Stephen Booth (1) (1952–)
Author of Black Dog
For other authors named Stephen Booth, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Image credit: EMS Author Photos
Series
Works by Stephen Booth
Associated Works
Australian Reader's Digest Select Editions: Under Orders • The Husband • Scared to Live • Orbit (2007) 16 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Booth, Stephen
- Birthdate
- 1952
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Birmingham City University (formerly Birmingham Polytechnic)
- Occupations
- journalist
goat breeder - Organizations
- Toggenburg Breeders Society (past president)
- Agent
- Teresa Chris (Teresa Chris Literary Agency)
- Short biography
- A former newspaper journalist, Stephen Booth is the author of 17 novels in the Ben Cooper and Diane Fry series, all set in and around England’s Peak District national park, and featuring two Derbyshire police detectives. In the UK, he has been shortlisted four times for CWA Daggers and is a winner of the Dagger in the Library. In the USA, he has twice won the award for Best British Crime Novel of the Year and is an Anthony Award nominee. Stephen's books are translated into 16 languages, and are currently in development for a TV series. He also leads crime writing workshops and teaches courses for Writing School East Midlands.
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Burnley, Lancashire, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Burnley, Lancashire, England, UK (birth)
Blackpool, Lancashire, England, UK
Nottinghamshire, England, UK - Map Location
- UK
Members
Reviews
It took me a while to pick up this third book in the Cooper and Fry series, and I'm glad I finally did. Blood on the Tongue is an excellent blend of old crime and new. Many threads in the story go all the way back to World War II when a bomber crashed on Irontongue Hill, and-- rumor has it-- the Canadian pilot walked away with a very large shipment of money they were transporting to another airbase. It's a complex and very gratifying plot that Booth has created, and I certainly enjoyed show more trying to piece together all the clues.
I continue to have mixed reactions to the author's dynamic duo of Fry and Cooper. Ben Cooper is the kind of man everyone seems to like and to go to for help. He's nice, he's easy-going, and he has some good intuitive skills that are handy in police work. Him I like, although I should probably be ashamed of falling for him so easily. I'm normally not such a pushover.
On the other hand, Fry continues to rub my fur the wrong way, even though I know what happened in the past to help turn her into a person who acts more like a starving pit bull with toothache. I find that I quickly become exasperated with her when she's on the scene. Fortunately she's seldom in the spotlight in Blood on the Tongue, so I never wanted to throw the book at the wall.
Even though it has little to do with the actual merits of this book, I think my reading enjoyment was enhanced by a trip to the UK last year in which I experienced blizzard-like conditions, road closures and the like in the Peak District. I found myself being able to picture the countryside, feel the bite of the wind, and hear the crunch of the snow under my feet. Even without my "insider's" knowledge of the weather, I think any reader can and will appreciate those outdoor scenes.
Now that I've thawed out enough to share my opinion of this book, I find myself looking forward to reading the next in the series. If only I could find some way not to react so strongly to Diane Fry! show less
I continue to have mixed reactions to the author's dynamic duo of Fry and Cooper. Ben Cooper is the kind of man everyone seems to like and to go to for help. He's nice, he's easy-going, and he has some good intuitive skills that are handy in police work. Him I like, although I should probably be ashamed of falling for him so easily. I'm normally not such a pushover.
On the other hand, Fry continues to rub my fur the wrong way, even though I know what happened in the past to help turn her into a person who acts more like a starving pit bull with toothache. I find that I quickly become exasperated with her when she's on the scene. Fortunately she's seldom in the spotlight in Blood on the Tongue, so I never wanted to throw the book at the wall.
Even though it has little to do with the actual merits of this book, I think my reading enjoyment was enhanced by a trip to the UK last year in which I experienced blizzard-like conditions, road closures and the like in the Peak District. I found myself being able to picture the countryside, feel the bite of the wind, and hear the crunch of the snow under my feet. Even without my "insider's" knowledge of the weather, I think any reader can and will appreciate those outdoor scenes.
Now that I've thawed out enough to share my opinion of this book, I find myself looking forward to reading the next in the series. If only I could find some way not to react so strongly to Diane Fry! show less
[The Corpse Bridge] by Stephen Booth
Cooper & fry series Book #14
4★'s
What's It About?
When it comes to murder, nothing is sacred . . .
For centuries, mourners in Derbyshire have used the Corpse Bridge to cross the River Dove and reach their village burial grounds. When a developer plans to deconsecrate the land by turning it into a parking lot for his resort cottages, bodies begin to litter the road to the Corpse Bridge.
Are these warnings to stay away from the sacred plots—or something show more much, much worse: a terrifying serial killer at work? After recuperating from a traumatic event, Detective Cooper is finally back at work, and he knows that solving the mystery of the Corpse Bridge is exactly what he needs to feel like himself again. But if Cooper can't overcome his own personal demons and focus on the case, he could put everything—and everyone—he cares about at risk .
What Did I Think?
I really enjoyed this one. There was so much history interwoven into the story about the Corpse Roads and how and why the people had to use them. It must have been hardship added to sorrow for these villagers. The history part never distracted from the story...if anything it added to it.
