The Denton police force is decimated by the flu and only Inspector Frost is around to combat the crime wave.

The main character,.DCI Frost is not even remotely likeable character, though he does have brief flashes of humanity. but it does have me curious about how it will move.forward.so I'll cech.oit the new one

Loved EVERY SINGLE page... Only a shame Wingfield didn't write more of this series. They are the best books I have ever read!

I love this series of police procedurals that will be familiar to those who have seen the TV series of the same name. In this one, Detective Inspector Jack Frost —great name, what? — is scrambling to deal with a new Detective Sergeant Gilmore, anxious to move up in the ranks, stiff, obsequious toward Mullett, the divisional superintendent. Gilmore’s wife is unhappy with the move to Denton, where she fears she will have nothing to do. Frost is uncouth, sloppy, on the surface unprofessional, and always trying to avoid paperwork and his nemesis, the superintendent. The Denton CID has been particularly hard hit by a flu epidemic at just the worst time, with someone killing old ladies just for the fun of it. Then a young girl has disappeared only to have her body surface in a cemetery crypt beset by vandals, and to make things worse, someone has been sending poison pen letters to people in town threatening to reveal some very dark secrets, indeed. Things are so busy with everyone working double and triple shifts that Frost is cutting more corners than usual relying more than he should on his intuition. In the meantime, Mullett continues to look for any excuse to fire Frost. Some of the scenes and repartee are wonderful. Frost backs up a police constable who had arrested a Councilor, who also happens to be on the Police Committee, for being “pissed as a newt.” In the process, of course, Frost had been more than a little rude to the man, and Mullett, anxious not to antagonize the powers-that-be, orders Frost to apologize. “ ‘Very good, Super,’ replied Frost, with an expression of such sweet reasonableness that Mullett was instantly uneasy.” Frost, “looking very contrite,” enters the room where the Knowles, the councilor, awaits. “ ‘I’d like to apologize,’ said Frost, ‘for calling you a big, fat, ugly bastard.’ “Knowles frowned and looked puzzled. ‘I didn’t hear you say that.’ “ ‘Oh, sorry,’ said Frost innocently, sounding genuinely apologetic.’ ‘It must have been what I was thinking. ‘ “