FrostLine (Ben Abbott (Paperback)) - Softcover

"A pleasant, effortless read."--Deadly Pleasures "This is a sophisticated, intelligent novel, among the best of American crime-writing."-Sunday Telegraph "This novel is a delight! Those of us who've been clamouring for a new Ben Abbott will be ecstatic with his latest adventure among the folk of Newbury." -Jeffery Deaver "A pleasant, effortless read.--Deadly Pleasures "First published in the U.K. in 1997 and now extensively revised and updated, this assured third entry in Scotts Ben Abbott series (after HardScape and StoneDust) provides plenty of macho action.... a thoroughly good read." --Publishers Weekly ""First published in the U.K. in 1997 and now extensively revised and updated, this assured third entry in Scotts Ben Abbott series (after HardScape and StoneDust) provides plenty of macho action.... a thoroughly good read."" --Publishers Weekly Ask not what happened to Justin Scott's pungent and most promising mystery series about a Connecticut real estate broker named Ben Abbott: The third entry (after "HardScape" and "StoneDust") is finally with us, and we should be properly grateful. Abbott is a terrific character: a real estate broker with backbone and ethics (both earned during an early, life-changing, three-year stretch in Leavenworth "for the sins of an overly meteoric yuppie career on Wall Street") but also with the basic need to make a living selling property in the increasingly hot market of Newbury. So when Harry King (a Kissinger figure minus the accent) demands his presence at his huge Fox Trot estate, Abbott hoofs on up to King's burgeoning megamansion, where two of Abbott's less savory cousins are working security at the gatehouse. King wants Abbott not to sell his house but to help him enlarge it by buying an adjoining stretch of land belonging to deranged Vietnam War veteran Richard Butler, who not only spurns King's money but also--as a former explosives expert--has a habit of blowing things up when he becomes upset. Add to this the fact that Butler's equally violent and dysfunctional son, Dickie (another shady part of Abbott's past), has just been released from prison and you begin to see the shape of the exciting, often-hilarious kinds of things to come.

Praise for FrostLine... "This assured third entry in Scott's Ben Abbott series provides plenty of macho action...a thoroughly good read." -Publishers Weekly When Newbury's newest resident, ex-diplomat Harry King, summons real estate agent Ben Abbott to his new McMansion, Fox Trot, Ben dreams of big dollar signs. But King doesn't want Ben's selling expertise; he wants him to mediate a dispute with his troublesome neighbor, surly Vietnam vet Richard Butler. A strip of Butler's land cuts straight into King's estate like a knife. King wants to build a dam in the stream separating them, creating a picturesque lake. Then an explosion rocks a lavish party on the Fox Trot lawn, blowing up the dam and Butler's ex-con son, Dickie, along with it. Butler, an army-trained sapper, is arrested for setting the dynamite but Ben, whose childhood friend Dickie had tried his patience and loyalty many times before, refuses to accept Butler's guilt. Besides, too many things don't add up. Could the destruction be the work of terrorists? Or one of the many groups holding a grudge against King? Or just someone with his own axe to grind? Justin Scott has written 24 novels, mostly under his own name, and five modern sea stories under his pen name, Paul Garrison. He has been twice nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America, and is a member of the Adams Round Table. E-mail: benabbott@aol.com Web: seastoriesbypaulgarrison.com