Ben Cooper and Diane Fry Series

"Where Cooper stood was remote and isolated... but the smell that lingered under the trees was of blood." It's been a long, hot summer in England's beautiful Peak District national park. But summer comes to an end when the body of missing teenager Laura Vernon is found. For young police detective Ben Cooper, the work has just begun. His community is hiding a girl's killer, and a past as dark as the Derbyshire night. It seems Laura was the keeper of secrets beyond her years and, in a case where no-one is innocent, everyone is a suspect. But Cooper's local knowledge and instincts are about to face an even greater challenge. The ambitious DC Diane Fry has been transferred from a nearby city, a woman as ruthless as she is attractive... "Dark, intense and utterly compelling", Black Dog is the extraordinary first novel from a writer who has rapidly become one of the UK's most successful crime writers with his best-selling Cooper & Fry series. Black Dog is a winner of the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel of the Year, and a finalist for the Anthony Award for Best First Mystery Novel. DC Ben Cooper was a finalist in the Sherlock Awards for the best detective created by a British author. "Suspenseful and supremely engaging. Booth does a wonderful job." - Los Angeles Times "This is intelligent crime fiction at its best. It was a book I found impossible to put down." - Sherlock Magazine "Simultaneously classic, contemporary and haunting." - Otto Penzler, Mysterious Bookshop, New York "Terrific... an atmospheric, psychological stunner." - The Bookseller magazine "It’s easy to see why Stephen Booth’s novels are so popular. One of our best story tellers." - Sunday Telegraph "One of Britain's best new writers." - Toronto Globe & Mail

An award-winning psychological thriller from a leading British crime writer described by UK newspapers as "one of our best story tellers". DANCING WITH THE VIRGINS is the sequel to Stephen Booth's stunning debut BLACK DOG, which introduced young Derbyshire police detectives DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry. In a remote part of England's Peak District stand the Nine Virgins, a ring of stones overshadowed by a dark legend. Now, as winter closes in, a tenth figure is added to the circle - the body of Jenny Weston is discovered, her limbs arranged so she appears to be dancing. Weeks earlier another woman had been attacked on the moors. Maggie Crew was found by a local farmer's wife, severely traumatized, her face savagely cut open. Is there a maniac on the loose, knifing women at random? Unlocking the memories trapped in Maggie's mind is now a matter of utmost urgency for the detectives of Derbyshire 'E' Division. But while DS Diane Fry attempts to draw out the truth, DC Ben Cooper is left with too many lines of enquiry leading to too few answers. As they struggle to make sense of a murder that seems motiveless it becomes clear that the moors have witnessed more bloodshed than either Ben or Diane could imagine. And there is more to come before an answer can be found... *Winner of the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel of the Year 2001 *Finalist for the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of 2001 *DC Ben Cooper was a finalist in the Sherlock Awards for the best detective created by a British author. "An atmospheric, psychological stunner." - The Bookseller "Suspenseful and supremely engaging. Booth has done a wonderful job." - Los Angeles Times "Another first-rate mystery. Booth is particularly good at creating credible characters." - Sunday Telegraph "Booth's canny and deceptively smooth overturning of conventional expectations lifts this book well above the crowd." - Houston Chronicle "Even more demanding, more substantial, and more knowing about the darkest recesses of the heart." - Kirkus Reviews "A dark, tense, always gripping novel. The writing is wonderful." - Sherlock Magazine "Highly recommended - a great series!" - Seattle Mystery Bookstore "Booth truly is a master." - I Love a Mystery

