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Reviewed by Ruffina Oserio for Readers' Favorite
Alan Warren’s Frozen Asset introduces Geraint Matthews, a vodka-loving artist. Consumed by envy of his more successful wife, Seren, he hurls a paperweight at her head, and when she dies in her sleep, he makes a disturbing decision. Instead of calling the police, Geraint, with the help of his wife's PA Ben, stashes Seren’s body. They keep the Seren Matthews “brand” alive for her agent, doctor, and suspicious stepsister Val, and sell her backlog. Geraint secretly completes her unfinished paintings, using deepfake technology, but when the scheme spirals out of control, different actors are pulled in from all sides, including Carys, a con-artist mistress with homicidal instincts; vengeful gangsters; Drake, an ex-copper; and Val, who flies in from San Francisco to uncover the mystery about her sister.
Frozen Asset is a mesmerizing crime thriller, and I was absorbed from the first page to the very last. The novel is structured in three parts (Investment, Growth, and Withdrawal). The chapters are delivered in a first-person voice that rotates among the characters; each voice is distinct. Geraint's is filled with pompous self-pity; Carys' voice has a predatory sweetness that is impossible to ignore; Ben’s voice has the chirpy patter peculiar to Essex, with the repeated phrase “know what I mean” punctuating conversations. This storytelling lets you relish every delusion as the lies interlock and tighten, resulting in a pitch-black crime caper that examines the art world, an AI-saturated society, and male ego. The backdrop is Swansea, described as “the graveyard of ambition.” Alan Warren paces the story breathlessly, with short chapters ending in hooks, twists that arrive at a gallop, and jeopardy that leads to dead bodies. There is the spin around the title, with a frozen corpse, frozen lives, and a frozen bank account dropped at just the right moment. This crime novel is done with such cleverness that you won’t only enjoy the grim humor but will want to read more from the author.
