Freeze Frame by Peter May
Good things can often be found in files. Whether it involves X's, Dresdens, or even Rockfords, many good stories can be found hiding within the dusty confines of your average four drawer filing cabinet. Author Peter May has such a cabinet. If you dare to open the top drawer and thumb your way to the section marked E, you'll likely to come across the Enzo Files.
In May's newest novel, Freeze Frame, Enzo Macleod is a half-Scottish, half-Italian former forensic scientist who now lives in France and works as a university professor in Toulouse. As a result of a wager, he becomes involved in solving old French 'cold cases' using the latest in forensic technology. But where there are unsolved murders, there are also killers who are desperate to protect their secrets, and Enzo soon finds that a lifetime spent in laboratories has hardly equipped him with tools needed to survive the life-threatening situations that he encounters.
File #1 in Section E of the top drawer contains the first Enzo story, Extraordinary People. Here we get plenty of insight into the arcane world of France's ruling elite. A complex puzzle sends Enzo on a scavenger hunt around France for body parts, culminating in a thrilling denouement in the catacombs of Paris.
File #2, The Critic, involves the murder of a celebrated wine critic and takes place among the vineyards of the Gaillac region. When the case goes cold, Enzo reopens it only to find that the genteel world of winemakers hides a business driven by greed, envy, and desperation.
File #3 gives us the story of Blacklight Blue. When Enzo receives a shocking diagnosis from his doctor, he becomes the victim of someone who seems intent on destroying him. Can he stay alive long enough to catch the long-hidden killer?
Kirkus Reviews calls this series, "cerebral and chilling." - and for good reason. If one were to look closely, they'd find that the set of files detailing Enzo Macleod's thrilling cases continues to grow.
Newly added to the top drawer is File #4, Freeze Frame. Here, a promise made to a dying man leads Enzo to the Ile De Groix off the coast of Brittany. This quaint island is the site of the notorious 1990 slaying of tropical disease specialist and entomologist Adam Killian. For nearly two decades the crime scene - and the cryptic hints Killian supposedly left to identify his killer - have remained as undisturbed as an insect frozen in amber. Can Enzo decipher the message and stay in one piece in the process?
For the answer to this question, you'll have to seek out that file cabinet nestled in the corner of its dimly lit office. You'll have to open the top drawer and thumb through to Section E. Once there, take out the fourth file, the one labeled Freeze Frame, and find a nearby chair. Have a seat. Open it up. But be prepared to savor every piece of information in the bundle before you. And remember, good stories can often be found in files.
George Ebey is the author of Broken Clock, Dimensions: Tales of Suspense, The Red Bag, and Widowfield. He is a graduate of Kent State University with a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice and a minor in writing. He lives with his wife, Gail, in Northeast Ohio.


