Check out our Most Anticipated Books for 2025

BookBrowse Reviews Freeze Frame by Peter May

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reviews |  Beyond the book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Freeze Frame by Peter May

Freeze Frame

The Fourth of the Enzo Files

by Peter May
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • First Published:
  • Mar 1, 2010, 400 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Mar 2010, 400 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About This Book

Reviews

BookBrowse:


The fourth installment in the Enzo Files mystery series, set on a tiny island off the coast of Brittany

Spending time with Peter May's charming and clever Enzo Macleod in Brittany is pure pleasure. In May's fourth installment of the Enzo Files series, the remote Ile de Groix, with its turbulent coast, rough weather, and laconic and secretive residents, tests Macleod intellectually and physically as he attempts to solve a case so cold it's frigid. At the same time, Macleod struggles with a mercurial lover and her life-altering secret.

May establishes his mystery with confidence and carries us toward his final satisfying revelations with sure pacing and adroit storytelling. The story opens in Munich, 1951, as a doctor leaves his wife, children and medical practice behind to disappear into the dark, barely escaping shadowy pursuers. May then carries the reader to Morocco, then Paris, where we meet Macleod, then to Brittany - moving us back and forth in time - until we witness the murder at the center of the narrative.

Twenty years later, Macleod must interpret the clues inside the entomologist murder victim's study, nonsensical messages written on post-it notes stuck in books and taped to the refrigerator and the lamp; a framed poem on the wall hung upside-down; slight and willful disorder among obsessively orderly bookshelves; and a shell-casing without fingerprints. And outside the study, Macleod, an intruder on the island, stirs up old passions in people connected to the murder victim. Among the interesting, well-drawn and often surprising characters are a volatile and violent alcoholic acquitted of the crime but still under suspicion; a charming doctor and his beautiful wife; the victim's lonely and amorous daughter-in-law; and the victim himself - a powerful and confusing presence.

If there's a flaw in Freeze Frame, it's May's occasional awkward overwriting:

"What would she tell him? That Enzo had come knocking at the door, trying to rake over the ashes of the past, and that she had sent him packing? Or having finally lanced the boil that had been slowly poisoning her for twenty years, would she now tell him the truth?"

Still, the truth hidden inside the mystery of Freeze Frame is fascinating and Enzo Macleod is great fun to hang out with. He's a fine guide to the Ile de Groix's history and geography, its food, wine, sea, sky and people. He's satisfyingly smart, too, but not so clever that he becomes remote or inhuman: I especially enjoy it when he solves problems by letting his unconscious mind sort things out, or, when it comes to his own difficulties, can't sort them out them at all.

A note about the series: Though this is the 4th installment in the Enzo Files series, readers should be able to jump right in whether they've read the previous books or not.

Series order to date:
Dry Bones (originally titled Extraordinary People, 2006)
A Vintage Corpse (originally titled The Critic, 2007)
Blacklight Blue (2008)
Freeze Frame (2010).

Publishing in 2011: Blow Back, which will investigate the mysterious death of a three-star Michelin Guide chef.

The title changes for the first two books were explained to BookBrowse by Peter May's editor as follows: "In line with the forensics in the seven-book Enzo series based on a wager that the Scottish scientist can solve seven cold cases presented in a book by Parisian journalist Roger Raffin -- perhaps a ruffian himself -- we have retitled the first two books to fit the concept better. Thus 2006's Extraordinary People is now available in trade paperback as Dry Bones. The Critic is now A Vintage Corpse. Both are available under these titles while the older titles no longer are."

Reviewed by Jo Perry

This review first ran in the April 21, 2010 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book:
  Waardenburg Syndrome

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Freeze Frame, try these:

  • Bury Your Dead jacket

    Bury Your Dead

    by Louise Penny

    Published 2011

    About This book

    More by this author

    It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has come not to join the revels but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong. But violent death is inescapable, even in the apparent sanctuary of the Literary and Historical Society.

  • Bruno, Chief of Police jacket

    Bruno, Chief of Police

    by Martin Walker

    Published 2010

    About This book

    More by this author

    The first installment in a wonderful new series that follows the exploits of Benoît Courrèges, a policeman in a small French village where the rituals of the café still rule.

We have 4 read-alikes for Freeze Frame, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Peter May
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Absolution
    Absolution
    by Jeff VanderMeer
    Ten years ago, the literary landscape was changed forever when Jeff VanderMeer became the "King of ...
  • Book Jacket: The Message
    The Message
    by Ta-Nehisi Coates
    It does not surprise me that Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Message is one of the most important books I've ...
  • Book Jacket
    The House of Doors
    by Tan Twan Eng
    Every July, I take on the overly ambitious goal of reading all of the novels chosen as longlist ...
  • Book Jacket: The Puzzle Box
    The Puzzle Box
    by Danielle Trussoni
    During the tumultuous last days of the Tokugawa shogunate, a 17-year-old emperor known as Meiji ...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

X M T S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.