'And as it grew dark, Withens became almost entirely silent. Except for the screaming.' It's nearly May Day, and deep in the Dark Peak lies the village of Withens. A young man has been killed - battered to death and left high on the desolate moors for the crows to find. Derbyshire detective DC Ben Cooper meets an impenetrable wall of silence from the man's relatives who form Withens' oldest family, the Oxleys, descendants of the first workers who tunnelled beneath the Peak. They stick to their own area, pass on secret knowledge through the generations, and guard their traditions from outsiders. Meanwhile, DS Diane Fry is in Withens on other business - looking into the disappearance of Emma Renshaw. The student vanished into thin air two years ago, but her parents are convinced she is still alive and act accordingly... which doesn't help Fry in her efforts to re-open the case following an ominous discovery in remote countryside. But there are other secrets in Withens and more violence to come. The past is stretching its shadow over the present, not just for the inhabitants of Withens but for Cooper and Fry as well. The darkness in the heart of Withens is growing. And things are only going to get nastier... BLIND TO THE BONES is the 4th novel in the multiple award-winning Cooper & Fry series, set in England's beautiful and atmospheric Peak District. * Nominated for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year Award 2004 * A top 50 paperback bestseller in the UK * A number 8 bestseller for the Independent Mystery Booksellers in the USA * A number 1 hardback bestseller for the UK’s leading mystery bookstore, Crime in Store * A Hot 100 bestseller for Amazon.co.uk in hardcover * In 2003, Stephen Booth was the winner of the Dagger in the Library award, presented by the Crime Writers’ Association for the author whose books have given readers the most pleasure PRAISE FOR THE COOPER AND FRY SERIES: "Suspenseful and supremely engaging. Booth does a wonderful job." - Los Angeles Times "Simultaneously classic, contemporary and haunting." - Otto Penzler, Mysterious Bookshop, New York "Stephen Booth makes high summer in Derbyshire as dark and terrifying as midwinter." - Val McDermid, award-winning crime novelist "Intelligent and substantive crime fiction, rich with complex characters." - Library Journal "Booth has firmly joined the elite of Britain's top mystery writers." - Florida Sun-Sentinel "Crime fiction for the thinking man or woman, and damnably hard to put down." - January Magazine "Highly recommended - a great series!" - Seattle Mystery Bookstore "Ben Cooper and Diane Fry are the most interesting crime team to arrive on the mystery scene in a long while." - Rocky Mountain News "One of our best story tellers." - Sunday Telegraph "There are few, if any, contemporary writers who do this as well as Stephen Booth." - Arena magazine "Booth delivers some of the best crime fiction in the UK." - Manchester Evening News "If you read only one new crime writer this year, he's your man." - Yorkshire Post

Guilt, sacrifice and redemption in a freezing Peak District winter feature in this tense psychological thriller from the acclaimed author of BLACK DOG and DANCING WITH THE VIRGINS. It wasn’t the easiest way to commit suicide. Marie Tennent seems to have curled up in the freezing snow on Irontongue Hill and stayed there until her body was frosted over like a supermarket chicken. And hers isn’t the only death the Derbyshire police have to contend with – not after the discovery of a baby in the wreckage of an old Airforce bomber, and the body of a man dumped by the roadside. As if three bodies on her hands isn’t enough, snow and ice have left half of ‘E’ Division out of action, and Detective Sergeant Diane Fry is forced to partner with DC Gavin Murfin. She and Ben Cooper were never a match made in heaven - but, next to Murfin, working with Ben starts to look like a dream. Cooper is on a trail of his own, though – and one as cold as the Peak District January. In an equally bitter winter in 1945 an RAF bomber crashed on Irontongue Hill, killing everyone except the pilot, who walked away and disappeared. Now the pilot's grand-daughter is in Derbyshire desperate to clear his name, and Ben can’t help taking an interest. But is a fifty-year-old mystery really the best use of police time? Or does a vicious attack in the dark Edendale back streets prove that the trail isn't quite so cold as he thought? Could the past be the only clue to present violence as an icy winter looks set to get even chillier? * The 3rd novel in the multiple award-winning Cooper & Fry series, set in England's beautiful and atmospheric Peak District. PRAISE FOR THE COOPER AND FRY SERIES: "Suspenseful and supremely engaging. Booth does a wonderful job." - Los Angeles Times "Simultaneously classic, contemporary and haunting." - Otto Penzler, Mysterious Bookshop, New York "Stephen Booth makes high summer in Derbyshire as dark and terrifying as midwinter." - Val McDermid, award-winning crime novelist "Intelligent and substantive crime fiction, rich with complex characters." - Library Journal "Booth has firmly joined the elite of Britain's top mystery writers." - Florida Sun-Sentinel "Crime fiction for the thinking man or woman, and damnably hard to put down." - January Magazine "Highly recommended - a great series!" - Seattle Mystery Bookstore "Ben Cooper and Diane Fry are the most interesting crime team to arrive on the mystery scene in a long while." - Rocky Mountain News "One of our best story tellers." - Sunday Telegraph "Booth delivers some of the best crime fiction in the UK." - Manchester Evening News "If you read only one new crime writer this year, he's your man." - Yorkshire Post

