The Frost-Haired Vixen

by John Zakour

In the year 2060, Zach Johnson, the world's only freelance private investigator, tackles his strangest case yet--solving the murders of two elves at the North Pole. Santana Clausa, the micro-mini skirt clad bombshell and frost-haired mutant who runs the Pole hires Zach to stop the killer or killers before they strike again, destroying the Holiday for billions. If the media gets whiff of the murders at the happiest, safest place on Earth, mass panic...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0756403979
• ISBN13: 9780756403973
• Release Date: December 2006
• Publisher: Daw Books
• Length: 338 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.3" x 6.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Loads of fun!

John Zakour goes it alone in this, the fourth book featuring freelance PI Zachary Nixon Johnson - the only freelance PI left in the world in the year 2060. In his latest adventure, he is approached by Santana Clausa - who runs the North Pole to make the toys for Holiday, when each person on Earth receives 3 presents. Two of the elves that she oversees have been murdered and she wants Zach to find out who did the deed. Immediately people start trying to kill him. Just another day in the life of Zachary Nixon Johnson! When he arrives at the Pole, he goes undercover to try to determine who among the current guests may have been the murderers. With guardbots being reprogrammed to attack him, sugared-up Elves all around and argumentative fellow guests to contend with, this won't be a walk in the snow. In some ways this book was superior to the joint ventures in the previous works - it is a bit more gritty and "real." In others, it needed more work - there were a lot more typos and grammatical errors, for instance. All-in-all, I would say it holds its own against the first three books in the series and I look forward to seeing where Zakour takes this most amusing cross-genre series in the future. Keep 'em coming!

Zakour can spin a good yarn on his own

John Zakour has turned out another fun guy saves world tale. It's clear that Zakour can come up with plenty of surprising situations and characters on his own. I hope there's another tale of Zach's coming up soon.

An excelent addition to the series

I've been waiting for this book for some time now since I happened to run into the series and while it was not what I expected, I was not disapointed in the style nor wit that John Zakour displays. For anyone familiar with the series the writing style has changed slightly with the leaving of Ganem and perhaps that is why I didnt find it as strong as the others in the series but still one I am very happy to own and recomend. Personally I cant wait for the next adventure.

Excellent......

Just finished reading this book and what a fun book. This story had a little bit of everything in it, humor, sadness and yes even a messgage in it as well. John has come along way in this series and I hope that he doesn't stop writing this series. Loved how he played around this Christmas theme and even accentuated it somewhat to fit the Futurastic setting and the Sci-Fi sector. Can't wait to read the next book in this funa series. Keep writing this series Jim.

comic futuristic thriller

The only private detective in existence in the year 2061 is Zachary Nixon Johnson and whenever he is on a case, which are few and far between, mayhem and destruction follow. His latest client is the mutant Santana Clausa who works in the North Pole with a few thousand cloned elves who make three presents for each person for the winter holiday, an event that removes all religious connotations from what used to be Christmas, Hanukah and Kwanza. Her problem is that someone killed two of her elves which everyone thought was impossible because the North Pole is the happiest place in the world. Zach accepts the assignment but before he goes to the North Pole he is attacked by killer bots. When he arrives at the North Pole, a bot tries to smother him with a pillow and other attempts are made on his life. With the help of his AI supercomputer HARV, he narrows the suspects down to the people who are visiting the North Pole but doesn't rule out an insider reprogramming the bots to kill. John Zakour has written a serio-comic tale with the emphasis on comic futuristic thriller. There is so much humor in the tale that reader will find themselves instantly laughing out loud. Although the tone of THE FROST-HAIRED VIXEN is light, there is a serious undertone to the story. The protagonist is a man out of time, better suited to the twentieth century where he could be a Phillip Marlow then an almost extinct operative who relies on easy getting information and mid twenty first century technology. Harriet Klausner