Frozen Grave

Willis/Carter #3

by Lee Weeks

From the author of the bestselling Dead of Winter and Cold As Ice comes a page-turning new thriller that will have you hooked from start to finish.

The first body is found in London's East End - a middle-aged woman, brutally murdered.

The second body turns up in a disused quarry, attracting the attention of DI Carter and DC Ebony Willis. They had interviewed the dead man, JJ Ellerman, about his links to the first crime, and somebody wanted to stop him talking.

And then the third body is found, and it becomes clear a serial killer is on the loose. What connects the victims? And who will the killer go after next?

Genres: Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Mystery

Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

I was born in Devon of Welsh parents. My father was a detective, my mother a nurse. I left school with just one O level in Art and by seventeen I was living in Sweden.

I loved reading Henry Miller whilst listening to Neil Young. I travelled in France and settled in Germany at twenty-one, where I worked in a bar. I came back to the UK to study for a year or two and then went to live in Hong Kong. There I fell into the hands of triads.

A detective once told me to go home and I really should have listened him, I would have saved myself a near-death experience, but then I would never have had the material for my books.

Years later, one marriage down and two children fledged, I am writing my stories. Some are based on my life, all carry a part of me and my experiences.

Taken from Author's Amazon page

Reviews

[Craig "NEEDS MORE DAMN TIME TO READ !!!!" · Rating 1 out of 5]

I give up. Be interesting to find out how old the author is or if he or she has children because the writing style is awful, almost childish like he or she let one of the kids write some paragraphs haha. Strange. I am still intrigued about the story but couldn't suffer any more of that style of writing!

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have enjoyed reading Peter James and Stuart Mcbride, so I thought I would give another author of the same genre a try. Very disappointed. I can only describe the style of writing as simple and a bit wishy washy. There wasn't any depth to the main characters, and I appreciate that I've picked a book midway through a series but the characters (apart from Willis maybe) didn't seem to have any real history. I plodded on with it though, but to be honest I sped through the last third of the book, itching to finish and found myself not caring who the killer was. I still don't get what the killers motive was, but that maybe due to me rushing it, and I don't particularly care anyway!

[Matt Heaton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the ending was rather eprupt and happened so quickly but the story its self was very enjoyable and kept me hooked to the end

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main part of this book was ok but the ending was terrible and left more unanswered questions than answered ones. In fact by the time I got to the end I felt so let down that I wished I had never started reading it. What a complete let down.

[Samael Kovacs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Going to be completely honest here.
This was one enourmous chore to get through and I would have dnf this book had I something other to do on the bus.

How can a murder mystery be boring? This is how.

There is such a thing as red herrings and then there is such a thing as just wasting time on something.

I honestly could not tell you who was the main character of this novel there were so many people stuffed in here it was hard to grow attached to anyone.

I only realized who the MC was because of this Goodreads page and honestly no. Didn't feel like that at all.

The "twist" made basically no sense and could have honestly been anyone. You can't guess who the killer is because the author left no way for you to do that.

I would not recommend this one at all.

[Laura]

One of the worst books I've read - if only it were possible to unread a book! Terrible writing style, bad character development, errors with police procedure and completely fabricated geographical layout.

I hope the author has a day job.

[Andrea Osborn-Evans]

Another excellent novel continuing the series with DI Dan Carter and DS Ebony Willis. A good plot and interesting characters make this an absorbing read. I hope there are more to follow.

[Alma (retirement at last) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do enjoy reading Weeks books as they are gritty and the female detective has a lot of personal issues to deal with. However, her use of prose is quite disjointed and it is sometimes hard to decipher which character is actually speaking. The prose is also almost child like in the way it is put together.

There are quite a few female characters in this book and it was sometimes hard to fathom out which was which. It also became confusing as there seemed to be gang warfare supposedly linking the crimes but it somehow didn’t quite fit with who was doing the killing and why.

I will continue to read the books about Ebony Willis as I do enjoy her character.

[Kirstie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this series with Willis and Carter
This was fast paced and a great storyline but the ending could have gone on another 100 pages it was a bit too quickly tied up and abrupt

Women are turning up dead and seemingly not connected until they find a love rat

Also Willis’ back story gets even more interesting

[Robbie Henderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was hooked throughout but all info was useless, worst ending ever

[joey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sì, carino, veloce ma troppo incasinato. Bello il setting comunque.

[Lainy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 446

Publisher - Simon & Schuster

Blurb from Goodreads


The first body is found in London's East End - a middle-aged woman, brutally murdered.

The second body turns up in a disused quarry, attracting the attention of DI Carter and DC Ebony Willis. They had interviewed the dead man, JJ Ellerman, about his links to the first crime, and somebody wanted to stop him talking.

