Blood on the Tongue [Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Stephen Booth (Author), Christopher Kay (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2003

Unabridged CD Audiobook 15 CDs /16.75 hours long

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: RecordedBooks (2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1428176020
• ISBN-13: 978-1428176027
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Stephen Booth is an award winning British crime writer, the creator of two young Derbyshire police detectives, DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry, who have appeared in eleven novels set in England's beautiful and atmospheric Peak District. Stephen has been a Gold Dagger finalist, an Anthony Award nominee, twice winner of a Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel, and twice shortlisted for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year. DC Cooper was a finalist for the Sherlock Award for the best detective created by a British author, and in 2003 the Crime Writers' Association presented Stephen with the Dagger in the Library Award for "the author whose books have given readers the most pleasure". The Cooper & Fry series is published all around the world, and has been translated into 15 languages. The latest title is THE DEVIL'S EDGE.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BLOOD ON THE TONGUE, October 24, 2002

By 

Susan Hartigan (Riverside, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blood on the Tongue: A Crime Novel (Hardcover)

BLOOD ON THE TONGUE is another fantastic novel from Stephen Booth. Not only another fantastic novel, but one with old friends, and even some new ones. Reading BLOOD ON THE TONGUE felt like coming home again.

It is in the middle of the coldest part of the year in the Peak District. The time of the year for cold, frozen feet and red, burning ears. When snow flurries blow hard, and the snow banks along the roads grow so high that they hide all kinds of secrets. Perhaps even a dead body, or two.

Ben Cooper and Diane Fry find themselves together again, at the Edendale Police Department in the midst of a crime wave. Young men are beating each other, people are being found frozen in the snow, and there is a terrible shortage of help. To make life just that much more unbearable at the moment, Diane has a new nemesis, DC Gavin Murfin. A completely, in Diane's mind anyway, uncivilized brute who drives her nuts with both his disgusting eating habits, as well as just him simply breathing. Everything about Gavin disgusts Diane.

To top everything off E Division is getting a new Detective Chief Inspector. Stewart Tailby is retiring to a desk job at headquarters, and DCI Oliver Kessen is taking over.

In the middle of this chaos a young woman arrives from Canada in search of information concerning her grandfather, Daniel McTeague. The problem with this is that Pilot Officer McTeague has been missing since his RAF plane went down 57 years earlier in the peat moors around Irontongue Hill. It was reported at the time that Officer McTeague had survived the accident, and had left the wreckage, walking away from his military career and past life, never to be seen, or heard from again. His granddaughter, Alison Morrissey does not believe this, and is insistent that the police open the old case again and investigate.

Because of political pressure, the Chief Superintendent agrees to speak to Morrissy concerning her grandfather, but doesn't really have his heart in the whole thing. After all the disappearance was 57 years ago, and all of the evidence surrounding it seems pretty sound.

But Ben cannot, and will not let it alone. He has to find out what happened almost 60 years ago.

BLOOD ON THE TONGUE, like the previous books by Mr. Booth, is full of atmosphere and personal relationships. He does this in such a way that you actually feel that you are in the story. The way Mr. Booth describes the Peak District landscape, and the people of
Edendale draw you into the story.

You feel the cold wind against your face, burning your ears, and making it difficult to breath. As you look up at Irontongue Hill you will see it is, "tongue shaped with ridges and furrows. Reptilian, not human, with a curl at the tip. Colder and harder than iron. Darker rock laying on broken teeth of volcano rock debris." And 'you will' see it. All of this you will see and feel, along with people who you cannot forget, their lives entwined and yet separate. Mr. Booth brings both the land and the people together into a story that is completely unforgettable. One that will haunt you and make you want for more. And when you finally get that next story, Mr. Booth does it again, leaving you satisfied, and yet already yearning for more.

BLOOD ON THE TONGUE weaves the past and the present into one. Brings the story full circle. Every character and scene is woven so tightly that you cannot separate them, and yet they remain individual. The characters are everyday characters with lives, feelings, and personalities of their own that you actually can feel and touch. The scenes are so real that they will haunt your dreams at night. The mood, while dark, is absolutely balanced with enough humor and light that it doesn't depress you, but instead keeps you turning those pages to learn more.

BLOOD ON THE TONGUE is an absolute winner, and Mr. Booth has proven himself again as a literary giant. All I can say is that BLOOD ON THE TONGUE will leave you craving for more from this outstanding author.

As with Mr. Booth's previous books, Black Dog, and Dancing with the Virgins, BLOOD ON THE TONGUE is a book that you will want to read slowly, because you want to savor each and every word. It is a book you will not want to rush through. I took my time, knowing that when I turned that last page I would want the next episode and didn't want to have to wait for a long time. Now that I have turned that last page, I am looking forward to the next book out of Mr. Booth, knowing that he again will outdo himself, just as he has with BLOOD ON THE TONGUE. Until then my dreams will be full of the sights, the sounds, and the smells of the Peak District and the people who inhabit it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprising, February 19, 2003

By 

bill runyon (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood on the Tongue: A Crime Novel (Hardcover)

The surprising thing about this author is that he isn't recognized more widely.
His writing is absolutely first-class, and his use of the
English language surpasses almost any other writing most us
encounter. In this narrow field of the "psychological thriller," his command of the language, and his fresh use of
the metaphor and simile, is unparalleled.
A serious reader will have to re-read some of his passages just
for the pleasure of how the mental picture developes as the
words are flowing.
In this outing, his "heros," Ben and Diane, remain at personal
odds, and they have a difficult time working together on their
rural Derbyshire Constabulary, but a series of crimes brings
them together again to work their particular magic on violent
felons.
A couple of dead bodies are found, apparently unrelated, but
investigation leads back to a WWII crash of a British bomber
in the rural mountains, and an amazing series of crimes begins
to unfold as evidence points to an ever-widening story of crime,
deception at multiple levels, and family relationships. The
details presented and analyzed will hold the reader's attention
throughout the book.
This author also has an unusual insight into how crime victims
react to the assaults on them, and some readers will almost
shrink from absorbing the details of that process.
This story is one that should not be missed by anyone reading
in the "crime" or "thriller" field, and we also learn a lot
about life in the rural England of today.
Rush to grab this one.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent entry in a series, October 10, 2002

By 

woodstock_ap "woodstock_ap" (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood on the Tongue: A Crime Novel (Hardcover)

Ben Cooper and Diane Fry, colleages in a rural British police department, return in the third entry in a continuing series of police procedurals. They share a rather prickly relationship which often interferes with their efforts to work together productively. A series of seemingly unconnected murders has occurred, people disappear, a young woman arrives from Canada to search for information on her grandfather who died as as RAF aviator in WWII, a local tightly Polish community hides secrets of its own, an eccentric book store owner may be involved in illegal activity (or not), one or perhaps two missing infants, and the plight of several elderly residents of the area is portrayed with sensitivity.

Gradually it becomes clear that all events center around a rocky area where WWII aircraft crashed over 60 years ago. Very tightly plotted, and thoroughly enjoyable!