Frost the Fiddler

Rating:
Summary: The best spy-novel I ever read !
Review: I just finished reading this book and I enjoyed it very much. I couldn't put it down. I loved every page of it. It's really fast paced and by the time you finish it, you actually believe that you know Leslie "Smith" Frost. I hope that she will return soon in another, just as exciting novel. Sincere congratuations to Janice Weber !!!

Rating:
Summary: Well written, but appallingly cynical and confusing ending
Review: I recently picked this book up at a used book sale and just finished it. While it was well written and fast paced, just as a thriller should be, I was appalled by the ending (Warning: spoilers follow!)

First of all, I was not satisfied by the resolution. I still don't really get what the novel was all about. What did the spy ring intend with the satellite they were controlling, and why did they have to use such a convoluted way of transferring some data? What did the late husband of the protagonist have to do with everything? The novel does not really succeed in tying up all the loose ends.

However, what shocked me most was the utterly cynical ending. First one of the lovers of the protagonist Leslie Frost, who was apparently somehow involved with the "enemy" spy ring, dies in a car crash after his car was manipulated by the spy ring's female boss, of which Frost knew but did not warn him. Moreover, she had just overheard him say to said spy boss that he loved Frost and wanted to marry her, but she did nothing to stop him from driving to his death. It looks like she was angry about rumours (!) that he had an affair with another woman while he was dating her, something which in this novel apparently carries the death penalty. In the real world, this would probably be called "accessory to murder".

Secondly, Frost provokes a motorcycle/car chase with the spy ring boss, during which she intentionally lets her follower crash into an Autobahn pileup to die.

Even 007 with a "license to kill" usually needs some pretense of self defense for killing his enemies - not Leslie Frost.

Until then I was inclined to feel some sympathy for the tormented protagonist Leslie Frost, who is otherwise competently portrayed by the author, but the cynical ending ruins everything. I won't read the novel again and I can't recommend it.


Rating:
Summary: Lady Spy Who's Great Fun
Review: I think Janice Weber writes wonderfully fun novels. She gives us humor, and a bit of outrageousness. Nice change of pace to have a talented, woman musician/spy as the protagonist. JW has written other novels, all of them good. Too bad most of them are no longer in print.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful author
Review: Janice Weber's books always make me cry, "More! More!" Eva Hathaway had me in stitches, and Frost did much the same.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful author
Review: Janice Weber's books always make me cry, "More! More!" Eva Hathaway had me in stitches, and Frost did much the same.

Rating:
Summary: spy thriller with a classical music twist
Review: The fast and witty but far fetched plot is blessed with an outrageously talented and beautiful heroine who doubles as an internationally acclaimed concert violinist. The backstage look at the life of the international concert star has the ring of truth. The author is a noted concert pianist and her husband is a recording engineer (though not as handsome as the fictional one). While not on the level of the heroes of John Le Carre, this heroine is a nice change from the Jack Ryans of the genre.