Blood on the Tongue - Softcover

Booth, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1416575294 ISBN 13: 9781416575290

Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2008

Synopsis

Award-winning author Stephen Booth, likened by critics to such acclaimed masters as Ruth Rendell, Minette Walters, and Ian Rankin, returns with an evocative new Diane Fry/Ben Cooper crime novel ensconced in the icy depths of a bitter English Peak District winter.

It isn't the easiest way to commit suicide. Marie Tennent seems simply to have curled into a fetal position in the freezing snow out on Irontongue Hill and remained there until her body was frozen over. There's no one to observe her death but the foxes and the hares. Her body has bruises, though. Her death is tragic. Is it also suspicious?

Marie's is not the only death the police have to investigate. What about the baby's body that is discovered in the burned-out hulk of a World War II bomber? And the unidentified man who is crushed by a snowplow?

Snow and ice have left E Division depleted, and Detective Sergeant Diane Fry needs all the help she can get. But her colleague, Detective Constable Ben Cooper, is following a cold trail of his own. In the winter of 1945, a Royal Air Force bomber crashed on the same Irontongue Hill where Marie Tennent's body was found, killing everyone except pilot Danny McTeague, who disappeared with a large sum of money. Now his granddaughter, Alison Morrissey, has arrived from across the Atlantic to clear his name.

As Fry and Cooper pursue their respective cases, they must also struggle to work together. Where there once was attraction, there now is distrust -- and perhaps something more. Work comes first...but life can intervene in strange ways.

Already a star in his native Britain, author Stephen Booth brings emotional tension and genuine surprise to this elegantly crafted and supremely satisfying crime novel.

About this title

Review:

"Northern Echo"

Steeped in danger and darkness, and you can't help but be lured in.

Bonnie Claeson

"The Black Orchid Bookshop," New York

A brilliant writer who gets everything -- atmosphere, character, plot -- just right.

"January Magazine"

Booth's most ambitious and mature work to date -- a novel that compares favorably with those of his fellow Brits Ian Rankin and Val McDermid.

"The Scotsman"

Plotting and characterization to the full in a murder mystery which effortlessly manages complex lines of development. For readers who are looking for the more literate crime novel.

"Nottingham Evening Post"

Subtlety of characterization, density of plot, powerful distillation of atmosphere, intimate local knowledge, and a serious exploration of issues, both moral and philosophical, elevate this book into the realms of the serious novel.

"Publishers Weekly" (starred review) Outstanding...The early promise of Booth's debut novel, Black Dog, is fully realized here, and new readers should scurry to find his earlier books.

"Florida Sun-Sentinel" Superb...Booth has firmly joined the elite of Britain's top mystery writers.

From the Back Cover:

It wasn’t the easiest way to commit suicide. But Marie Tennent seemed to have just 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 police have to contend with either – not after the discovery of a baby in the wreckage of an old Airforce bomber, and the body of a man dumped by a roadside.

As if three bodies on her hands isn’t enough, snow and ice have left half of ‘E’ Division out of action and Diane Fry is forced to partner 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.

He’s 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 his grand-daughter, Alison Morrissey, 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 backstreets prove that the trail’s not quite as cold as he’d thought? Could the past be the only clue to present violence as an icy winter looks set to get even chillier?

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon and Schuster
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1416575294
• ISBN 13: 9781416575290
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400