The Frost Trilogy Series

Two friends grew up together in Scotland. One goes missing in Northern Michigan and the other has time on his hands. The hunt for the lost man begins as a mystery and evolves into an act of redemption. Tom is a wealthy Chicago businessman with too much time on his hands, a man who “displayed impeccable manners and looked earnestly concerned when he had to,” one who “had taken no chances.” Keith is close to homeless and adrift somewhere in northern Michigan. They were friends once, two decades ago, in a working-class Scottish town brought vividly to life in a series of evocative flashbacks. Now the search to find one brings life-affirming purpose to the other, and Tom will stop at nothing to find his friend and discover the truth behind his disappearance. An intuition of impending danger proves to be frighteningly accurate as a small lakeside town grudgingly reveals its dark underbelly, in this debut crime novel that Booklist calls “taut . . . captivating . . . skillfully written, and . . . deeply satisfying.”

When a drowned man is pulled from flooded Boulder Creek, an amateur sleuth’s sense of unease kicks in again with a vengeance. In Mission, Peter Robertson’s sequel to his debut novel, the precarious world of a Colorado mountain town’s homeless population becomes a focus for a semi-retired businessman and a victim pool for a driven killer. A decade and a half after finding death and deceit in Northern Michigan in the previous Permafrost, Tom has divorced and relocated to Boulder, Colorado, and has given up the reins of his lucrative business interests to his long-suffering employee Nye Prior for a life of craft beer and bicycling. He isn’t necessarily any richer or happier, but he’s certainly older and fitter. On an early morning ride, Tom sees a young man pulled from flooded Boulder Creek. The death isn’t so very unusual. In fact another man who was homeless drowned in the creek the month previous. The Boulder cops have certainly seen it before. But Tom hasn’t, and the instincts that drove Tom far north of Chicago in the previous book kick in with a vengeance, and he’s soon riding the creek paths with a whole new purpose: to find the killer before the next deadly spring flood arrives. Fifteen years have softened the yuppie heart of Tom. He’s lost most of his prized possessions and opted for a simpler life. He’s also looking for love, and he finds a librarian who likes to bike, and, more importantly, isn’t averse to helping out with the sleuthing chores. In addition, Tom befriends Reggie Hawkins, a Boulder cop with a secret life. Tom is determined to find a killer. Nye is determined to brew the perfect stout, and fans of Permafrost will once again discover a potent brew of rich characterization and tense plot in this second in a projected trilogy of Tom novels.

The final volume in the Frost Trilogy finds Tom in New Orleans, where two interlocking deaths and the trail of an iconic folk singer take him to the underbelly of the Crescent City. The journey begins in the suburbs of Chicago. An impulsive act of theft coincides with a gentle and inexplicable death. A long drive south to Louisiana follows the trail of an obscure folk singer, drowned years back in trusted waters. And before all the connections between the two deaths can be revealed, a series of hunches will lead Tom to some dark and depressing truths about the nature of fandom and the fallibility of instincts. In the previous Permafrost and Mission, Tom was hopelessly underemployed and terminally listless. As an occasional businessman, he easily found time to track down several killers in Michigan and Colorado, respectively. In this third and final work in the series, Tom is determined to find the link between a young fan’s death in the present day, and an older singer’s decline and death in New Orleans in the confusing aftermath of Katrina. Colorblind looks at the city of New Orleans through the eyes of a seasoned tourist and explores music both as a means of salvation and a road to obsession. Tom finds the connection between the two deaths easily enough. The tougher question of why the connection exists is harder to answer. In the hunt for answers, Tom rediscovers his own love of music, his suppressed vulnerability and the realization that, this time around, not all his hunches are good ones. Permafrost was greeted by ALA Booklist as “a strong opening act,” while Mission was hailed as “a successful follow up.” Bestselling author Doug Stanton (In Harm’s Way and Horse Soldiers) praised both books as a “superbly smart and addictive series.” Colorblind brings Tom’s journey to a close, with taut crime detailing, vivid local color, and the astute character observation that fans of the first two books have come to expect from this author.