The vast labyrinth of caverns, passages and subterranean rivers beneath the Peak District are a major tourist attraction. But this summer not all the darkness is underground, and not all the devils are folk legends. Mingling with the visitors is a convicted killer, bent on revenge. Fourteen years ago Mansell Quinn was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his lover. Now he's out under licence, whereabouts unknown, and his ex-wife has been murdered. As they try to anticipate the fugitive's next move, Derbyshire detectives Diane Fry and Ben Cooper become increasingly puzzled by the case. Why did Quinn's two friends refuse to back up his alibi? And why did nobody visit him in prison for the last ten years of his sentence? Nobody, that is, except one of those two friends: ex-soldier Will Thorpe, now living rough somewhere in the Hope Valley. Overstretched and unable to apprehend a killer who moves around the area with impunity, the police can do little but warn other potential victims to be on their guard. But the case is about to become much more personal for DC Ben Cooper... * A number 18 Sunday Times bestseller in the UK * Finalist for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award ONE LAST BREATH is the 5th novel in the multiple award-winning Cooper & Fry series, set in England's beautiful and atmospheric Peak District. PRAISE FOR THE COOPER AND FRY SERIES: "Suspenseful and supremely engaging. Booth does a wonderful job." - Los Angeles Times "Simultaneously classic, contemporary and haunting." - Otto Penzler, Mysterious Bookshop, New York "Stephen Booth makes high summer in Derbyshire as dark and terrifying as midwinter." - Val McDermid, award-winning crime novelist "Intelligent and substantive crime fiction, rich with complex characters." - Library Journal "Booth has firmly joined the elite of Britain's top mystery writers." - Florida Sun-Sentinel "Crime fiction for the thinking man or woman, and damnably hard to put down." - January Magazine "Highly recommended - a great series!" - Seattle Mystery Bookstore "Ben Cooper and Diane Fry are the most interesting crime team to arrive on the mystery scene in a long while." - Rocky Mountain News "One of our best story tellers." - Sunday Telegraph "There are few, if any, contemporary writers who do this as well as Stephen Booth." - Arena magazine "Booth is a modern master of rural noir." - The Guardian "Booth delivers some of the best crime fiction in the UK." - Manchester Evening News "Stephen Booth has to be one of the best new English mystery writers." - Toadstool Bookshop, New Hampshire "Booth's aim is to portray the darkness that lies below the surface... in this he succeeds wonderfully well." - Mark Billingham, author of the DI Tom Thorne series "If you read only one new crime writer this year, he's your man." - Yorkshire Post

Soon there will be a killing. Close your eyes and breathe the aroma. I can smell it right now, can't you? So powerful, so sweet. So irresistible. It's the scent of death... The anonymous caller who taunts the Derbyshire Police with talk of an imminent killing seems to be just another hoaxer. But DS Diane Fry begins to take him seriously when a woman is snatched from a multi-storey car park. This was no opportunist attack but a carefully planned abduction - and it's possible the chilling voice is telling the truth when it hints at earlier murders and bodies waiting to be found in 'the dead place'. DC Ben Cooper, meanwhile, has succeeded in finding a body - or rather, a collection of bones. This comes as a shock to the deceased's family, for Audrey Steele should have left no bones. Eighteen months ago, after dying from natural causes, Audrey was cremated. Their investigations lead Fry and Cooper into the world of those whose lives revolve around death. And finally, in a boarded-up ancestral home that has long been the stuff of legend in the White Peak, a crypt full of skulls yields it dark secrets. "Eminently readable with clever twists and turns throughout, Stephen Booth leads Cooper and Fry and reader alike down a spiral of unbelievable horror and corruption." – The Book Place THE DEAD PLACE is the 6th novel in the multiple award-winning Cooper & Fry series, set in England's beautiful and atmospheric Peak District. * A finalist for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.