One reviewer said that they missed Diane Fry's appearance in the later books. For myself I enjoyed the book because she failed to appear except in portions of the story. Another enjoyable feature was the number of suspects that paraded the story...all with plenty of reasons to commit the crime. It gave the mystery added weight and made it difficult to figure out. I was only partly right...but I had a great time working on it. If you like Ian Rankin's Rebus or Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks, then you will diffidently like this series. show less
Cooper & fry series Book #14
4★'s
What's It About?
When it comes to murder, nothing is sacred . . .
For centuries, mourners in Derbyshire have used the Corpse Bridge to cross the River Dove and reach their village burial grounds. When a developer plans to deconsecrate the land by turning it into a parking lot for his resort cottages, bodies begin to litter the road to the Corpse Bridge.
Are these warnings to stay away from the sacred plots—or something show more much, much worse: a terrifying serial killer at work? After recuperating from a traumatic event, Detective Cooper is finally back at work, and he knows that solving the mystery of the Corpse Bridge is exactly what he needs to feel like himself again. But if Cooper can't overcome his own personal demons and focus on the case, he could put everything—and everyone—he cares about at risk .
What Did I Think?
I really enjoyed this one. There was so much history interwoven into the story about the Corpse Roads and how and why the people had to use them. It must have been hardship added to sorrow for these villagers. The history part never distracted from the story...if anything it added to it.
One reviewer said that they missed Diane Fry's appearance in the later books. For myself I enjoyed the book because she failed to appear except in portions of the story. Another enjoyable feature was the number of suspects that paraded the story...all with plenty of reasons to commit the crime. It gave the mystery added weight and made it difficult to figure out. I was only partly right...but I had a great time working on it. If you like Ian Rankin's Rebus or Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks, then you will diffidently like this series. show less
Now that I’m about to catch up on Phil Rickman’s Merrily Watkins series (just one more novel to read left there), it’s time to look for a successor, which in this case mean a series of crime novels with a focus on British village life which is the aspect I always enjoyed most with the Merrily Watkins novels. Stephen Booth’s Cooper and Fry series looked promising, so I decided to give its first volume, Black Dog, a try.
Black Dog is set in an area called the Peak District which I am show more somewhat embarrassed to admit to never have heard before. It appears to be quite well-known though, as Wikipedia tells me it is the site of Britain’s first national park and a very picturesque place; and a brief image search at Google does indeed confirm that the scenery is beautiful. And Stephen Booth really does do the spirit of the place justice – his descriptive passages catch the beauty of the landscape and conjure vivid images of the environment.
But as this a crime novel, the depiction of scenery, however gorgeous it might be, is not really the focus of the novel which becomes clear very soon when the search after a disappeared fifteen-year old girl turns up her dead body. The search for her killer is what constitutes the plot of Black Dog, but – as in really all good crime fiction – the search for the perpetrator is not really the main focus either: That is only incidental, what drives the plot forward, a plot whose chief function, however is to cast light on the psyche of the characters entangled in it, and of the society those characters move in. This is certainly the case with Black Dog – Stephen Booth takes his time, lets us know his characters and the circumstances of their lives while the police continue with their murder investigation. This makes for a fairly slow-moving novel, at least where outright action is concerned, but the author manages even so to keep the reader’s interest invested in the book. For me at least he achieves that mainly with his depiction of the setting and its atmosphere – he makes the Peak District seem a fascinating place, peopled with farmers from long-established families, new arrivals from the nouveaux-riches and a steady stream of tourists; and in between them the policemen who have to struggle with their own problems. The events of Black Dog take place during summer, while the whole area is suffering from a heat wave, and oppressiveness of the high temperatures weighs down on the novel, made almost palpable by Stephen Booth’s writing.
Most prominent among the novel’s population are of course the series’ main characters, DCs Ben Cooper and Diane Fry, the former a native of the area, the second a new arrival from Birmingham. In a reversal of the usual gender roles it is Ben Cooper who appears as the more sensitive, beta part of the duo, while Diane Fry is an ambitious alpha careerist. I could not help the feeling that Booth is holding his cards somewhat close to his chest with those two, no doubt to facilitate further reveals about their lives in later volumes. But even so, I’m particularly impressed by the way he portrays Diane Fry and paints an excellent and unflinching picture of what it is like to be a career-conscious woman in an environment entirely dominated by males – how she is continuously moving in a minefield, has to be aware of every small gesture of her colleagues and how to interpret it, and of every small gesture of herself and how it will be interpreted. All of which has of course consequences on her character which Booth also does not shy away from (and I think that many of the readers who criticize that character for being “cold” fail to take that particular aspect into account). In comparison, Ben Cooper comes across as a bit bland but then there are many more volumes to come… show less
Black Dog is set in an area called the Peak District which I am show more somewhat embarrassed to admit to never have heard before. It appears to be quite well-known though, as Wikipedia tells me it is the site of Britain’s first national park and a very picturesque place; and a brief image search at Google does indeed confirm that the scenery is beautiful. And Stephen Booth really does do the spirit of the place justice – his descriptive passages catch the beauty of the landscape and conjure vivid images of the environment.
