The Fall of Winter — Jack C. Haldeman

SOMEONE ON FROST WANTED TRENT DEAD

Or was it something? Neither possibility seemed to make sense. Terraforming expert Roger Trent was only doing his job: finding out what was preventing a skilled engineering team from turning Frost into an Earth-like world. It was almost as if the planet were resisting their efforts. And their failure left an entire space program in jeopardy.

Trent thought he had some answers. But somebody didn't want him to pass them along... enough to go after Trent with murder in mind.