Frost the Fiddler

Leslie Frost #1

by Janice Weber

Most concert violinists wouldn't pack explosives in the case along with their Stradivarius, but Leslie Frost is no ordinary musician. When she's not performing the Kreutzer sonata, she's spying on neo-fascists and ex-communists in the emerging new East Germany. Frost, aka Smith (code names for the all-female band of American super-spies come from the Ivy League's Seven Sisters schools) witnesses a murder outside an East German church and is drawn into a mission that centers on a powerful computer and a ring of communist spies. With an array of high-tech gadgets in her purse, and a Harley motorcycle in her garage, Frost/Smith is as savvy and cool as Bond at his best. Between concerts and recording sessions, her time is filled with midnight meetings of both the romantic and the dangerous varieties, with high-speed chases and nick-of-time escapes.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

Audible Audio

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Janice Weber's novels, most of which have something to do with music, have a worldwide following. Her debut novel, The Secret Life of Eva Hathaway, enjoys near cult status and is widely recognized as iconic Chick Lit - though appearing years before the genre was invented. Its colorful characters, verbal virtuosity, wit, and sensuality established the hallmarks of a style that has earned Weber comparison with Mark Twain, Fran Liebowitz, Harold Pinter, and Robert Ludlum.

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.

[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.