Dancing With the Virgins (Cooper and Fry Crime Series): Book 2 - Softcover

Booth, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006514332 ISBN 13: 9780006514336

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2002

Synopsis

The second in the series set in the Derbyshire Peak District, Dancing with the Virgins is a tense psychological follow-up to Stephen Booth’s acclaimed debut Black Dog.

'The body of the woman sprawled obscenely among the stones... She looked like a dead woman, dancing.'

The ring of cairns known as the Nine Virgins has stood on the windswept moors of Derbyshire for centuries. Now, as winter closes in, a tenth figure is added – a body – and a modern tragedy is added to the dark legend that surrounds the stones.

There's no shortage of suspects, each with their own guilty secret, but what DS Fry and DC Cooper lack is any kind of motive. As they search separately for answers, it seems the reasons for the strange behaviour of the moor's inhabitants may lie somewhere in the past, in a terrible crime yet to be discovered...

About this title

Review:

‘Another first-rate mystery ... Booth is particularly good at creating credible characters’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Includes several sinuous turns and surprises’ Scotsman

‘On this form, Booth could soon be up there with the likes of Reginald Hill. If you read only one new crime writer this year, he’s your man’ Yorkshire Post

From the Back Cover:

A brooding psychological thriller from the acclaimed author of 'Black Dog'

In a remote part of the 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 at loose, knifing woman at random? Unlocking the memories trapped in Maggie's mind is now a matter of utmost urgency, and Detective Sergeant Diane Fry is given the task of drawing the truth out of her.

For DC Ben Cooper there are too many lines of enquiry leading to too few answers. Two travellers, sleeping rough near the scene of the murder, baffle the detectives with their strange rituals and language which may or may not be hiding vital information. Then there is the Park ranger, Owen Fox, whose past hides a shameful secret. And what of the farmer, Warren Leach, on whose land the Nine Virgins stand: a desperate man whose own children fear him.

Against the dramatic backdrop of the White Peak, Ben and Diane struggle to make sense of a murder that seems motiveless. But the moors have witnessed more bloodshed than either realize, and violence is to beget more violence before the answer is found.

Praise for 'Black Dog'

”An exceedingly good first novel: wholly engrossing, it has well-drawn characters and a real sense of place”
TJ BINYON, 'Evening Standard'

”In this atmospheric debut, Stephen Booth makes high summer in Derbyshire as dark and terrifying as midwinter”
VAL McDERMID

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0006514332
• ISBN 13: 9780006514336
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 576