Cooper and Fry Crime Fiction Series Books 1-3: Black Dog, Dancing With the Virgins, Blood on the Tongue

Three novels featuring Derbyshire police detectives, DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry from award-winning crime writer Stephen Booth. BLACK DOG – The long, hot Peak District summer came to an end when they found Laura Vernon's body. But for local policeman Ben Cooper the work has just begun. His community is hiding a young 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... DANCING WITH VIRGINS – 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, 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... BLOOD ON THE TONGUE – Marie's was not the only body lying undiscovered under the Peak District snow that January morning – nor the first. In 1945, the wreckage of a bomber was found, full of dead crewmen. The missing pilot was declared responsible and the only other survivor refuses to talk. When the pilot's granddaughter arrives to uncover the truth, DC Ben Cooper is intrigued. To his boss, DS Fry, her colleague's interest is entirely unprofessional. But the past has a way of influencing the present and before either knows it, a long-cold trail in the dead of winter has grown dangerously hot ... Guilt, sacrifice and redemption in a freezing Peak District winter in this tense psychological thriller from the acclaimed author of Black Dog: 'A dark star may be born!' Reginald Hill It wasn't the easiest way to commit suicide. 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? Dark, intense and utterly compelling, Black Dog was an extraordinary first novel from a writer who has rapidly become the most promising crime author to emerge in the genre in years. 'Where Cooper stood was remote and isolated... but the smell that lingered under the trees was of blood' The long hot Peak District summer came to an end when they found Laura Vernon's body. But for local policeman Ben Cooper the work has just begun. His community is hiding a young 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 called in from another division, a woman as ruthless as she is attractive... 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... "Ava has spent the last hundred years as a hellhound, the indentured servant of a reaper who tracks down errant souls and sends them to Hell. When a human necromancer convinces her to steal her reaper's Scythe, Ava lands in hot water with the demon Lilith, her reaper's boss. Lilith orders Ava to track down the last soul in her reaper's ledger, or die trying. But when Ava discovers that Lilith actually sent her after the fallen angel Azrael, she realizes she's being used as a pawn in Lilith's scheme to usurp the throne of Hell. Ava's had enough - after a hundred years of being used and enslaved, it's time for some payback. And Hell's never seen a fury like hers."-- Provided by publisher 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. Her former partner Ben Cooper is on a trail of his own, however - and one as cold as the Peak District January Detective Sergeant Diane Fry's latest case involves three bodies that have suddenly appeared on her doorstep, as she and her colleague, Detective Constable Ben Cooper, follow a trail that could lead back to World War II