Book Review: The Dead Place

Reviewed By: Pat Reid - RAM

The Dead Place     Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon Canada HC
Stephen Booth
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Psychological Suspense   Police Procedural
Series: Ben Cooper / Diane Fry # 6
HarperCollins, 2005, 454 pps.

It is always interesting to read a tale set in the Peak District. The landscape and mannerisms of the residents are so different from the area where I live that is hard to imagine what a day spent touring the Peak District would be like.

Although DC Ben Cooper has been raised there, his superior Detective Diane Fry has not but she is slowly becoming accustomed to the ways.

Detective Fry has been receiving a number of anonymous phone calls and they have upset her greatly. She feels the caller is ready to kill. The calls remind her of a case that occurred when she first got into police work and one that has haunted her ever since. DC Ben Cooper is involved in the mystery of a body that is found and it turns out the woman died of natural causes and was supposedly cremated several months before.

It is soon discovered the anonymous caller and the woman’s body that is discovered are connected. The investigation leads into a deep study of death and many visits to a local funeral home and crematorium. The story is very dark and forces you to dwell on death and what happens after death.

You shouldn’t miss reading “The Dead Place” but be prepared to give it a lot of thought even after you have finished the last page and gone on to something else.

Pat Reid - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Pat Reid - RAM

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