The fact that that they have operated for ten books so far in the supposedly quiet locale of the Peak District does not mean that these provincial cops encounter less violence or conundrums than their urban counterparts. To the contrary.
Booth uses the magnificent scenery as a background for cleverly devious plots against which the complex relationship between the two sleuths develops on a slow burn. Their latest case begins with a corpse in a kitchen, following a home invasion. Others quickly follow.
The newspapers call them the Savages: a band of home invaders as merciless as they are stealthy. Usually they don't leave a clue. This time, they've left a body. The first victim is found sprawled on her kitchen floor, blood soaking the terracotta tiles. Before long, another corpse is discovered, dead of fright. As the toll rises, it's up to DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry to track down the killers. But the enemy isn't who they think it is. Beneath the sinister shadow of the mountain ridge called the Devil's Edge, a twisted game is in play ? a game more ruthless than the detectives can imagine...Packed with nerve-jangling suspense and moody atmosphere, The Devil's Edge is a thriller to rival the very best of Peter Robinson and Peter James.
Born in Lancashire, Stephen Booth has been a newspaper and magazine journalist for 25 years. He has worked as a rugby reporter, a night shift sub-editor on the ‘Scottish Daily Express’ and Production Editor of the ‘Farming Guardian’ magazine, in addition to spells on local newspapers in the North of England. Stephen lives in a Georgian dower house in Nottinghamshire with his wife, three cats and three goats.
His debut crime novel ‘Black Dog’ was the first in a series set in the Peak District and featuring young Derbyshire police detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry. ‘Black Dog’ was named as one of the six best crime novels of 2000 by the ‘London Evening Standard’, and Reginald Hill said: “Stephen Booth’s ‘Black Dog’ sinks its teeth into you and doesn’t let you go.”
