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Inspector Jack Frost books in order: the complete series
Looking for R D Wingfield’s Frost books in order? Look no further!
Detective Inspector William Edward “Jack” Frost is hopeless at paperwork but second-to-none at solving mysteries.
Inspiring the critically-acclaimed television series A Touch Of Frost, R D Wingfield penned six crime-busting novels featuring DI Frost, with four subsequent novels published under pseudonyms. All celebrate the genius mind of the hapless DI, in the ill-fated town of Denton, England.
An expert at crafting stories featuring small-time criminals, multiple plotlines and black humour, Wingfield revelled in the curt, chain-smoking detective Jack Frost, and there’s no doubt you will too!
Inspector Jack Frost books in order:
Frost at Christmas by R D Wingfield
Frost at Christmas (1986)
Ten days to Christmas and Tracey Uphill, aged eight, hasn’t come home from Sunday school. Her mother, a pretty young prostitute, is desperate. Enter Detective Inspector Jack Frost, sloppy, scruffy and insubordinate. 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.
Assisted and annoyed by Barnard, Frost, complete with a store of tasteless anecdotes to fit every occasion, proceeds with the investigation in typically unorthodox style. After he’s consulted a local witch, Dead Man’s Hollow yields up a skeleton. Frost finds himself drawn into an unsolved crime from the past and risks not only his career, but also his life.
A Touch of Frost by R D Wingfield
A Touch of Frost (1987)
DI Jack Frost, officially on duty, is nevertheless determined to sneak off to a colleague’s leaving party. But first the corpse of a well-known local junkie is found blocking the drain of a Denton public lavatory – and then, when Frost attempts to join the revels later on, the nubile daughter of a wealthy businessman is reported missing.
Sleepy Denton has never known anything like the crime wave which now threatens to submerge it. A robbery occurs at the town’s notorious strip joint, the pampered son of a local MP is suspected of a hit-and-run offence and, to top it all, a multiple rapist is on the loose. Frost is reeling under the strain, his paperwork is still in arrears and now, more than ever, his self-righteous colleagues would love to see him sacked. But the manic Frost manages to assure his superior that all is under control. Now he has only to convince himself.
Night Frost by R D Wingfield
Night Frost (1992)
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.
Hard Frost by R D Wingfield
Hard Frost (1992)
A young boy is found dead in a rubbish heap, suffocated and with one finger cut off. Another boy 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’s body is found on the railway line. A supermarket MD is sent a ransom demand for the missing boy, accompanied by one of the child’s fingers…
Jack Frost, scruffy and insubordinate, foul-mouthed and fearless, staggers from crisis to crisis, his bumbling modus operandi disguising his extraordinary powers of detection.
Winter Frost by R D Wingfield
Winter Frost (1999)
Denton is having more than its fair share of crime. A serial killer is murdering local prostitutes; a man demolishing his garden shed uncovers a long-buried skeleton; there is an armed robbery at a local minimart and a ram raid at a jewellers. But DI Jack Frost’s main concern is for the safety of a missing eight-year-old, and soon after another girl is reported missing, her body is found, raped and strangled.
Then Frost’s prime suspect hangs himself in his cell, leaving a note blaming Frost for driving him to suicide. Coarse, insubordinate and fearless, Jack Frost is in serious trouble.
A Killing Frost by R D Wingfield
A Killing Frost (2008)
On a rainy night in Denton, DI Jack Frost is called to the site of a macabre discovery in the woods – that of a human foot. Meanwhile, a multiple rapist is on the loose, the local supermarket reports poisoned stock and a man claims to have cut his wife up into little pieces, yet can’t recall where he hid them. But it is when two young girls are reported missing in quick succession that the Denton crime wave reaches terrifying heights.
As the exhausted Frost staggers from case to case, pressured from all sides and haunted by memories of his wife, something nasty arrives at the station in the form of Detective Chief Inspector Skinner. The scheming, slippery Skinner clearly has his eye on the Superintendent’s office, but his first job is to manipulate the transfer of the unorthodox D.I. Jack Frost to another division. Will Frost find the missing girls before his new nemesis forces him away from Denton once and for all?
Prequel series:
First Frost by James Henry
First Frost (2011)
Denton, 1981. Britain is in recession, the IRA is becoming increasingly active and the country’s on alert for an outbreak of rabies. DS Jack Frost is working under his mentor and inspiration DI Bert Williams, and coping badly with his increasingly strained marriage.
But DI Williams is nowhere to be seen. So when a 12-year-old girl goes missing from a department store changing room, DS Frost is put in charge of the investigation…
Fatal Frost by James Henry
Fatal Frost (2012)
May, 1982. Britain celebrates the sinking of the Belgrano, Princess Diana prepares for the birth of her first child and Denton Police Division welcomes its first black policeman, DS Waters – recently relocated from East London.
