Review by Booklist Review
Mix Stephen King paranoia with Charlotte Bronte wildness of atmosphere and character, and you get a whiff of what Booth concocts in his latest Derbyshire Constabulary procedural, where murder walks the English moors. Booth uses the moors and the nearly deserted, rat-infested village of Withens as the grim backdrop for a series of connected crimes, the most poignant involving the disappearance of a college girl two years previously and her parents' increasingly delusional hope that she is still alive. Quite a bit of the mystery represents an exploration of the psychology of grief, both on the part of the parents and of Detective Sergeant Diane Fry, whose investigation unearths her own shallow grave of trauma. In the fourth outing for nice guy Ben Cooper and his irascible and complex supervisor, Fry, the pair get a reprieve from their prickly relationship, because they work the case from separate task forces. Absorbing atmospheric mystery. --Connie Fletcher Copyright 2003 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Set in a damp English village on the midland moors, Booth's fourth suspense novel is a moody, meandering tale, bringing back the two police protagonists of Blood on the Tongue and Dancing with the Virgins. Det. Constable Ben Cooper has just been transferred to a rural beat when he finds himself up to his handcuffs in the gruesome murder of a young man, Neil Granger. Meanwhile, his former superior, Det. Sgt. Diane Fry, is investigating the two-year-old disappearance of 19-year-old Emma Renshaw. The cases are almost certainly related-Emma and Neil both grew up in the Peak District village of Withens and were housemates in the Black Country, an urban area just west of Birmingham-but clues linking them are scarce. As Fry and Cooper pursue their separate investigations, Emma's distraught and unbalanced parents prove a hindrance, and a family of petty criminals further hamper progress. An accidental shooting, the discovery of a second corpse, a possible link to a burglary ring and a suspicious land development deal add more complications. Bogged down in this plethora of subplots, Fry and Cooper are also plagued by personal troubles. Fry's own sister has been missing for 15 years, and Cooper has information about her that he doesn't know whether to share. Though the two detectives wrestle with their feelings for each other, their conflicted relationship produces few sparks. Short on suspense and long on melodrama, this is a tepid effort from a much-praised writer of sophisticated crime fiction. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
This is more than just a crime novel-Booth's fourth entry (after Blood on the Tongue) featuring Derbyshire Detective Constable Ben Cooper and Detective Sergeant Diane Fry is notable for its sense of place, psychological complexity, tension, and exploration of human fears (read: loneliness, change, loss, and truth). Two cases, one old, one new, appear related when the mobile phone of Emma Renshaw, who disappeared two years earlier, is found just before Neil Granger, one of her former housemates, is killed. While Cooper investigates the moorland village of Withens-home of the notorious Oxley family whose boys have been suspected of vandalism and worse and where the Border Rats practice their frightening performances-Fry deals with Renshaw's parents, who are losing their grip on reality as they anticipate their daughter's return at any moment. Meanwhile, the relationship between the two protagonists, compelling from the start of the series, gains complexity when Cooper becomes a reluctant but steadfast catalyst in Fry's 15-year search for her missing older sister, increasing anticipation about the pair's future. Fiction of the highest caliber; highly recommended.-Michele Leber, Arlington, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Unsolved murders are just the beginning of this bleak, perplexing tapestry of menace. In their fourth outing (Blood on the Tongue, 2002, etc.), British investigative odd couple Diane Fry and Ben Cooper are dispatched to the remote moorland village of Withens to assure Sarah and Howard Renshaw that everything possible is being done to find their missing daughter, Emma. The unofficial but commonly held police belief is that 19-year-old Emma, who's been missing for two years, was murdered. The Renshaws, however, live in a state of perpetual anticipation, speaking of their daughter in the present tense and expecting her imminent return home. The Renshaws' vigil is only one of Withens's many oddities. Fires occur randomly and without warning. The night air is regularly fouled not only by smoke but by random, unexplained screams. Many locals suspect that both these phenomena are the work of the unwieldy Oxley clan, which includes a brace of delinquent teenage boys. A rogue's gallery of other suspects populate the region as well. When one of Emma's former roommates is found murdered, with a peculiarly blackened face, Fry and Cooper intensify their probe. Booth also continues to chart the dynamics of the police squad, especially the relationship of the very private Sergeant Fry and the empathic Constable Cooper, which is tested when Fry's long-estranged sister Angie shows up on Cooper's doorstep. Complex and challenging, but equally rewarding. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
