Black Dog (Cooper and Fry Crime Series, Book 1) - Softcover

9780002326933: Black Dog (Cooper and Fry Crime Series, Book 1)
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 

Combining the qualities of Reginald Hill, Minette Walters and Barbara Vine, Black Dog is an amazingly assured and impressive debut thriller from the most promising new author to emerge in the genre in recent years.

It’s a long, hot summer in the Peak District, but the blue skies are darkened by police helicopters and the sound of birdsong is drowned out by the increasing hysteria of a full-scale search operation for a missing teenage girl. Laura Vernon is smart, sexy and the keeper of many secrets, but now she’s lying dead in a thicket in the heart of the country.

Harry Dickinson finds the body, but what instincts make him so bent on obstructing the police investigation into Laura’s murder? And what do he and his two fellow retired lead miners find to talk about on those long, balmy nights in the pub, hunched over their game of dominoes?

Graham Vernon is a man who knows all about secrets, and the police are at a loss to understand the attitude of this powerful businessman and his glamorous wife to their precious daughter. The Vernons are holding something back. But what could be more important than the discovery of Laura’s brutal murderer?

Ben Cooper, a young DC living with tragedy, has known the villagers all his life, but his instinctive feelings about the case are called into question by the arrival of Diane Fry, a ruthlessly ambitious DC from another division. As Ben and Diane take the first steps in a complicated dance of suspicion, attraction and frustration, they discover that to understand the present, they must also understand the past – and in a world where no one is entirely innocent, pain and suffering can be the only outcome.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
Stephen Booth's first novel Black Dog is an impressive portrait of two sorts of policing. Ben is a local man who knows everybody and perhap scares too much, while Diane is a stranger wherever she goes and is perhaps too cold-blooded; when they find themselves rivals for promotion, and colleagues on a difficult case, breaking strain is going to be reached sooner or later. Spoiled, young Laura Vernon is missing, soon to be found dead, and the question soon arises: is she only, or even, the first? Retired quarryman Harry found the body and perhaps knows more than he is letting on, but he will do anything rather than tell the police more than he has to. The Vernons' gardener is missing, a thuggish young man rather too fond of showing off his muscles--what does he know? What went on at the Vernons' smart cocktail parties and what do Harry and his friends talk about over their beer in the pub? This is an ingenious dark little mystery in which there may be solutions to problems, but no cures; Ben and Diane are two of the more interestingly flawed young cops of recent crime fiction. --Roz Kaveney
Review:
"The Boston Globe "Black Dog skillfully renders the small-village atmosphere of England's Peak District quite effectively while weaving a good puzzle into local custom....[Booth's] sense of smell and sound is a gift.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherCollins Crime
  • Publication date2000
  • ISBN 10 0002326930
  • ISBN 13 9780002326933
  • BindingPaperback
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages384
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780006514329: Black Dog (Cooper and Fry Crime Series)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780006514329
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001
Softcover

  • 9780957237902: Black Dog (Cooper and Fry)

    Westle..., 2012
    Softcover

  • 9780062350428: Black Dog: 1 (Cooper & Fry Mysteries)

    Willia..., 2014
    Softcover

  • 9780684873015: Black Dog: A Crime Novel

    Simon ..., 2000
    Hardcover

  • 9780671786045: Black Dog

    Simon ..., 2001
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Booth, Stephen
ISBN 10: 0002326930 ISBN 13: 9780002326933
New Pictorial Wrappers First Edition Quantity: 1
Seller:
Lyon's Den Mystery Books & More
(Rock Hill, SC, U.S.A.)

Book Description Pictorial Wrappers. Condition: Very Fine. First Edition; First Printing. Trade paperback original. Very fine in pictorial wrappers. The author's first mystery and the first book in the series featuring local DC Ben Cooper and newcomer DC Diane Fry, set in England's Peak District. Text block is tight with no loose or dog-eared pages. Bubble wrapped, boxed, and shipped with USPS Tracking (USA only). Seller Inventory # 000344

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 13.78
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 4.76
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Booth, Stephen
ISBN 10: 0002326930 ISBN 13: 9780002326933
New paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Basement Seller 101
(Cincinnati, OH, U.S.A.)

Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 231105198

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 20.37
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 3.96
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Booth, Stephen
ISBN 10: 0002326930 ISBN 13: 9780002326933
New Trade Paperback First Edition Signed Quantity: 1
Seller:
Mad 4 Mysteries
(Columbia, SC, U.S.A.)

Book Description Trade Paperback. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. First Edition. As new, unread. First edition, first printing. SIGNED by author on title page. First in the Cooper/Fry series; set in UK. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 001761

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 20.41
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 4.28
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Stephen Booth
ISBN 10: 0002326930 ISBN 13: 9780002326933
New Soft cover First Edition Signed Quantity: 1
Seller:
A Flare For Books
(San Jose, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Soft cover. Condition: New. 1st Edition. Book is new, unread. Signed on the title page by Booth. First edition, first printing. Cooper & Fry vol. 1. This is a trade paperback which predates the U.S. hardcover version. There is no British hardcover. Booth won The Barry Awards Best British Crime Novel Award for Black Dog in 2001. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 000825

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 122.45
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 4.36
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds