Frost the Fiddler

Leslie Frost #1

by Janice Weber

Pursuing a double life as a United States Secret Agent and successful concert violinist, Leslie Frost, code name Smith, tracks down a venomous nest of East German spies and becomes involved with a dangerously seductive assassin. Reprint.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

390 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Janice Weber is the author of Meat Cove, a geopolitical thriller introducing Constable Fundy Sutherland, a former JTF 2 sniper turned Mountie. Kirkus Reviews praised it as a crime drama with a winning combination of thrills, defeats, and hard earned victories. It is her eighth novel.
Weber's earlier novel Frost the Fiddler was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and has twice been optioned for film and television, including by Lavender Ulin Productions. Her work has drawn comparisons to Mark Twain, Harold Pinter, and Robert Ludlum. Her debut, The Secret Life of Eva Hathaway, remains a cult favorite, an early, genre defining entry in what would later be called chick lit.
Before turning to fiction full time, Weber built a parallel career as a concert pianist, performing at Carnegie Hall, the White House, and Symphony Hall Boston. With Meat Cove, set against the rugged coast of Cape Breton, she brings that same precision to geopolitical suspense.
Weber lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[CynnieRose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have purchased this title three times. I have a note on my newest copy not to donate or lend it. I watched all of the James Bond movies with my dad and later read them. So happy to read of a glamorous woman spy who embodies all of Bond's good qualities, including using sex casually. This book blew my mind in 1994. This time, I enjoyed the techie information of the nineties.

[PJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. I can't say I've ever been a big fan of thrillers or stories about spies, but Weber's inventive mind and unbeatable ear for dialogue kept me glued to every page until the ending. And this was before ebooks, folks! Had to turn every single page with my *gasp* fingers! The hard cover still graces my bookshelf. (Which could use a good dusting.)

I occasionally got lost in the weeds when some of the international intrigue played out (I mean, I know current affairs and geography but not THAT well) but it was still a very satisfying journey.

Loved Leslie Frost, Maxine and the whole gang. This book would have made a phenomenal film or series in the Bond vein.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leslie Frost has Jason Bourne's fatalism, James Bond's gadgets, and Sydney Bristow's issues with romance. She's also a virtuoso violinist, which is a great cover for a spy, except when it's not.

Frost the Fiddler is definitely dated, full of just-post-Cold War politics and Germany on the brink of reunification, but the character of Frost holds up remarkably well. I was so engrossed in this book that I got off at the wrong bus/train stop three separate times today.