Customer Reviews

Dancing with the Virgins : A Constable Ben Cooper Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Peak District is a beautiful part of the world. Haunting, dark and mysterious. It's a tourist attraction that lures thousands every year. But it has also been used as a killing ground. A girl is found dead at a group of rocks known as The Nine Virgins. Even more disturbing is that it appears that her body has been arranged to look as though she is dancing.

This is Stephen Booth's second book following on from Black Dog, and revisits Ben Cooper and Diane Fry. Apart from the mystery, this books concentrates on delving deeper into the characters introduced in the first book. The relationship between Ben and Diane is continually developed, as are the secrets they appear to be hiding. At some points, the murder case takes a secondary role to the characterisations. Because of this character development, I would recommend reading Black Dog before this book.

It takes a while to really get going, as with many police investigations, but pretty soon things start coming together. A nicely woven mystery is unravelled with a few surprises, both pleasant and unpleasant, revealed along the way.

The setting of the book is once again a powerful factor in setting the mood of the story, which is not what I would term upbeat. It always feels dangerous, dark and menacing - just like a good murder mystery should.

Just finished this book. Excellent. What sensitivity for the human condition; such understanding and empathy. Excellent mystery. Better than the first and can hardly wait for the third. Can only say ...wow... Love Cooper. Love the mysteries that make you just hold on and wait with baited breath. Very good and highly recommended. When is the next one?

As with "Black Dog", Stephen Booth has written a chilly, uncomfortable, airtight story that requires full concentration (or else you'll find yourself going back and reading copious numbers of pages again trying to figure out where you lost the thread), but it rewards. The story is a good one, but I liked his unsparing portrayal of the characters who populate this book and his unflinching and unhappy look at the world of livestock slaughterhouses and failing farms. Quite a long way from a comfortable armchair. Oh, and there's a ripping good mystery here, too!

First Line: On the day the first woman died, Mark Roper had radio trouble.

In a remote area of the Peaks District in England, a prehistoric ring of stones called the Nine Virgins witnesses the brutal murder of a young cyclist. When Detective Constable Ben Cooper and Detective Sergeant Diane Fry learn that another woman was attacked by an assailant with a knife less than half a mile from the Nine Virgins, they feel they've found the start of a pattern that needs to be stopped immediately.

After enjoying the first book in the series, Black Dog, I expected to settle down to another good read, and Dancing With the Virgins did start well. Author Stephen Booth is a master of the atmospheric setting of the Peaks District-- making it appear both beautiful and menacing-- and his two main characters are finely drawn. However, I had several major problems with this book.

Those very same main characters that I'm getting to know so well are rubbing my fur the wrong way. Diane Fry is the Queen of Not-Letting-Anyone-Get-Close. She realizes this but doesn't know what to do about it... or if she even wants to do anything about it. She's so prickly that, no matter what anyone does, they put their foot in it. I may understand some of her motivations, but after a while prickly gets old, and I begin to wish that she could remain civil to everyone for one entire hour.

Ben Cooper, on the other hand, is the opposite of Diane Fry. Where Diane Fry sees black or white, everything is in shades of grey to Ben Cooper. He has a difficult time saying no to anyone and seems to want to be all things to all people. As a result, he seems frozen in place at times.

The pacing of the book was glacial and came very close to being a Did Not Finish for me. The first substantive clue for the main murder occurred on page 380 of a 528-page book. The culprits for this were the many subplots that sucked all the life out of the investigation into the murder of the cyclist. Besides the murder, there were plot threads involving child pornography, illegal dog fighting, a corrupt cop, two young homeless men camped out in a broken-down van, domestic violence, a young park ranger learning the ropes... and others. If there'd been fewer subplots, I think things would've moved a bit faster and the book would've held my interest.

As it stands, Dancing With the Virgins just didn't work for me. I do have the third book in the series here, and I will read it. But it will be a while before I pick it up.

Excellent mystery set in the north of England. Good sense of place, main characters well developed. plot complex and moves at a good pace. Detective Ben Cooper, a local copper with a good feel fo the locals is not led off on tangents like the others, particularly Detective Diane Fry, who has recently arrived from the south. The murder of Jenny Weston and attack on Maggie Crew appear to be related but it is only towards the end that the link between them becomes clear but is muddied considerably by the apparent link with a dog fighting business.

The resolution is slow coming but very satisfactory. The on-again-off-again relationship between Ben and Diane appears to be warming up but both have depths and secretes not yet available to the other.

Reminds me somewhat of the early books by Peter Robinson. rating 4.5/5

Constable Ben Cooper is not your average English copper. He grew up under the firm guidance of his hero policeman dad, who died in the line of duty, but Ben now questions everything having to do with his job. Who's he supposed to be defending? A large proportion of the citizenry don't seem to want his services, except when there's a crisis. And even then, they aren't much help. Why can't he seem to get along with Diane Fry, who received the promotion he was expecting. Why is she back on his patch? And while he believes deeply in loyalty, to exactly whom is this loyalty owed?
Against this background of personal turmoil, Ben is called upon to solve a series of vicious crimes against women in the lovely and atmospheric Peaks National Park, where nothing- and no one - is truly as it seems. Some nice plot twists, a half dozen likely looking suspects, and 3 victims, interrelated though no one yet knows that, combine to make this a puzzle to the last few pages.
Most interesting, Watson.

This brilliant book is a prime example why the British crime writers are superior to their American counterparts. The plot of this novel is dark and twisted and the characters fully devolped. Everything is unfolding slowly as it would in real life and real investigation. All the characters, even passers by, come to life, for a moment touch your heart and move on with their broken lives.
The plot driven books, as most of American crime writing is,can not compare. We have to stop aiming our books and movies only to people who have hard time focusing.Thank you Mr.Booth.

A newspaper and magazine journalist for over 25 years, Stephen Booth was born in the English Pennine 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.

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 country.

The Peak District can be a beautiful place in summer and attracts visitors from miles around and one of the attractions that draws people to it, even though it is in one of the more remote areas is a ring of standing stone called the Nine Virgins. They carry a dark legend from the past. Now as winter begins to draw in and the attraction begins to draw less visitors, a tenth figure is added to the circle. The body of Jenny Weston is discovered. Her body has been arranged in some macabre position, so that she appears to be dancing . . .

The thing that I remember most clearly about _Dancing with the Virgins_ is that both of the detectives in it were a little annoying. Not drunken and rakishly annoying to women, but fussy and disorganized and at least a little bit thick at times. It takes courage to not give in at the last moment and not make your heros larger than life, and Booth at least has that courage. Unfortunately, the lasting enjoyment of the book may have suffered as a result.

I know that I enjoyed the book at the time I read it. It was a quick read and kept me well occupied in a week where I was home sick. My only complaint was that the plot felt a bit overdone, an occupational hazard of the genre. What I notice now that I sit (one week later) to write a review, I found it really difficult to remember who had done what to whom and why.

A woman's body is found in a ring of standing stones which legend has it are the remains of Virgins caught dancing on a Sunday and turned to stone. Bound up in the mystery are a woman with a disfigured face found wandering in the same location, a very angry farmer on the brink of ruin, and a missing girl with dreadlocks who nobody seems to be able to identify. Even while still being at odds, Ben Cooper and Diane Fry need to work together to solve the mystery.

Dancing with the Virgins would be an excellent book for the beach or for an airplane ride. Just do not expect too much from it.