A dark night, an open bedroom window – and three bullets that strike from the darkness. The victim of the shocking assassination is a harmless middle-aged woman, living a reclusive life in a quiet Peak District village. But is she quite so harmless as she seems? Detective Sergeant Diane Fry knows that innocence is no defence against death. She's already combing through the blackened wreckage of a family's life, sifting the tragic possessions of a young mother and two children who lost their lives in a suspicious house fire. Like Rose Shepherd, the Mullens never saw the danger on the night they died. For DS Fry and her colleague DC Ben Cooper, these are just the first pieces in a complex pattern of destruction, the latest deaths in a long trail of killings. To find the answers they need, Cooper and Fry must take their enquiries far beyond Derbyshire, to the other side of Europe and back. Along the way, Cooper is forced to face up to his own ambivalent feelings about mental illness, and an unexpected complication turns up in Fry's life – a surprise in the shape of a charismatic Bulgarian police officer, who awakens ambitions she didn't know she had, and feelings she'd long since buried. Cooper and Fry are about to step into dangerous and unfamiliar territory, where the criminals they seek could be far away, and yet their influence very close to hand. Death can be everywhere, even lurking among the crowds in the tourist village of Matlock Bath. Soon they might discover some of the reasons people can be scared to live. Yet even when they appear to have the answers, the connection at the heart of this enquiry could turn out to be the most surprising revelation of all... SCARED TO LIVE is the 7th novel in the multiple award-winning Cooper & Fry series, set in England's beautiful and atmospheric Peak District. * A Sunday Times bestseller in the UK PRAISE FOR THE COOPER AND FRY SERIES: "Suspenseful and supremely engaging. Booth does a wonderful job." - Los Angeles Times "Simultaneously classic, contemporary and haunting." - Otto Penzler, Mysterious Bookshop, New York "Booth has firmly joined the elite of Britain's top mystery writers." - Florida Sun-Sentinel "Crime fiction for the thinking man or woman, and damnably hard to put down." - January Magazine "Highly recommended - a great series!" - Seattle Mystery Bookstore "Ben Cooper and Diane Fry are the most interesting crime team to arrive on the mystery scene in a long while." - Rocky Mountain News "One of our best story tellers." - Sunday Telegraph "There are few, if any, contemporary writers who do this as well as Stephen Booth." - Arena magazine "Booth delivers some of the best crime fiction in the UK." - Manchester Evening News "If you read only one new crime writer this year, he's your man." - Yorkshire Post

When builder's labourer Danny Ward is asked to dig the foundations for a new wall during the conversion of Pity Wood Farm, he doesn't expect to find a human hand preserved in the clay. And when the police arrive to dig up the farmyard, they don't expect to find not one body, but two – with several years between their burials. DS Diane Fry and DC Ben Cooper are part of the Derbyshire CID team tasked with piecing together the lives of the Sutton family who owned the farm before it was sold for development. Why would a pair of elderly brothers have the dead bodies of two women concealed on their property? And how do you even start tracking down decades of itinerant farm workers who might be able to cast light on the mystery? With forensic evidence in short supply, Fry and Cooper have only the fragmentary memories of local people to rely on, including the landlord of the Dog Inn, the retired village bobby, and a handful of scattered neighbours in the White Peak settlement of Rakedale. Their enquiry coincides with the arrival in Edendale of a new Detective Superintendent, and the threat of more shake-ups in 'E' Division CID that might separate Cooper and Fry permanently. As Cooper becomes convinced that there ought to be a third body to provide the vital link and explain the burials at Pity Wood, Fry struggles to come to terms with one of the more unusual rural beliefs she's encountered so far - the magical properties of preserved body parts. * The 8th novel in the multiple award-winning Cooper & Fry series, set in England's beautiful and atmospheric Peak District. PRAISE FOR THE COOPER AND FRY SERIES: "Suspenseful and supremely engaging. Booth does a wonderful job." - Los Angeles Times "Simultaneously classic, contemporary and haunting." - Otto Penzler, Mysterious Bookshop, New York "Stephen Booth makes high summer in Derbyshire as dark and terrifying as midwinter." - Val McDermid, award-winning crime novelist "Intelligent and substantive crime fiction, rich with complex characters." - Library Journal "Booth has firmly joined the elite of Britain's top mystery writers." - Florida Sun-Sentinel "Crime fiction for the thinking man or woman, and damnably hard to put down." - January Magazine "Highly recommended - a great series!" - Seattle Mystery Bookstore "Ben Cooper and Diane Fry are the most interesting crime team to arrive on the mystery scene in a long while." - Rocky Mountain News "One of our best story tellers." - Sunday Telegraph "There are few, if any, contemporary writers who do this as well as Stephen Booth." - Arena magazine "Booth is a modern master of rural noir." - The Guardian "Booth delivers some of the best crime fiction in the UK." - Manchester Evening News "Stephen Booth has to be one of the best new English mystery writers." - Toadstool Bookshop, New Hampshire "Booth's aim is to portray the darkness that lies below the surface... in this he succeeds wonderfully well." - Mark Billingham, author of the DI Tom Thorne series "If you read only one new crime writer this year, he's your man." - Yorkshire Post

