Winter Frost
written by R.D. Wingfield
part of A Touch of Frost

The murder of a local drug addict, the hunt for a serial rapist, a hit-and-run involving the spoiled son of an MP, and a robbery at a strip joint all have something in common. Detective Inspector Jack Frost has been assigned with the thankless task of investigating them. Fighting the stress and ignoring his mounting pile of paperwork, Frost soon finds himself up against the various manifestations of criminality.

As Christmas approaches Detective Inspector Jack Frost is on the trail of a sensitive case with limited time to solve it. Tracy Uphill, an eight year old child, goes missing after attending Sunday school. It turns out her mother is a prostitute who couldn't meet her because she was with a client. There are many suspects and characters to trouble DI Frost's mind including; the mother's client with a false alibi, the vicar with a penchant for pornography and a local psychic who claims she knows where to find the body of the young girl. At the same time other cases also need to be solved as Frost has to investigate some attempted break-ins at a local bank and a 30-year-old skeleton with a severed arm. Detective Constable Clive Barnard, the nephew of the Chief Constable, is another problem Frost faces. While many believe that DC Barnard has only got into CID through his family connections and his all-knowing attitude does not help to improve his image, Frost seems to be the only person understanding the young cop and becomes his mentor.

A serial killer is terrorizing the senior citizens of Denton, and the local police are succumbing to a flu epidemic. Tired and demoralized, the force has to contend with a seemingly perfect young couple suffering arson attacks and death threats, a suspicious suicide, burglaries, pornographic videos, poison-pen letters... In uncertain charge of the investigations is Detective Inspector Jack Frost, crumpled, slapdash and foul-mouthed as ever. He tries to cope despite inadequate back-up, but there is never enough time; the unsolved crimes pile up and the vicious killings go on. So Frost has to cut corners and take risks, knowing that his Divisional Commander will throw him to the wolves if anything goes wrong. And for Frost, things always go wrong.

The long-suffering Superintendent Mullet has enlisted the help of a new D.C.I, Skinner, to rid the Denton Police of Inspector Frost once-and-for-all. The pair see him as a hindrance to the Police Service, which is struggling to adapt to the modern era of Policing. Inspector Frost is his usual uncouth self; derogatory towards women and with a slightly perverse sense of humour, but through this we can see that in a way, they are right: Frost has no place in the modern Police Service and he knows it all-too-well. Meanwhile, Inspector Frost has to contend with missing children, severed body parts, rape cases and a man claiming to have killed his wife (even though she reports in as alive and living outside Denton). Every time Frost takes on a case, another seems to pop-up, and he begins to feel the strain. Things take an alarming turn for the worse as his nemesis discovers that Frost has been forging pay-slips for some time (a crime for which D.I Frost could very easily be fired), Frost is cornered in an abandoned butcher's shop by a knife-wielding man and the whole situation is brought to an explosive end in an armed stand-off at a remote farmhouse.