Black Dog

The first novel in the multiple award-winning Cooper and Fry series, set in England's beautiful and atmospheric Peak District.

It's been a long, hot summer in the Peak District national park. But summer comes to an end when the body of missing teenager Laura Vernon is found.

For young police detective Ben Cooper, the work has just begun. His community is hiding a girl's killer, and a past as dark as the Derbyshire night. It seems Laura was the keeper of secrets beyond her years and, in a case where no-one is innocent, everyone is a suspect.

But Cooper's local knowledge and instincts are about to face an even greater challenge. The ambitious DC Diane Fry has been transferred from a nearby city, a woman as ruthless as she is attractive?

"Dark, intense and utterly compelling", Black Dog is an extraordinary first novel from a writer who has rapidly become one of the UK's most successful crime writers.

*Winner of the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel of 2000

*Finalist for the Anthony Award for Best First Mystery of 2000

"Suspenseful and supremely engaging. Booth does a wonderful job." - Los Angeles Times

"Simultaneously classic, contemporary and haunting." - Mysterious Bookshop, New York

"A brilliant writer who gets everything - atmosphere, character, plot - just right. This book took my breath away." - Black Orchid Bookshop, New York

"An atmospheric, psychological stunner." - The Bookseller

"Stephen Booth makes high summer in Derbyshire as dark and terrifying as midwinter." - Val McDermid, award-winning crime novelist

"Black Dog sinks its teeth into you and doesn't let you go. A dark star is born!" - Reginald Hill, creator of Dalziel and Pascoe

"Black Dog is an exceedingly good first novel. Wholly engrossing." - London Evening Standard

"This is intelligent crime fiction at its best. It was a book I found impossible to put down." - Sherlock Magazine