While the force is busy dealing with a spate of local burglaries, the body of 15-year-old Samantha Ellis is discovered in woodland next to the nearby railway track. Then a 15-year-old boy is found dead on Denton’s golf course, his organs removed. DS Jack Frost is sent to investigate – a welcome distraction from troubles at home. And when the murdered boy’s sister goes missing, Frost and Waters must work together to find her – before it’s too late.
Morning Frost by James Henry
Morning Frost (2013)
November 1982. It’s been one of the worst days of DS Jack Frost’s life. He has buried his wife Mary, and must now endure the wake, attended by all of Denton’s finest. All, that is, apart from DC Sue Clarke, who has been summoned to the discovery of a human foot in a farmer’s field. And things get worse. Local entrepreneur Harry Baskin is shot inside his club and a valuable painting goes missing.
As the week goes on, a cyclist is found dead in suspicious circumstances. Frost is on the case, but another disaster – one he is entirely unprepared for – is about to strike…
Frost at Midnight by James Henry
Frost At Midnight (2017)
August, 1983. Denton is preparing for a wedding, with less than a week to go until DS Waters marries Kim Myles. But the Sunday before the big day, the body of a young woman is found in the churchyard. Their idyllic wedding venue has become a crime scene.
As best man to Waters, DI Jack Frost has a responsibility to solve the mystery before the wedding. But with nowhere to live since his wife’s family sold his matrimonial home, Frost’s got other things on his mind. Can he put his own troubles aside and step up to be the detective they need him to be?
A Lethal Frost by Danny Miller
A Lethal Frost (2018)
After a morning’s betting at the races, bookmaker George Price is found in his car, barely alive with a bullet in his head. As he’s rushed to hospital, Detective Inspector Jack Frost and the Denton police force start their hunt for the would-be murderer.
But with a long list of enemies who might want the bookie dead, the team have got their work cut out for them. And with a slew of other crimes hitting the area, from counterfeit goods to a violent drugs gangs swamping Denton with cheap heroin, the stakes have never been higher.
Will Frost find the answers he’s looking for before things go from bad to worse?
The Murder Map by Danny Miller
The Murder Map (2019)
When art dealer Ivan Fielding is found dead of a heart attack in his home, surrounded by the treasures he’s collected all his life, it doesn’t initially seem like a case for Detective Inspector Frost and the Denton police force. But then signs of a burglary are discovered, and Frost senses there’s more to the story than meets the eye – even though the only thing taken was a worthless amateur painting.
Then a young girl is abducted outside the school, an infamous gangster fresh from prison arrives in the area, and dead bodies start turning up in the woods. As Frost and his team dig deeper, everything seems to lead back to Ivan Fielding’s murky lifetime of misdeeds.
Will they find the answers they need before the dead man’s past puts them all at risk?
There you have it – the Inspector Jack Frost books in order! How many have you read? Let us know in the comments below…
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The only book that made me laugh out loud at the top of the page and I was crying by the time I got to the bottom of the page. Wonderful writing.
What’s the name of DI Frost’s elderly tramp like male informant?
Longing for the next Inspector Frost novel
Read all the frost books 3 or 4 times
Hi all Frost fans, like you all I absolutely love the Jack Frost books, big fan of the TV series since it 1st began in 1992 and I have 8 of the books. Just finished reading Frost at Christmas, now starting Winter Frost. Enjoy your reading, take care to all.
I have all of the frost books including the James henry ones and I love them all
At the present time I have only read one but will be hopefully getting some of the others soon of which there are 11 to get.
I loved the TV series. To the extent bought the complete dvd sets. Now I am on my first book Frost at Christmas and hoping to collect all the books. There’s so much more in them then in the TV episodes .
Fantastic DI Frost books
Well worth reading – far better than the tv series
The books are gritty true to life and the characters are easy to remember
I have only just ordered my third book but I can’t put them down, I love Jeffrey Archer books and have read them all because I love books that have a fast pace. These Frost books actually make me laugh out loud, it is easy to get to know the characters and remember who you are reading about because he doesn’t bring in too many too quickly, he doesn’t waste time with long winded descriptions of rooms etc., plus there are no attempts to be too clever for the reader. I will be making my way through them all.
Love them and wish I had a Jack Frost in my life!
I have read all the books many times and still have to laugh at some of them , really well written. Waiting for the next book.
Listen to the Audiobooks again and again ? love them, really hope another book is coming out soon!
Me too, they are hilarious, I listen to them at work, I’m a driver, and they never fail to give me a good laugh no matter how many time I listen to them.