Sci-Fi? Murder Mystery. Man (scientist?) is cryogenically preserved (frozen), then awakened. Another man (main character) is trying to solve murders. Read mid 1990s. Spoilers ahead.

[Rachel]

I don't think this was a children's book; I found and read it in my classroom toward the end of elementary school (mid-90s), but there was a wide range of age and reading levels included in the classroom collection (including LOTR). I'd say it was written 70s-90s, and was a well-used paperback. I think the cover design was pretty simple (maybe a few colors and a single image), but I don't really remember it.

The backstory was that a man (a brilliant scientist maybe?) gets himself cryogenically preserved before he dies. Some amount of time later he's brought back.

I think the main part of the book is then a murder mystery where another man is the main character, trying to solve the murders. At the end it's revealed that the scientist is in fact the murderer, when he goes after the main character with (I think) an ice axe, possibly while they're out climbing. This may have been the murder weapon in all cases, I can't recall.

The motivation turns out to be, the entire time he was frozen he was basically in agony but unable to communicate it, and it drove him mad/made him seek revenge.

At one point I was fairly certain the title was something like The Silent Scream, but I've done some pretty extensive searches over the years and have never been able to confirm the book's existence. It wasn't super scary, but the twist at the end definitely made an impression that stuck with me. It's also possible there was a moralistic/Christian angle to it, though I don't remember that.

Happy to answer questions and thanks to anyone who can help! (And for findability later, adding cryogenic, cryogenics, cryonics).

[Kris]

Rachel, how far into the book do you learn the man was cryogenically preserved? Where does he wake up?

Is the other man a police detective, FBI agent, private investigator, etc.?

What is the story's time period and location?

I added a few details to the header/ topic title. Feel free to edit it.

[Rachel]

Hi there Kris, and thanks for your response (and update)! Unfortunately I don't remember any of the other things you asked about with any certainty. I can say that you may know early on that the man has been frozen/unfrozen, but I think you don't find out until the end what it was actually like.

I think it's more likely the other man looking into the murders is not an official investigator but maybe another scientist, journalist etc. but I couldn't say for sure. And the time period was probably mid to late 20th century, maybe set in the U.S. or Europe--somewhere English speaking (I think with mountains), anyway.

Someone in another forum has suggested a book called "Chiller" that I'm trying to read now, though it's striking me as a little too long and it opens with a gory murder right at the beginning, which I feel like I would have remembered

[Kris]

Did the villain commit all the murders after he awakened? Can you describe the murder victims and what they have in common?

Why did he get cryogenically preserved (e.g., dying from an illness, getting old, escape a crime he committed)?