Rodney David Wingfield was a prolific writer of radio crime plays and comedy scripts. His detective novels featuring DI Jack Frost have been successfully adapted for television. Wingfield was a modest man, shunning the London publicity scene in favour of a quiet life with his wife and only son.
A serial killer is terrorizing the senior citizens of Denton, and the local police are succumbing to a flu epidemic. So Frost has to cut corners and take risks, knowing that his Divisional Commander will throw him to the wolves if anything goes wrong.
To help him investigate the case of the missing child, Frost has been assigned a new sidekick, the Chief Constable's nephew. Fresh to provincial Denton in an oversmart suit, Detective Constable Clive Barnard is an easy target for Frost's withering satire.