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BLACK DOG
by Stephen Booth
Pocket /books, November 2001
352 pages
$6.99
ISBN: 0671786040


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

BLACK DOG is the first in the police procedural series set in England's Peak District. Young DC Ben Cooper is not having a good week. Laura Vernon, a 15 year old girl has gone missing and he is one of the men searching the hills on a hot summer's day. Family problems are beginning to overwhelm him. At almost 30, he is really really tired of being known as Sergeant Cooper's lad, and his mother's gradual decline into schizophrenia since the murder of Sgt. Cooper, and the "black dog" (extreme depression) is following him. Even the expectation of his being promoted to Detective Sergeant doesn't bring him out of his funk.

Another black dog, a Labrador, belong to retired lead miner, Harry Dickinson, brings home a running shoe, the same size and brand as that worn by Laura. Cooper is sent to the Dickinson cottage where he finds the aged Dickinson very unforthcoming about his discovery. All he would say is that Jess, the dog, found the shoe on the riverbank. But Ben knows there is more to it than that, since that area had been thoroughly searched at the very beginning.

A DC from a neighboring district, Diane Fry, is transferred to Edendale and Division E. Just like the Vernon's, she is a stranger, an incomer, and is not trusted by the villagers. After all, Cooper is one of their own. Diane has heard nothing but praise for Ben since she arrived and when they are partnered in the investigation, she is puzzled, since he does not appear to be the godlike creature she had heard about.

It is essential to read BLACK DOG before going on to DANCING WITH THE VIRGINS, and BLOOD ON THE TONGUE, as the relationship between these young detectives grows and changes in each of the books. There is also a common theme throughout the books, that one must understand the past in order to determine the problems of the present.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, December 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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