Black Dog | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephen Booth
Publisher: Scribner Book Co.
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Media: Unbound
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
ISBN: 0743213335
EAN: 9780743213332
ASIN: 0743213335
Publication Date: October 2000
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Stephen Booth's first novel Black Dog is an impressive portrait of two sorts of policing. Ben is a local man who knows everybody and perhap scares too much, while Diane is a stranger wherever she goes and is perhaps too cold-blooded; when they find themselves rivals for promotion, and colleagues on a difficult case, breaking strain is going to be reached sooner or later. Spoiled, young Laura Vernon is missing, soon to be found dead, and the question soon arises: is she only, or even, the first? Retired quarryman Harry found the body and perhaps knows more than he is letting on, but he will do anything rather than tell the police more than he has to. The Vernons' gardener is missing, a thuggish young man rather too fond of showing off his muscles--what does he know? What went on at the Vernons' smart cocktail parties and what do Harry and his friends talk about over their beer in the pub? This is an ingenious dark little mystery in which there may be solutions to problems, but no cures; Ben and Diane are two of the more interestingly flawed young cops of recent crime fiction. --Roz Kaveney
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Dull June 12, 2008
Dull and not very exciting, this book is leaden, clunky and not much of a mystery. The only mystery is the large number of good reviews it gets. Still, it might make a decent TV detective as the scenery will be nice. Ho hum.
 Decent debut December 17, 2007
Black Dog is a decent book but after it build's up some good momentum, it is let down by a poor ending.
To be honest not much happen's in the first 450 odd page's but Stephen Booth does keep you interested with some good charecter's and a decent plotline and i was eager throughout to find out what happen's in the next page. I was hoping for a dramatic finale but was a bit gutted at the lame finish.
I will read the next chapter in the serie's but this one fell just short of four star's.
 A Really Tense Thriller August 24, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A newspaper and magazine journalist for over 25 years, Stephen Booth was born in the English Pennine town of Burnley. He was brought up on the coast at Blackpool, where he began his career in journalism by editing his school magazine and wrote his first 'novel' at the age of 13.
Laura Vernon is an intelligent, vivacious young teenager, but now she is missing in the peak District. The local police mount a full-scale search operation, but it is not them who finally find her. Harry Dickinson, a retired lead miner is the man who finally finds the body and for some reason known only to him he seems bent on obstructing the police investigation.
Even her parents are holding something back. What could be more important for them than finding the murderer of their daughter. Ben Cooper, a young Detective constable has the known the villagers all his life, but his feelings on the case are brought into question by the arrival of Diane Fry, an ambitious DC from another division . . .
First Book in the Series August 24, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
A newspaper and magazine journalist for over 25 years, Stephen Booth was born in the English Pennine town of Burnley. He was brought up on the coast at Blackpool, where he began his career in journalism by editing his school magazine and wrote his first 'novel' at the age of 13.
Laura Vernon is an intelligent, vivacious young teenager, but now she is missing in the peak District. The local police mount a full-scale search operation, but it is not them who finally find her. Harry Dickinson, a retired lead miner is the man who finally finds the body and for some reason known only to him he seems bent on obstructing the police investigation.
Even her parents are holding something back. What could be more important for them than finding the murderer of their daughter. Ben Cooper, a young Detective constable has the known the villagers all his life, but his feelings on the case are brought into question by the arrival of Diane Fry, an ambitious DC from another division . . .
Detective novel with a difference August 10, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
An impressive debut novel complete with dysfunctional cops and the obligatory red herrings. Most of the action takes place in a claustrophobic Peak District village after a schoolgirl is found murdered. The route to the killer takes number of twists and dead ends. The interplay between the two main characters (DCs Cooper and Fry) is developed well as is the different approaches to detective work these two employ.
Overall, the characters in the book are believable and the descriptive passages of police procedure are well developed.
Strongly recommended to anyone who enjoys crime fiction.
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