An atmospheric new thriller for fans of Peter Robinson and Reginald Hill.
On a rain-swept Derbyshire moor, hounds from the local foxhunt find the body of a well-dressed man whose head has been crushed. Yet an anonymous caller reports the same body lying half a mile away. Called in to investigate the discovery, detectives DS Diane Fry and DC Ben Cooper become entangled in the violent world of hunting and hunt saboteurs, horse theft and a little-known sector of the meat trade.
As Fry follows a complex trail of her own to unravel the shady business interests of the murder victim, Cooper realizes that the answer to the case might lie deep in the past. History is everywhere around him in the Peak District landscape тАУ particularly in the тАШplague villageтАЩ of Eyam, where an outbreak of Black Death has been turned into a modern-day tourist attraction.
But, even as the final solution is revealed, both Fry and Cooper find themselves having to face up to the disturbing reality of the much more recent past.
Praise for the Cooper and Fry seriesтАШStephen BoothтАЩs Black Dog sinks its teeth into you and doesnтАЩt let you go. A dark star may be born!тАЩ Reginald Hill
тАШIn this atmospheric debut, Stephen Booth makes high summer in Derbyshire as dark and terrifying as midwinterтАЩ Val McDermid
Stephen Booth was born in the Lancashire mill town of Burnley and has remained rooted to the Pennines during his career as a newspaper journalist. He lives with his wife Lesley in a former Georgian dower house in Nottinghamshire and his interests include folklore, the Internet and walking in the hills of the Peak District. This is the ninth in the series featuring Derbyshire detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry.