Hard Frost

SUMMARY: DETECTIVE INSPECTOR JACK FROST Jack Frost, Denton Division, is not beloved by his superiors. In fact, he's something of a pain in the brass: unkempt and unruly, with a taste for crude humor and a tendency to cut corners. They'd like nothing better than to bounce him from the department. The only problem is, Frost's the one D.I. who, by hook or by crook, always seems to find a way to get the job done. It's a high price to pay for a pack of smokes when Frost interrupts his vacation to filch some of Commander Mullett's cigarettes and finds himself pressed into emergency duty. Denton Division is shorthanded after a car crash involving several tipsy high-ranking cops, and on Guy Fawkes night there's more mischief abroad than just a few children making the rounds begging pennies and lighting firecrackers. In the next few days, Frost will deal with a parade of miscreants, including a blackmailer, a shifty businessman, a not-so-grieving widow, a sexual pervert or two, a crazed housewife, and a cold-blooded kidnapper. The clock is ticking, and Frost is perilously short of clues.... A young boy is found dead in a rubish sack, suffocated and with one finger cut off. another boy, Bobby Kirby, is missing. A psychopath is stabbing babies as they lie sleeping in their cots. A fifteen-year-old has been abducted, then found naked by the roadside. The corpse of a petty criminal is discovered, with the tops of three fingers chopped off. The small children of a carpet-fitter are murdered; his wife body is found on the railway line. A supermarket MD is sent ransom demand for the missing boy Bobby, accompanied by one of the child's fingers. -- back cover ‘Fast-paced and wryly amusing... A delight from start to finish’ – Val McDermidDetective Inspector Jack Frost is having a hard time.A young boy is found dead in a rubbish heap, suffocated and with one finger cut off.