Black Dog: A Crime Novel - Hardcover

Stephen Booth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 068487301X ISBN 13: 9780684873015

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2000

Synopsis

Fifteen-year-old Laura, daughter of the wealthy Vernon family, is missing. Possibly she's run off to London. Possibly she's dead. The police search, the parents wait by the phone, and Detective Constable Ben Cooper quietly dreads the worst.When retired miner Harry Dickinson reports that he's found the body lying in the woods, his strangely obstinate refusal to cooperate with the investigation raises more than a few eyebrows. Does Harry simply hate the police, or does his behavior implicate him in the crime? Detective Cooper has no shortage of suspects for the murder, but he realizes that Harry may hold the key. Whatever Harry knows about what has happened up in those woods, he's certainly not telling. Cooper teams up with Detective Constable Diane Fry, an ambitious rookie with a few secrets of her own. As they work to unravel the baffling crime, the young detectives find themselves in a complicated two-step of suspicion and sexual tension.Set against the atmospheric backdrop of Northern England's Peak District, Black Dog is an evocative, gorgeously written work of psychological suspense. Sure to garner comparisons to Barbara Vine and Reginald Hill, Stephen Booth makes a powerhouse debut.

About 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 edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 068487301X
• ISBN 13: 9780684873015
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 351