But as this a crime novel, the depiction of scenery, however gorgeous it might be, is not really the focus of the novel which becomes clear very soon when the search after a disappeared fifteen-year old girl turns up her dead body. The search for her killer is what constitutes the plot of Black Dog, but – as in really all good crime fiction – the search for the perpetrator is not really the main focus either: That is only incidental, what drives the plot forward, a plot whose chief function, however is to cast light on the psyche of the characters entangled in it, and of the society those characters move in. This is certainly the case with Black Dog – Stephen Booth takes his time, lets us know his characters and the circumstances of their lives while the police continue with their murder investigation. This makes for a fairly slow-moving novel, at least where outright action is concerned, but the author manages even so to keep the reader’s interest invested in the book. For me at least he achieves that mainly with his depiction of the setting and its atmosphere – he makes the Peak District seem a fascinating place, peopled with farmers from long-established families, new arrivals from the nouveaux-riches and a steady stream of tourists; and in between them the policemen who have to struggle with their own problems. The events of Black Dog take place during summer, while the whole area is suffering from a heat wave, and oppressiveness of the high temperatures weighs down on the novel, made almost palpable by Stephen Booth’s writing.
Most prominent among the novel’s population are of course the series’ main characters, DCs Ben Cooper and Diane Fry, the former a native of the area, the second a new arrival from Birmingham. In a reversal of the usual gender roles it is Ben Cooper who appears as the more sensitive, beta part of the duo, while Diane Fry is an ambitious alpha careerist. I could not help the feeling that Booth is holding his cards somewhat close to his chest with those two, no doubt to facilitate further reveals about their lives in later volumes. But even so, I’m particularly impressed by the way he portrays Diane Fry and paints an excellent and unflinching picture of what it is like to be a career-conscious woman in an environment entirely dominated by males – how she is continuously moving in a minefield, has to be aware of every small gesture of her colleagues and how to interpret it, and of every small gesture of herself and how it will be interpreted. All of which has of course consequences on her character which Booth also does not shy away from (and I think that many of the readers who criticize that character for being “cold” fail to take that particular aspect into account). In comparison, Ben Cooper comes across as a bit bland but then there are many more volumes to come… show less
Having read some very lively, pacy, action-orientated books recently, it made quite a change to move on to a murder mystery and the different pace at which such books develop.
Originally drawn to this by a good review and a setting in The Peak District, I was drawn in quickly to this first Stephen Booth book. Featuring DC Ben Cooper, suffering still from the death two years earlier of his much respected policeman father linked with his mother’s ongoing illness, and DC Diane Fry, also show more suffering, but this time from a very chequered personal background that only becomes clearer well through the novel, the story centres round the murder of a fifteen year old girl.
There is a great deal to be discovered as the story develops, with a number of surprises along the way.
The plot is developed very astutely, and I had no idea who the perpetrator was until very late in the novel, and even then it was something of a surprise. The characters are very well depicted, both Cooper and Fry being affected by their previous experiences, and featuring other stolid police who always favour going by the book rather than the gut feelings displayed particularly by Ben. Local families and their relationships with each other are well depicted. There is a great deal that the locals know, but getting them to talk about it is another matter. Gradually hidden goings on come to light, many of them connected to Laura, the murder victim, but not all having a bearing on her death. Through it all I developed a liking for both Cooper and Fry, who are totally different characters, as well as for Helen Milner, a former school friend of Ben, whose developing friendship holds out some hope for Ben ridding himself of the black dog, a local reference to people who have sunk low in their own minds. Interesting that so much rests on a mistaken identification of a dog!
Really good read, I must follow this pair up. show less
Originally drawn to this by a good review and a setting in The Peak District, I was drawn in quickly to this first Stephen Booth book. Featuring DC Ben Cooper, suffering still from the death two years earlier of his much respected policeman father linked with his mother’s ongoing illness, and DC Diane Fry, also show more suffering, but this time from a very chequered personal background that only becomes clearer well through the novel, the story centres round the murder of a fifteen year old girl.
There is a great deal to be discovered as the story develops, with a number of surprises along the way.
The plot is developed very astutely, and I had no idea who the perpetrator was until very late in the novel, and even then it was something of a surprise. The characters are very well depicted, both Cooper and Fry being affected by their previous experiences, and featuring other stolid police who always favour going by the book rather than the gut feelings displayed particularly by Ben. Local families and their relationships with each other are well depicted. There is a great deal that the locals know, but getting them to talk about it is another matter. Gradually hidden goings on come to light, many of them connected to Laura, the murder victim, but not all having a bearing on her death. Through it all I developed a liking for both Cooper and Fry, who are totally different characters, as well as for Helen Milner, a former school friend of Ben, whose developing friendship holds out some hope for Ben ridding himself of the black dog, a local reference to people who have sunk low in their own minds. Interesting that so much rests on a mistaken identification of a dog!
Really good read, I must follow this pair up. show less
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 23
- Also by
- 4
- Members
- 5,941
- Popularity
- #4,154
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 181
- ISBNs
- 352
- Languages
- 10
- Favorited
- 20
