Followed by a black dog
The British use the term "black dog" to mean a sense of pervasive melancholy that follows you everywhere, and Stephen Booth picks it up as the title of his debut novel set in the Peak District of Northern England.
To newly-arrived officer Diane Fry, Detective Constable Ben Cooper seems to have it all - when they set out on initial interviews in the case of a missing teenage girl named Laura Vernon, everyone seems to know Cooper's name and speak of his father with reverence. Needless to say it needles Fry, an aggressive up-and-comer eager to use her new appointment as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. However, Cooper's life (like Fry's) is far more than meets the eye - both are trying to escape a past that just can't quite let them go.
As they throw themselves into the Vernon case, the duo find that all of their suspects are something more than they originally appear as well. The dogwalker that found Laura's shoe is oddly cryptic in his interviews and seems to know just how to push the police officers' buttons, but what about Laura's family? Her mother vacillates between heartbroken and coldly unemotional, while her father insists the gardener did it and her brother returns from university seemly for the sole purpose of exposing the family's secrets. As the clues and red herrings pile up, Cooper and Fry clash over their different styles and their mutual need to keep their own secrets....
This one was a recommendation from the Bionic Mom, and I can see why she liked it - Booth does a great job of setting the scene of desolate-yet-beautiful moors and small, insular British farming towns. There's something about an English setting that lends such a different feeling to the same plot set in America. Unfortunately, so many of the plot and character elements feel just as derivative as the setting is distinctive.
I have to confess that the "tortured hero/heroine" shtick is so unbelievably tired to me - honestly, if your only experience with law enforcement is reading mysteries you'd think that losing a beloved family member to crime or being the victim of a violent attack yourself is as obligatory to the job as passing the physical exam. I realize that authors feel the need to give their officer heroes a reason for being in their line of work, but I'd be just as happy with the "I just want to help people" rationale - at least that's somewhat more likely be representative of reality.
Overall, average but nothing special. The Bionic Mom promises that his most recent book is his best - look for that in the near future.
To newly-arrived officer Diane Fry, Detective Constable Ben Cooper seems to have it all - when they set out on initial interviews in the case of a missing teenage girl named Laura Vernon, everyone seems to know Cooper's name and speak of his father with reverence. Needless to say it needles Fry, an aggressive up-and-comer eager to use her new appointment as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. However, Cooper's life (like Fry's) is far more than meets the eye - both are trying to escape a past that just can't quite let them go.
As they throw themselves into the Vernon case, the duo find that all of their suspects are something more than they originally appear as well. The dogwalker that found Laura's shoe is oddly cryptic in his interviews and seems to know just how to push the police officers' buttons, but what about Laura's family? Her mother vacillates between heartbroken and coldly unemotional, while her father insists the gardener did it and her brother returns from university seemly for the sole purpose of exposing the family's secrets. As the clues and red herrings pile up, Cooper and Fry clash over their different styles and their mutual need to keep their own secrets....
This one was a recommendation from the Bionic Mom, and I can see why she liked it - Booth does a great job of setting the scene of desolate-yet-beautiful moors and small, insular British farming towns. There's something about an English setting that lends such a different feeling to the same plot set in America. Unfortunately, so many of the plot and character elements feel just as derivative as the setting is distinctive.
I have to confess that the "tortured hero/heroine" shtick is so unbelievably tired to me - honestly, if your only experience with law enforcement is reading mysteries you'd think that losing a beloved family member to crime or being the victim of a violent attack yourself is as obligatory to the job as passing the physical exam. I realize that authors feel the need to give their officer heroes a reason for being in their line of work, but I'd be just as happy with the "I just want to help people" rationale - at least that's somewhat more likely be representative of reality.
Overall, average but nothing special. The Bionic Mom promises that his most recent book is his best - look for that in the near future.
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