Blind to the Bones : A Crime Novel

Rating:
Summary: What Happened?
Review: After reading the author's first two novels I am dismayed to find such a feeble effort with this book. Flat characters, that I hardly recognize as the same people from the earlier books, and a confused, boring plot line make this book not worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: Very long-winded, took a while to get to the point...
Review: I love British writers of mysteries. This was a new author for me, and like most British writers of mysteries and crime novels, he is very much in command of the English language at its best. Unlike American mystery writers who feel they have to insert a swear word every other sentence or feel their books with bloody mayhem...British authors, this one included, tend to use the language better and focus on the plot and characters. They get the attention of the reader through their language and many of them give good insight into the psychological reasons for the murders or crimes committed.

Booth started out well in this book, and it was not a bad read. It just took him forever to get to the point. I don't mind big heavy books, in fact, I read them all the time having to do with bioethics and medicine. But writing just to prolong the book, even if the language is well-written, does nothing to keep the attention of the reader. I half suspect Booth was trying to bring attention to some problems that the British are having with dealing with the complex sociological problems of small towns disappearing and people have no where to go being pushed out by greedy landlords. We have the same problems here in the U.S. and yet in the end, the information concerning this in Blind to the Bones had very little to do with the murder. In fact, more information could have been given concerning the murderer's psyche...but it came rushing in at the end.

I think I will try this author again, with some of his other, more praised books. See if this is a regular problem in his writings, or if it was just this one novel.

Karen Sadler

Rating:
Summary: Deadly dull
Review: I've enjoyed previous Stephen Booth novels but could barely bother to finish this one. Flat, one-dimensional characters, lifeless, implausible dialogue and a dull and muddled plot ruined what could have been an interesting addition to this series. There was no character development whatsoever and I felt I knew less about Diane and Ben at the end of the book than at the beginning.

Rating:
Summary: Small Town Mysteries
Review: Murder once again visits the Peak District of Derbyshire near Edendale in the 4th book of this terrific series. The members of the Derbyshire Constabulary, E Division are called on to work the case, although Ben Cooper has been loaned out to the Rural Crimes Team and Diane Fry is investigating a 2-year-old missing persons case, separating the duelling coppers.

The story centres around the tiny hamlet of Withens leading both Cooper and Fry there on their separate investigations. The murder victim is a young local man named Neil Granger. Granger is part of a large family that makes up the majority of the residents of Withens. It's Ben's job to interview the residents but like so many isolated close-knit communities they are particularly suspicious of outsiders, and this lot are especially suspicious when it comes to the police. Ben can't help but think they are hiding something but doesn't know what.

Meanwhile, there is one old couple in Withens, the Renshaws, who are more than happy to talk. The problem is, the only topic of conversation is their daughter Emma, who went missing 2 years ago. The Renshaws talk of Emma in the present tense, expecting her to walk through their door at any moment, much to Diane Fry's bemusement.

Because of Ben Cooper's secondment to the Rural Crimes Team, Diane has had to use the ever hungry and source of numerous lighter moments, Gavin Murfin. Murfin is taking an increasingly prominent role as the series progresses and is a nice counterpoint to Fry's more dour by the book attitude.

This series is getting stronger and stronger with each new book and the characters of Ben Cooper and Diane Fry are developing nicely. If you're after an exceedingly enjoyable police procedural, I strongly recommend this one. In my opinion, this is the best of the series so far.

Rating:
Summary: Solid, readable mystery.
Review: The action takes place in the Peak District of England, and
the author does a superb job of conveying the moods of that
district in particular and of rural English life in general.
Here, there is an especially sad and life-like story of a young
college girl who disappeared 2 years before the story begins,
and her parents cannot bring themselves to even consider the
possibility she might be dead. They always expect her to return, and they keep all of her things just as she left them,
so she can walk right back and take up where she was when she
left. They pester their neighbors and the police almost constantly, trying to goad them into further investigations,
and to further search their memories. To the police, the
case is too old, but then, suddenly, the girl's bloody cell
phone is found near her home, and both the parents and the police come alive with fresh hope. At least, for some resolution of the case.
Ben, the Det.Constable, in a different case, gets transferred,
on a temp. basis, to the Rural Crime Squad, and he has to
repeatedly question some reclusive, suspicious people, who are
all part of the same family. And they are among the most
close-mouthed and uncooperative people he has ever had to question. And nothing he does makes any impression on them.
So while his sometime-friend, and superior, Diane, the Det.Sgt.,
investigates the old case of the missing student, Ben slogs along working on his moody, suspicious clan. And neither are
making any progress, and more questions arise than can be answered.
One of the student's flatmates, an old local friend, turns up
murdered near the village Ben is working, and that victim has
a blackened face to go along with his crushed skull, and both
Diane and Ben start working on the same suspects.
The matter of Diane's missing sister is presented in snipets
throughout this book, and that may be a distracting factor
to some readers. It doesn't seem to advance any of the mystery
story, and, somehow, it doesn't engage many readers.
But, overall, this is an interesting story in the best tradition of the English village mystery, and the author does a
nice job of bringing all the threads of the various stories together in a solid, entertaining fashion.

Rating:
Summary: Not quite as good as the others in the series
Review: Two years ago nineteen-year-old Emma Renshaw disappeared. Now her housemate Neil Granger is found dead. Is there a link between their deaths? DS Diane Fry and DC Ben Cooper are back in this fourth book of the series set in the Derbyshire Peak District.

