Hard Frost

Detective Inspector 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 pak 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 for 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-greiving  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...