Published by Harper Collins, April 2000. ISBN:
978-0-00232693-0 Laura
Vernon, fifteen years old and missing from home since Saturday night.
In the heat of the summer in
the Peak District, the search for Laura is underway. Ben Cooper along with
every other man in the line is equipped with a wooden pole to sift through the
long grass and push aside the dense swathes of bracken and bramble.
Laura’s parents Charlotte
and Graham, appear at first distraught at the absence of their daughter but
gradually questions arise as to Laura’s home life, the family situation, and
the secrets they hold.
When Harry Dickenson out
walking with his dog finds a trainer, why does he seem so determined to
obstruct the police?
The new DS Diane Fry is
fresh from Birmingham, determined to be noticed, ambitious and looking for fast
promotion. Paired off with Cooper, who has known the villagers all his life,
Diane finds herself in an alien world. It seems that everywhere she goes, she
is with ‘Sergeant Coppers, lad’. Diane Fry and Ben Cooper both have emotional
baggage. Both are suspicious of other people suspecting weakness and have each
built a wall around themselves, which has resulted in them both being locked up
in their own world of pain.
This book is rich in emotion and complex
relationships on several different levels. In fact, the mystery can only be
solved when the complexity of relationships is unravelled, much of which lies
in the past. Even
when the mystery was solved it was clear that there was
a great deal yet to be revealed in the relationships of the main characters. I
look forward to the next book, as I want to read more about them and how they
each deal with complex history they both have.
The sense of place in this
book is strong, as is the depth of feeling of small rural communities. For a
debut novel this is a wonderful read. Highly Recommended. -----
Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes
Stephen Booth was born in 1952 in the English
Pennine mill town of Burnley. He was brought up on the coast at Blackpool,
where he began his career in journalism by editing his school magazine and
wrote his first 'novel' at the age of 13. He was a newspaper and magazine journalist for over 25 years. Stephen
gave up journalism in 2001 to write crime novels full time. He and his wife
Lesley live in a former Georgian dower house near Retford, Nottinghamshire, in
Robin Hood and Pilgrim Fathers country.
www. stephen - booth .com
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