I loved the first three Fry/Cooper books. This one is the weakest of the four, not to say it was not good, but the plot was a bit strange and chaotic. It seemed to jump from event to event and character to character too frequently. It was easy to get confused. The author spent almost no time in giving you any of the Fry/Cooper background so it is a big help to have read the previous books. Diane Fry and Ben Cooper have a complex and mostly strained relationship, which is what sets this series apart from other British crime novels. Their relationship has played a big factor in past books and it helps to fully understand it. I highly recommend the series as a whole, but was a little disappointed in this last entry.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping suspense
Review: Two years ago, Birmingham student Emma Renshaw went to catch the train to visit her parents in Withens. However, somewhere en route she disappeared without a clue as to what happened to her. Though most people assume she is dead, her frenzied parents fervently believe she is alive and will come home soon. They live life as if Emma is attending school, keeping her room the way she left it and buy her holiday gifts, and maintain her car.

However, murder occurs on the Dark Peak moors near Withens leading to Detective Diane Fry wanting to reopen the cold case of Emma. Meanwhile Diane's peer, Detective Ben Cooper investigates the apparent murder of Neil Oxley, a roommate of Emma's who is also from Withens. The two cases seem to connect, but both detectives struggle with dysfunctional families as the Renshaws refuse to accept their daughter is most likely dead and the Oxleys reject talking to authorities preferring to hide their secrets inside their clandestine clan.

This is an exhilarating believable English police procedural that should provide Stephen Booth with a host of new fans. The story line is fun to follow as the two cops struggle independently with non-cooperating people before their inquiries converge. Following the link, they run into even more disagreeable souls. Readers will take great pleasure in the latest Fry-Cooper novel and search for previous books starring these powerful detectives (see BLOOD ON THE TONGUE).

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Gripping suspense
Review: Two years ago, Birmingham student Emma Renshaw went to catch the train to visit her parents in Withens. However, somewhere en route she disappeared without a clue as to what happened to her. Though most people assume she is dead, her frenzied parents fervently believe she is alive and will come home soon. They live life as if Emma is attending school, keeping her room the way she left it and buy her holiday gifts, and maintain her car.

However, murder occurs on the Dark Peak moors near Withens leading to Detective Diane Fry wanting to reopen the cold case of Emma. Meanwhile Diane's peer, Detective Ben Cooper investigates the apparent murder of Neil Oxley, a roommate of Emma's who is also from Withens. The two cases seem to connect, but both detectives struggle with dysfunctional families as the Renshaws refuse to accept their daughter is most likely dead and the Oxleys reject talking to authorities preferring to hide their secrets inside their clandestine clan.

This is an exhilarating believable English police procedural that should provide Stephen Booth with a host of new fans. The story line is fun to follow as the two cops struggle independently with non-cooperating people before their inquiries converge. Following the link, they run into even more disagreeable souls. Readers will take great pleasure in the latest Fry-Cooper novel and search for previous books starring these powerful detectives (see BLOOD ON THE TONGUE).

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Impressive effort
Review: Two years ago, student Emma Renshaw disappeared while on her way home from university. Now, a new discovery in remote countryside prompts the police to reinvestigate the case. But, Diane Fry, in charge of the case, finds herself with a hard task made even worse by Emma's parents, who are still expecting their daughter to be found, to come home to them, to return 'when she's ready'. They have been pestering the police and her friends ever since her disappearance, note the time of every phone-call just in case it is Emma, keep her car ready and waiting in the garage, and retain all of her Christmas presents in her bedroom ' not touched since she left ' upstairs.

Eventually, Diane's search leads her to the dark, isolated village of Withens, where she runs into Ben Cooper, who has been temporarily seconded to the Rural Crime Squad, and is investigating both a series of burglaries and a vicious murder. A young man has been battered and left for dead up on the moors, left for the crows to find, and Ben finds nothing but a wall of silence. The man is a relative of the Oxleys, the oldest family in the area, descended from the very first men who buried under the moors to build the railways tunnels for 3 miles under the moors. But the Oxleys are a secretive family, protective of their own, and they refuse to talk to Ben, an outsider. Thus, progress on the investigation is almost nil. And, to compound Ben's problems, Diane Fry's sister, who ran off when they were teenagers, turns up out of the blue, seeking his help. She wants him to convince Diane to stop looking for, to forget her private investigations and leave things be. With the two officers' relationship tense and fragile at best, this is a shift in the dynamic which could easily destroy it altogether.

Stephen Booth has, within the space of only four novels, safely joined the impressive ranks of Reginald Hill and Peter Robinson as England's most accomplished northern crime novelists. This series, set mostly on and around the remote moors of Derbyshire, has everything. The plots are cracking and clever, paced and patterned masterfully, and the writing is very good indeed, but the most powerful feature of the series is Booth's atmospheric evocation of place, which is dark and brooding and brilliant. The moors become terrifying, ominous and eerie, yet they also retain a dark beauty which draws the reader right in. And that ability to create atmosphere is displayed more strongly than ever in this fourth book, and all throughout the book he comes up with some excellent reflections of the gradual decay of the moors. The village of Withens, shrinking and dying; the forgotten churchyard, overgrown and tangled with weeds; the long-established family slowly finding themselves rent asunder.

Booth also has a great aptitude for character. His minor characters are as fascinating and well-developed as his two leads, who themselves possibly make up the most interesting duo on the scene in crime fiction. The relationship between Cooper and Fry is complex and compelling, its shifts and undercurrents have a way of making the reader slightly nervous. The tension between the two is palpable, and the obviousness of the fact that they do care about one another, on various levels, often has the reader imploring them to take a step back and just listen to one another properly just for a change. To be honest, I doubt there is another relationship with as great a dynamic and level of interest in all the crime genre. The series is worth reading just for the shifts and changes and subtle nuances in the pair's attitude toward one another.

Stephen Booth has won the Barry award for Best British novel two years running, and, with the fact that Blind to the Bones is the strongest novel yet in this powerful series, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he snatches it for a well-deserved third time.