DI Frost, is not what you would call popular with either his colleagues or his boss Supt Mullett and especially not with his new assistant recently demoted Detective Constable Webster.  But what he is most definitely is an honest copper.  

 

The book is broken into shifts rather than chapters covering Tuesday night into Saturday of Denton Police Station and seeing all sides of the police every rank, the criminals and victims of crime.  The book is set in a time when the police force was very male-centric and although DC Susan Harvey is featured fairly frequently she is often referred to as sexy Sue and the target of sexist jokes and crude comments. 

 

I did like how instead of one murder case followed all the way through, instead we see how it must often be in a policeman’s job a variety of cases from a hit and run, burglary, rape, murder and missing persons and as the cases come into the station we see the evidence, interviews with victims, the hunt for the criminals and their interrogations.  Nothing is simple and sometimes cases intertwine. 

 

It often makes an unsettling read as often the language and thoughts of the police and criminals are blunt and crude.  Shows that life is complicated and often not pretty.  You often admire DI Frost but sometimes you get frustrated and annoyed with him.  He is only human after all.