Product Description

The atmospheric and terrfiying new thriller, featuring Detectives Fry and Cooper from the award-winning Stephen Booth. For decades, Pity Wood Farm has been a source of employment for poor workers passing through Rakedale, migrants with lives as abject as the labour they sought. But now it seems a far worse fate may have befallen some of those who came upon this isolated community. Routine building work at the farm has unearthed a grisly discovery: a human hand preserved in clay. When police dig up the farmyard, they find not one, but two bodies -- and several years between their burials. With pressure from a new Superintendent and scant forensic evidence to aid them, DS Diane Fry and DC Ben Cooper have only the memories of local people to piece together the history of the farm. In a case as cold as the ground, Cooper finds himself drawn to a desperate theory: that somewhere, there lies a third body which holds the key to these dreadful crimes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #283223 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover

Review
Praise for 'Scared to Live': 'It's easy to see why Stephen Booth's novels are so popular. The Peak District's awesome scenery is an ideal background for a murder or two; he has developed his two principal characters into rounded personalities and he always gives them an intriguing mystery to investigate' Sunday Telegraph 'A modern master of rural noir' Guardian 'Booth's aim is to portray the darkness that lies below the surface! in this he succeeds wonderfully well' Mark Billingham, Daily Mail 'Ingenious plotting and richly atmospheric' Reginald Hill Praise for Stephen Booth: 'Stephen Booth creates a fine sense of place and atmosphere ! the unguessable solution to the crime comes as a real surprise' Sunday Telegraph 'The complex relationship between [Cooper and Fry] is excellently drawn, and is combined with an intriguing plot and a real sense of place: Stephen Booth is an author to keep an eye on' Evening Standard 'In this atmospheric debut, Stephen Booth makes high summer in Derbyshire as dark and terrifying as midwinter' Val McDermid 'Best crime novel of the year' Independent

About the Author
Stephen Booth was born in the Lancashire mill town of Burnley and has remained rooted to the Pennines during his career as a newspaper journalist. He lives with his wife Lesley in a former Georgian dower house in Nottinghamshire and his interests include folklore, the Internet and walking in the hills of the Peak District. This is the eighth in the series featuring Derbyshire detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry.

Customer Reviews

Downbeat, but great
A tourist advert for the Peak District of Derbyshire this aint! It's cold, it's wet, it's bleak mid winter and the natives are unfriendly and uncooperative. Detectives Fry and Cooper have two unidentified skeletons on their hands at a deserted farm in the middle of nowhere. Slowly they piece together a tale of crime and violence coupled with superstition and "The Old Religion". Meanwhile the body count starts to rise. To add to their misery, they've a new boss who is out to stamp her authority on the local force.

One gets the impression that maybe this is a bit more like how real police work goes, albeit condensed into a relatively few days. But don't get me wrong, despite the downbeat tone of the book, I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to picking up more of Stephen Booth's novels in this series.

A Slow and Flat Read
Dying to Sin is contemporary with the theme of people working in the UK from EU countries and the references made to Bernard Matthews in East Anglia and the recent serial murder case in Ipswich. This gives a strong contrast to the featured old deeper rooted beliefs and superstitions of the past.
The landscape is also well drawn and sets a strong atmosphere.

However, apart from Fry and Cooper and their continuing tenuous relationship, the other characters are so thin it is difficult to connect with them.

The plot drags along, lacking in any suspense, humour or pace. It felt a bit of an effort to finish the book and the question mark over whether the Fry/Cooper relationship will continue may be a timely one.

disappointing and boring
I have read all of the books in this series, featuring DS Fry and DC Cooper, set in the peak district. I have enjoyed all of the previous novels and looked forward to reading this one. What a disappointment. I got to page 170 and gave up.Nothing much had happened and for once I couldn't care less about the characters, or the fact that i wouldn't find out "whodunnit", The author seemed to be showing off his knowledge of the farming industry by putting lots of information about the workings of a farm, the economy, processes etc into the mouth of the equally boring DC Cooper. It didn't even seem to enhance the "plot". The relationship between DS Fry and her sister, Angela didn't seem to fit with the rest of the book - it was almost like an afterthought to give us some personal relationship stuff - clunking and lightweight.