do, including paperwork and dealing with office politics.
It's fast paced. The author doesn't linger on descriptions of people or places, Dialogue is quick and snappy, often very witty, I'll read others in the series, because it's the sort of thing you can take with you on a plane journey or when you're at a conference or something.
I found this to be an enjoyable book, It had a decent plot, interesting characters and a gruff but lovable Detective Inspector, Jack Frost, I loved the touch of humor, Pirmas sakinys: Bendruoju pagalbos numeriuprieš pat vidurnaktį paskambinęs senukas vos prašnekėjo, jo balsas virpėjo,
Su malonumu perskaitytas senas geras britiškas detektyvas, Visiškai nepasenęs, nors jau greitai busmetų, kai jis pirmą kartą pasirodė ir priešmetų tabelius a, k. a. darbo laiko apskaitos žiniaraščiai reikėjo atiduotidienos iki mėnesio pabaigos, nes kompiuteriai užimti, ir dabar, nors visi jau turi po kelis kompiuterius.
Kad istorija vyksta prieš tiek metų, galima pastebėti iš pinigų vertėssvaras valkatai ir savaitinėssvarų skolos grąžinimas policininkui yra dideli pinigai ir rūkymo patalpose.
Įvykiai sukasi greitai aprašomosdienos Frosto darbo dienos, išaiškinamos net kelios istorijos aštuonmetės Treisės Aphil dingimas, bandymas įsilaužti į banką, ranka su lagaminu Numirėlio dauboje, pagaulus stilius ir britiškas humoras.
Skaitant kirbėjo tik keli dalykai:
Frostas knygoje kelia simpatiją dėmesį skiria darbui, o ne išvaizdai, koncentruojasi į veiksmą, o ne ataskaitų pildymą, daro pagal save, o ne kaip nurodo vadovas ir t.
t. Tačiau jeigu su tokiu tipu tektų dirbti realiame gyvenime, tai putočiau labiau nei jo viršininkas Maletas,
Taisyklių laikymasis vs. aš žinau geriau: .
Ir taip Frostas daro nekartą taisyklės yra kietiems, o ne man, . .
Taip ir neperpratau, kur Frostas sako teisybę, o kur blevyzgoja, Pavyzdžiui, dėl buvimo su žmona iki jos mirties ar iš tiesų Frostas norėjo ją palikti ir tik ligos diagnozė nuo to sulaikė ar tai tik bandymas save nuvertinti jaunojo kolegos akyse
But Frost was never any good at figures and never did what was expected of him..
Six days to Christmas, Outside it started to snow again,