Hard Freeze

By: Dan Simmons

Narrated by: Fred Filbrich

Revenge has never been served so cold.

Joe Kurtz, former investigator and convicted felon, is on parole. But the years he spent in Attica didn't make his old haunts any safer. Back on the streets of Buffalo, he's already marked by a local Mafia don.

As if watching his back weren't enough work, Kurtz has also been hired by a gravely ill John Frears, whose daughter met a grisly fate at the hands of a murderer. Frears wants one thing before he dies: for Kurtz to find the fiend that the authorities couldn't. But the calculating killer -- a master at changing identities -- has a little unfinished business of his own. Dodging a contract on his head and tracking a serial killer on the loose, Kurtz plunges headfirst into the icy waters of revenge as both victim and avenger.

Critic reviews

"Simmons at his hard-driving best...[A] high-octane thriller."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Simmons' novel uncoils into a deliciously brutal chess game between a chameleon serial killer and ex-con PI Kurtz...action scenes that'll leave your hands clammy on the page."—Booklist

"Hard Freeze makes for great escapist reading...get ready to dip into a terrific, take-no-prisoners read."—Denver Post

"Readers looking for two-fisted, take-no-prisoners action should pick up a copy."—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"A bristling climax...Kurtz makes a riveting protagonist for the noir-is-beautiful crowd."—Kirkus (starred review)

"In addition to crafting one of the least likeable protagonists you'll ever find yourself rooting for... [Simmons] writes action scenes that'll leave your hands clammy on the page."—Booklist

"This straight-ahead, no-frills read is sure to garner enthusiasm among fans of Richard Stark."—Library Journal

The characters, love them, the unpredictability. Great story!!

Excellent good guy gets bad guy, yet the good guys are all good… The unpredictability of it made it really interesting, and then demise of the true evil was a relief. Thank you again for anither fantastic series. I’ve known truly evil people, and they’re still out there.

Kurtz takes a beating

Join the rough shaven private detective on a sometimes complex quest to bring his partner's killers to justice - hard justice.

Solid 5 Star Story and Performance

I've been reading Dan Simmons books for years and his work has NEVER disappointed me. Hard Freeze is Book two in the Joe Kurtz series and the story is fantastic. Great character development (as usual) and non stop thrills from the opening paragraph until the very last syllable. The audible narration was spot on perfect for this series.

His Joe Kurtz series reminds me of works by Elmore Leonard, another great author of crime stories. If you enjoy Elmore Leonard, Vince Flynn, or Thomas Perry and you will **love** Joe Kurtz. If you enjoy thrillers additional titles to check out include: Term Limits by Vince Flynn, Without Remorse by Tom Clancy, and Butcher's Boy by Thomas Perry.

better than the first

MC was a little flat in the first book. In this one he is presented as more of a thinker. the bad guy was interesting too. im hoping they continue to get better and flesh out the supporting characters.

Harder

"Suffer fools. Then make them suffer."
- Dan Simmons, Hard Freeze

Book 2 of 3 in Dan Simmons, hard-boiled, Joe Kurtz novels. I just finished Hardcase and returned for some fast narrative, wit, and violence. Dan Simmons, like Steven King, is hard to just pin down into one genre. Obviously, he is best known for his Hyperion novels and his horror novels, but if you look close one big organizing theme of all his books is literature. His Hyperion Cantos allude to Keat's great poems. Other novels are influenced by Dickens, the War Poets, Homer, Dante, etc. He likes his literature. So, even when Joe Kurtz is existentially beating the hell out of a bad dude, he is only a couple breaths away from throwing out a Nabokov reference. In that way, these novels sorta pay tribute to John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels. Neither MacDonald nor Simmons are Raymond Chandler, but they still surf, imho, one wave higher than Jack Reacher. I'm not sure, I haven't read enough Lee Child or Dan Simmons.