The Dead Place by Stephen Booth
Ben Cooper & Diane Fry #6
Genre: Mystery
Publication Date: March 4, 2014
Publisher: Witness Impulse, an Imprint of HarperCollins
Event organized by: Literati Author Services, Inc.
“This killing will be a model of perfection. An accomplishment to be proud of. And it could be tonight or maybe next week. But it will be soon. I promise.”
The anonymous phone calls indicate a disturbed mind with an unnatural passion for death. Cooper and Fry are hoping against hope that the caller is just a harmless crank having some sick fun. But the clues woven through his disturbing messages point to the possibility of an all-too-real crime . . . especially when a woman vanishes from an office parking garage.
But it’s the mystery surrounding an unidentified female corpse left exposed in the woods for over a year that really has the detectives worried. Whoever she might have been, the dead woman is linked to the mystery caller, whose description of his twisted death rituals matches the bizarre manner in which the body was found. And the mystery only deepens when Cooper obtains a positive I.D. and learns that the dead woman was never reported missing and that she definitely wasn’t murdered. As the killer draws them closer into his confidence, Ben and Diane learn everything about his deadly obsessions except what matters most: his identity and the identity of his next victim. . . .
Purchase Link: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble
My Thoughts
The Dead Place by Stephen Booth is the first I’ve read in the Cooper & Fry series. This was a decent thriller. However, it did feel at times like the story went a little too long, especially since the bad guy is revealed a bit early in the story. The Cooper & Fry series are British police procedural books, and that is not usually a genre that I enjoy. However, the author did a nice job of creating thrilling moments in the story so my attention remained with the story. Overall, it was just an okay read for me, and I’m not sure if I’ll revisit the series.
About the Author
STEPHEN BOOTH is an award winning British crime writer, the creator of two young Derbyshire police detectives, DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry, who have appeared in twelve novels set in England’s beautiful and atmospheric Peak District.
Stephen has been a Gold Dagger finalist, an Anthony Award nominee, twice winner of a Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel, and twice shortlisted for the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year. Ben Cooper was a finalist for the Sherlock Award for the best detective created by a British author, and in 2003 the Crime Writers’ Association presented Stephen with the Dagger in the Library Award for “the author whose books have given readers the most pleasure”.
The Cooper & Fry series is published all around the world, and has been translated into 15 languages.
