Plot Summary for
"A Touch of Frost" Paying the Price (1996)

Pauline Venables has been running a successful party/costume store in Denton with her sister Sue, but the siblings don't get on as well as they should. There little world changes when Pauline brings home Karl Edwards, a divorced ex-con and announces he will be moving in after they are married. Sue resents him as an interloper interested only her sister's money. Sue's resentment can be traced back to an earlier incident when she found her then husband and Pauline in bed. Looking to make amends to her sister, Pauline decides to have Linda, a shop employee, take her to a deserted farmhouse to buy Sue a Labrador puppy for her birthday, something she's always wanted. Things go awry when Pauline's is brutally kidnapped by Linda's accomplice/lover, sociopath Graham McCardy, who binds Patrice and demand 30,000 in ransom... or else. Written by duke1029@aol.com

DI Jack Frost finds himself homeless after a major fire in his house, the result of his own negligence. He's also dealing with his first kidnapping when Pauline Venables disappears and her sister Sue receives a ransom note demanding £30,000. Pauline and Sue were business partners and had their own issues dating back to a failed love affair and Sue didn't like Pauline's boyfriend, Karl Edwards, whom she sees as a scoundrel and after her and her sister's money. Without a place to live and assisted by WPC Claire Toms, Frost is tasked to move into the Venables' residence while awaiting further communication from the kidnappers. As the police pursue a variety of leads, Frost is puzzled by several aspects of the case, not the least of which is the relatively small sum demanded as a ransom. As the pieces start to fall into place, Frost realizes that he is dealing with a dangerously deranged young man who will stop at nothing as he lives in his fantasy world Written by garykmcd

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