And then the third body is found, and it becomes clear a serial killer is on the loose. What connects the victims? And who will the killer go after next?



My Review

A woman's body is discovered, brutally murdered in a very run down area. The police start to investigate and find a tangled web or sex, danger, lies, deceit and before long another murder. They soon suspect a serial killer is at work and have to solve the case before another body is discovered.

This is a tricky wee book, there are a few things going on in this book and before long the detectives find links to names already known to them. Involving people in the investigation is always risky and with horrendous murders they need to close the net in! It is a busy story, lots of branches of stories and the investigation unearths seedy sexual encounters, infidelity, gangs, violence and brutality.

The pace changes, I felt, slow at some areas and then kicks off and you don't want to put the book down. It has to be said, animal cruelty raises its ugly head, briefly in this book, as well as brutality to humans so some readers may find it hard going in places, if you are familiar with Weeks work thi won't come as a surprise. I have read Weeks before and I will read her again, this wasn't my favourite of this authors work but I would still recommend it, 3/5 for me this time.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know if it's because I didn't read the first two books in this series or if it's just the authors way of writing that had me confused over several parts. The actual storyline has the makings of a great book but the way it was written, edited, laid out I don't know for me there was something missing. One minute you would be reading about the case & how it's progressing then the next page would be references to the criminals & things they were doing then it would jump back to the police officers & the case. Then it would jump forward to a section of story about one of the officers mothers whose in a hospital being treated for something, then another patient is admitted & odd referrals to the Rampton House where she is serving a sentence for past crimes but as she's insane there is no mention of correction officers going with her to the hospital & it all seems disjointed.
I hoped the ending would tie up the loose ends but I was left feeling totally confused as to how the people who were in Spain ended up there, who was responsible for the crimes & overall rather disappointed with the ending, it appears to have been published with maybe a chapter or two missing as you go from having a group of women all in the UK to some of them in Spain but no mention of how or why they went there, & all in all a very messy & annoying end to the story.

[Jamie Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

More a 2.5. I loved Lee weeks first books, however I'm finding the author is making the horrible mistake of making it more about the personal lives of the characters than the story.

The stuff with Ebony' s mother adds nothing to the books and the tangent involving that dysfunctional relationship is wearing thin for me, especially as in this case it's simply to inject some graphic gore by way of a 'shocking' scenario that is as implausible as it is irrelevant.

Disappointing.

[Abi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly I hated this book. There was around 400 pages on a staggered story jumping from character to character which ended with 2/3 pages on the actual reveal of how the murder happened, and in those 2/3 pages it tries to tie the characters together that seemingly had no connections - there appeared to be no clues dropped throughout the story (no not that I noticed anyway). Just a long, dull, ill-structured book.

[Paul Finch · Rating 2 out of 5]

As awful as ever from this terrible, terrible, oh so terrible writer. Why I can't stop reading this painfully amateurish dross is one of the great mysteries of our time, like how James Dashner ever got published or why people seem to genuinely enjoy novels by Terry Goodkind.

Unfathomable.

[Lucy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't even know where to start. This book is TERRIBLE. The plot sounded quite good, but the writing is awful and the characterisation even worse. The ending was abrupt and didn't seem to make an awful lot of sense.

Can't believe I even managed to finish it!

[Lyn Mckenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never read any Lee Weeks books but this book has made me want to get the rest of the authors books. I sinply loved the book, couldnt put it down

[Justin Pratten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read crime/thriller with a happy ending.

[Anwiti Singh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, where do I begin?

I have read some pretty bad books in my life. However, having read Lee Week's 'Dead of Winter' some time ago, I wasn't expecting this one to be this awful. Not that the previous one was great or anything, but it had a beginning, middle, and an end with some clear storylines. And I could read it without wondering if it was written by someone for their 8th-grade assignment the night before submission.

You jump from one scene to another in the same line. Elsewhere, if the geographical locations remain same, you jump from Ebony's POV to Carter's simply after a full stop. You don't get time to adjust to one voice and it suddenly changes. There is either overuse of pronouns or a complete absence of them. Some entire paragraphs refer to the character's entire name- 'Willis stood up. Willis could see. Willis blah blah".

The build-up is extra-long, the pay-off can be barely called one. There is absolutely no distinction between the climax and the resolution.
I am not one who looks for poetic writing in thrillers. I can tolerate even Dan Brown-esque prose really easily. I rarely give books one-star, because being a writer I want to appreciate the effort that goes into writing stories, building worlds, and polishing characters. I saw none of that here. There is nothing redeemable about my time wasted reading this one. At least with Dan Brown, I can piss off people by pretending to analyse how greatly simple the prose is.

