The Dead Place

"The Dead Place" by Booth, Stephen, published by Bantam. Soon there will be a killing. Close your eyes and breathe in the aroma. I can smell it right now, cant you? So powerful, so sweet. So irresistible. Its the scent of death. Its perfectly simple. All you have to do is find the dead place The anonymous caller who taunts the Police with talk of an imminent killing could be a hoaxer, his descriptions of death and decomposition a sick fantasy. But Detective Diane Fry is certain shes dealing with a murderer. The voice so eerily, shiveringly calm invites the police to meet the flesh eater. Fry fears it may already be too late to save the next victim. DC Ben Cooper, meanwhile, is looking into Derbyshires first case of body snatching. The investigation takes him into the dark, secret world of those whose lives revolve around the dead and their disposal from funeral directors to crematorium staff and a professor whose speciality is the study of death. Where is the dead place? And what terrible deeds are done there? ### From Publishers Weekly In the sixth circuitously plotted police procedural from British author Booth (after *One Last Breath*), Det. Constable Ben Cooper and his boss, Sgt. Diane Fry, pursue a possible serial killer who leaves haunting phone messagesabout impending murders, flesh eaters and decompositionat the Derbyshire police station. Cooper and Fry chase down all sorts of dead ends: a woman who disappears from a local car park, another whose body is found in the woods, and skeletal remains discovered on a hilltop. None of the crimes appears to be the killer's work, but they all may be connected in disjointed ways to a local funeral parlor whose business has dropped off significantly in recent years. Booth's meandering stylelots of subplots and droll diversionsmay not be to everyone's liking. Some readers may also be put off by the lack of chemistry between the earnest and bumbling Cooper and the cranky and aloof Fry. *(May)* Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ### From Booklist Despite a rather substantial flaw--the author makes the identity of the villain a little too clear, way too early in the story--this is a sharp and engaging mystery. Detective Constable Ben Cooper and his partner, Detective Sergeant Diane Fry, the popular series leads, are up against what could be their wiliest adversary yet: a psychopath who has announced that he intends to commit a murder but won't say where or when. Can Cooper and Fry follow the tangled web of clues and stop the madman? One of the many fascinating things about the novel is that Fry, one of the protagonists, comes off in the beginning as immensely unlikable. The novel's tone is grislier than that of some of the earlier entries in the series, too, following the trend of British crime fiction becoming generally more hard-edged and visceral. Booth is slowly building a reputation as one of Britain's best mystery writers, and his latest won't do anything to stop the momentum. *David Pitt* *Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved* Book details: published 2005. Order now on BookShops.in with fast, reliable delivery across India.