A May Bank Holiday in England's Peak District is ruined by the tragic drowning of an eight-year-old girl in picturesque Dovedale. For Detective Constable Ben Cooper, a helpless witness to the tragedy, the incident is not only traumatic, but leads him to become involved in the tangled lives of the Neilds, the dead girl's family. As he gets to know them, Cooper begins to suspect that one of them is harbouring a secret - a secret that the whole family might be willing to cover up. Meanwhile, Detective Sergeant Diane Fry has a journey of her own to make - a journey back to her roots. As she finds herself drawn into an investigation of her own among the inner-city streets of Birmingham, Fry realises there is only one person she can rely on to provide the help she needs. But that man is Ben Cooper, and he's back in Derbyshire, where his suspicions are leading him towards a shocking discovery on the banks of another Peak District river. LOST RIVER was a number 17 Sunday Times bestseller in the UK. PRAISE FOR THE COOPER AND FRY SERIES: "Suspenseful and supremely engaging. Booth does a wonderful job." - Los Angeles Times "Simultaneously classic, contemporary and haunting." - Otto Penzler, Mysterious Bookshop, New York "Stephen Booth makes high summer in Derbyshire as dark and terrifying as midwinter." - Val McDermid, award-winning crime novelist "Booth has firmly joined the elite of Britain's top mystery writers." - Florida Sun-Sentinel "Highly recommended - a great series!" - Seattle Mystery Bookstore "Ben Cooper and Diane Fry are the most interesting crime team to arrive on the mystery scene in a long while." - Rocky Mountain News "One of our best story tellers." - Sunday Telegraph "Booth delivers some of the best crime fiction in the UK." - Manchester Evening News

On a rain-swept Derbyshire moor, hounds from the local foxhunt find the body of a well-dressed man whose head has been crushed. Yet an anonymous 999 caller reports the same body lying half a mile away. Called in to investigate the discovery, E Division detectives DS Diane Fry and DC Ben Cooper become entangled in the violent world of hunting and hunt saboteurs, horse theft and a little-known sector of the meat trade. As Fry follows a complex trail of her own to unravel the shady business interests of the murder victim, Cooper realises that the answer to the case might lie deep in the past. History is everywhere around him in the Peak District landscape - particularly in the ‘plague village’ of Eyam, where an outbreak of Black Death has been turned into a modern-day tourist attraction. But, even as the final solution is revealed, both Fry and Cooper find themselves having to face up to the disturbing reality of the much more recent past. * The 9th novel in the multiple award-winning Cooper & Fry series. PRAISE FOR THE COOPER AND FRY SERIES: "Suspenseful and supremely engaging. Booth does a wonderful job." - Los Angeles Times "Simultaneously classic, contemporary and haunting." - Otto Penzler, Mysterious Bookshop, New York "Stephen Booth makes high summer in Derbyshire as dark and terrifying as midwinter." - Val McDermid, award-winning crime novelist "Intelligent and substantive crime fiction, rich with complex characters." - Library Journal "Booth has firmly joined the elite of Britain's top mystery writers." - Florida Sun-Sentinel "Highly recommended - a great series!" - Seattle Mystery Bookstore "Ben Cooper and Diane Fry are the most interesting crime team to arrive on the mystery scene in a long while." - Rocky Mountain News "One of our best story tellers." - Sunday Telegraph "Booth is a modern master of rural noir." - The Guardian "Booth delivers some of the best crime fiction in the UK." - Manchester Evening News "If you read only one new crime writer this year, he's your man." - Yorkshire Post