Heavily disappointed because if you look at the skeleton of the story, it can be a very intriguing thriller if written properly. Everything of substance was hurried in the last fifteen pages and it feels like a fraudulent move by the author.

[Marian Blanaru · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could have been so much better if not for the bs ending crammed in a handful of pages, the unexplained links that we have to deduce from the very little information (like how tf did they not find out earlier that ???Emily is Smith's sister??? and we are served this info in 2 measly lines without further explanation) and all the roundabout innuendos to "men bad". But wait, there's more. We have a wife in an unhappy marriage with a serial cheater that has her side man as well but doesn't want to leave because ... why? Is she waiting for him to die instead of divorcing his cheating ass? Yep. Because logic. Oh and the dude with the dog that seems so important and it turns out he isn't. We just like reading about stuff that won't matter later in the book but it's worth mentioning in the last pages because continuity. There's so much filler info in this one it makes me mad thinking about it.
For the love of all that's sacred please don't ever rush the ending of a murder mystery book and cram it in the last 5 pages trying to tie the loose threads for 7 characters.
But if someone wants classes on how to write a good book and ruin it at the very end please address this and take notes.

[Melinda Irvine · Rating 2 out of 5]

An expensively dressed corporate sector woman answers an ad on a ‘naughty’ casual sex site; she's found the next day brutally raped and beaten to death in the homeless quarters or 'rough sleeping' zones. Frozen Grave is book 3 in the British ‘DC Ebony Willis’ crime series and takes place about a month or so after book 2.

I really don’t like writing negative book reviews because I was kind of enjoying this series, but this one was really disappointing. There are just so many characters I couldn't keep up; plus all the loose ends, red herrings, side plots, and swift changes of points of view — at one point even a dog is the narrator. I ended up irritated and couldn’t wait for it to end. And when I finally got to the ending thought it was completely implausible.

In the first two books I was quite eager to learn more about the back story of DC Willis and the author begins to expand it here in Frozen Grave. But it really added nothing to the overall narrative of the book and just seemed like another contrived way to add a bit of ‘shock value’ and gore. If I hadn't already bought book 4 (Amazon had the first 4 books in the series on promo a few weeks back) I doubt I'd read any more in the series. It’s starting to feel like one of those times when you order and pay for a meal (it tastes terrible) and you end up eating it anyway.

[Cristina Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

That is so scary a sophisticated women in a career has an issue with sexual playing and she dies, one enters the story and draws conclusions that the killer is the predator that singles out women, this I found amusing and thought that amount of women that he demonstrated to keep up with he would be a great addition for Viagra, this book shows the extremes of inner issue obsession so frightening and how far it spreads.
I am truly amazed at this Author and his plot the depth that has and how many people involved and the Wife where is she still have not worked this out, then the plot becomes thicker and the real killer that gives him his comeuppance is one very woman he extorts. Dangerous and compelling.

[Maureen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dreadful writing - disjointed, clunky, amateurish but not in a way that offers any hope... I found my myself thinking "How? How is it possible for this writing to find a publisher". Sort of inspiring, I guess, as it made me think that if something as weak as this can get published, maybe I could have a crack at it myself.

I've since picked up a Nancy Mitford and remembered, oh no, I couldn't ever be a writer.

[Francesca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really did enjoy this book, I loved how it was fast-paced it was, however there was points where it was difficult to keep track of who was who, mainly when it came to Ellerman's women.
I also thought the ending felt rushed and wasn't as tidy as it could have been, I just felt like I still had questions that weren't answered.

But the story was really good and fun to read, it did keep me gripped throughout and I'd be happy to look at more of Lee's work!

[Tisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

i thought it will be like Ellerman will be the murderer but he wasnt.. then i thought its simon, but he wasnt!
when it was like the ladies gathered at Megan's house and Willis and Carter too came to help, i aint getting the ending at all!! its allll messed up!!

itss just it was a page turner but in the end it was the mess up of everything!

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a very pleasant read. The first book of lee weeks that I have ever read and I think I’ll give another one ago. I did get confused about the amount of main characters and therefore had moments of confusion in the book. I do feel the ending a bit rushed however didn’t see the end coming nor the plot twist. Overall an average read a good filler book.

[Jody Wheeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Was a bit of a strange ending didn't really explain some of the characters and how they ended. But altogether it was a very good book and I am now gonna start the next one.

[Nikki Ayling · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book, especially as the areas visited I know really well. Thanks for another great installment in the lives of Willis and Carter.
Now time to read a quick ARC then onwards with the series.

[Carol Pennington · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good start to the storyline, it kept me wanting to read on, about ¾ through it started to get a bit lame as tho a different writer had taken over for the ending. A poor and rushed end to the book, disappointing.