From Publishers Weekly
After an atmospheric beginning, Booth settles down to a lengthy investigation marked by long stretches of unrelieved tedium in his second crime novel (after 2000's Black Dog). On Ringham Moor, in a remote area of England, a prehistoric ring of stones known as the Nine Virgins stands guardian over mankind's darkest secrets. To this lonely area comes Jenny Weston, a young cyclist. Entranced by the scenery's eerie ambience, Jenny doesn't hear the stealthy approach of a silent stalker, knife at the ready, who graphically dispatches her and artfully arranges her body to simulate a woman dancing. The killing seems singularly motiveless, and Diane Fry and Ben Cooper, the detectives assigned to the case, are an odd couple: Fry is a feminist and Cooper a beer-drinking sports enthusiast with a taste for records from the '80s. When they discover that another woman, Maggie Crew, was attacked by a knife-wielding assailant not half a mile from Ringham Moor, the plot appears to thicken. Unfortunately, the tone of the investigation is so matter-of-fact that the mystery fails to grip. Moreover, the characters are opaque, often one-dimensional, and the ultimate revelation of the murderer comes as a distinct anticlimax. The author seems more concerned with a welter of subplots, one involving a farmer running a dog-fighting ring and his bˆte noire, an animal rights activist intent on mayhem. Booth is more successful at evoking the desolate moor, with its windswept cairns, stone circles and prehistoric burial grounds. But for most mystery fans, the mix will fail to gel. Agent, Teresa Chris.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Back after last year's well-received debut, Black Dog, Booth provides another psychologically complex British police procedural featuring Detective Constable Ben Cooper. When the body of Jenny Weston is found, displayed as if she were dancing, at the ancient site of the Nine Virgins stone circle, police suspect the same person who attacked and brutally disfigured Maggie Crew on the same Derbyshire moor just weeks earlier. But eight weeks and another nonfatal attack later, they are no closer to solving the crime, despite a list of possible suspects that includes a burglar with a potential personal grievance, a bad-tempered farmer driven to desperate means to survive economically, a well-respected park ranger who is found to like child pornography, and Jenny's ex-husband. Acting Detective Sergeant Diane Fry, a former partner of Cooper who got the promotion that seemed destined for him, can't jog Maggie's memories of her assailant. And Cooper must contend with his prickly relationship with Fry and his basic loyalty and humanity, as he sees victims where others see only suspects and shades of gray where others see black and white. Booth ought to be popular wherever Barbara Vine and Minette Walters have a following; for all such mystery collections. Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., VA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
