Winter Frost

A Chris Matheson Cold Case Mystery, Book 2

By: Lauren Carr

Narrated by: Mike Alger

A chance encounter in the city shatters retired FBI agent Chris Matheson’s world when he spots Blair, his late wife, alive—years after the State Department declared her dead in a terrorist attack overseas.

Driven by this chilling revelation, Chris and his covert team of retired law enforcement specialists, the Geezer Squad, posing as a book club, dive into a gripping cold case mystery that unravels a web of international intrigue. A State Department employee’s bizarre suicide—shot three times in the back—a missing CIA operative, and a deadly assassin targeting a woman presumed dead point to a sinister conspiracy. As Chris digs deeper into the secrets surrounding Blair’s staged death, he uncovers shocking clues about what she discovered that made her a target—and why the same forces are now hunting him.

Packed with relentless suspense, heart-pounding twists, and a deeply personal whodunit, WINTER FROST will captivate cold case mystery fans with its intricate puzzle of betrayal, deception, and danger that keeps you guessing until the final, jaw-dropping revelation.

©2019 Terri Lynn Zaleski (P)2019 Terri Lynn Zaleski

Critic reviews

"Winter Frost delivers another well-developed mystery featuring Matheson and the Geezer Squad. It's packed with plenty of twists and turns leading to an explosive conclusion." —5-Star Review by Amy Wilson at Novels Alive

Winter Frost

I am just loving this series. The stories are fun and you are never sure who to trust in the Spy business. Except family and the Geezer Squad of course. I just love the Squad they bring so much to this series. I like that Lauren Carr keeps you guessing until the end. The dog and his hats(clothing collection) and card counting are just too much fun. Mike Alger does a nice job on this series.

Incredibly complex series of plots and sub-plots

Whoa! WINTER FROST: A Chris Matheson Cold Case Mystery starts off with a bang – literally, as the first of many deaths happens in a book with a high body count and a lot of action. For readers like me who are familiar with and fans of book one in the series, ICE, you’ll be delighted that the same endearing cast of characters returns in all its glory. If you haven’t yet jumped on this series, get to it, but don’t be concerned about starting here. Each of the books stands alone, but I do feel like you get a leg-up by having read book one first.

“It was bad enough that his date with Helen had been ruined by him being forced to kill an international assassin threatening to kill the wife he had thought was dead.”

Yeah. That is how WINTER FROST rolls. Don’t daze-out while you’re listening to this story or you may never find your way back. Author Lauren Carr has designed an incredibly complex series of plots and sub-plots that totally come together to provide a fabulous story – even if I was a bit lost some times. I feel like I might have done better reading this one with my eyes because part of the complexity lies in the cast of characters, and in this book, the groupings of them: there are a couple of good guy/gal groups and a couple of bad guy/gal groups, and there are a couple of secret organizations, and there are an abundance of people involved in each of them, so it’s hard to keep them straight when listening to the story. (I believe that in the print copies, Carr provides a list of the characters at the start of the book – that would be super helpful.)

“Helen didn’t know whether to be impressed or frightened by the 65-year-old librarian. Within two minutes of learning about the two unidentified men in the SUV, Doris had concocted a plan to capture them. She’d read it in a book, though she couldn’t remember the author or the title. She did recall that it had a red and black cover.”

Regardless of my confusion with the new characters, the familiar and favorite characters kept me grounded in the story. Doris, our main character’s sassy mother, kept me laughing and is so realistically written that I truly feel like she exists in the world. What a hoot! Additionally, the Geezer Squad “book club” is back and is the backbone of getting to the root of the mysteries and kicking butt and taking names in the process. Also returning to the spotlight is the fabulous retired police dog, Sterling, whose scenes are always spiked with a comic element.
“Politics is like carbon monoxide. As soon as politics touches anything, it drains every ounce of life and sanity from it.”

Chilling chase scenes, multiple crises, explosions, death, destruction, and general mayhem are all placed within the context of some rotten political shenanigans where the name of the game is powerful people doing whatever it takes to stay at the top and having fixers to clean up the messes. With this angle, Carr hits pretty close to what’s in the headlines with WINTER FROST. With the exception of some odd, heavily religious moments that seemed to come out of nowhere, WINTER FROST is solid and well written.

Readers will be slammed from side to side as the story takes its corners quickly and sharply. Just as you catch your breath, there’s a serious mic drop moment with only thirty minutes or so left in the eight plus hour audio, and then the loose ends are rapidly tied and issues resolved as the story pulls into park. There’s no way I’ll miss reading the next book in this series. Hooked.

ABOUT THE NARRATION. Narrator Mike Alger returns and does another terrific job of voicing the massive cast of characters. There is a fair amount of internal monologue, and some effects have been added so listeners can easily distinguish it from regular dialogue. Alger’s pacing is good, and he does every voice, from sultry secret agent to geeky tech guy, with style. I listened to the audio at 1.25x speed due to my typical audio impatience.

Thank you to iRead Book Tours and the author for providing me an audio book download in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give. This full review and other special features on Hall Ways Blog.

Chris Matheson is Back!!

After reading about Chris and how the loss of his wife affected his family I was very excited to see how things were going with Helen. But then he sees Blair, his wife that has been dead for three years. Of course he gives chase just to save her and have her disappear. Then her body does show up and Chris, with the help of the Geezer Squad look into what really happened to Blair.

I have loved this series from the first book and was curious at where it was going to go just from the blurb. But when I started listening to the book and learned that Blair decided to play dead for her job I got so mad with her that I had to walk away. I mean how could she do that to Chris and the girls?!?! Yes, this is the sign of an amazing author to me.

Once I calmed down I proceeded with the book and was quickly sucked into a fantastic story of terrorists, love, betrayal, and loss. Yes, I do admit that I felt for Blair and understood her decision, reluctantly. What an emotional roller coaster for Chris and his family!! Thankfully they are full of strong people that have each others backs.

This book has everything from action and adventure to romance and comic relief. The Geezer Squad is as feisty as ever and of course Sterling has to show up his human counter parts. Mike Alger does a marvelous job breathing life into these characters. This would be a wonderful read but listening to the audiobook adds so much more to the tale.

I love Lauren Carr’s books and recommend everyone check them out. Although they are part of a series they are written so you can read each book as a standalone.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.

lots of action

this book has lots of action, lies, spies, and dirty government secrets. the narrator is awesome and I got a kick out of the pets. There's violence but not graphic, a little bit of cursing, no adult content. in all an excellent audio book.

This is one of Lauren Carr's Best books!

This was a unique idea, full of multiple characters and events. it covered over a decade of Chris Matheeson’s life. The action and suspense never stopped until the very surprising end.

As always, Laure Car’s characters seemed wonderfully real and the events described were very easily visualized.

I previously read this book in print and thoroughly enjoyed it! I, additionally, enjoyed listening to Mike Algiers performance, who did an amazing job in his narration. He performed each recognizable role in a professional manner, with a consistent voice of each character, with much energy, and expression.

Lauren and Mike, once again, “knocked this one out of the park”!

This book was gifted me with no pressure for a positive review. This is my honest review