A mysterious phone call from an obsessed killer keeps
Detective Diane Fry on edge while her partner Detective
Constable Ben Cooper is searching for the identity of a
skeleton found in the woods. Not realizing that their cases
may be related, the two find their suspects coinciding on
multiple levels.
As the two move through the clues, bodies start to stack
up; although, not fresh bodies. Fry works through the
killer's messages as Cooper looks for the identity of the
first skeleton. Funeral parlors, obsessed professors and an
old crypt help to decipher the messages. As more messages
arrive, the two detectives discover more about death than
they ever wanted to know
English novelist Stephen Booth gives readers the
sixth book in the Ben Cooper/Diane Fry mystery set in
England's Peak District. This series just keeps getting
better and better. Fry is as unlikable as ever and Cooper
is the epitome of a good guy. A good example of the good-
cop/bad-cop routine. I enjoyed learning a bit more about
death and the references Booth used when describing smells
and areas. This book was a quick read for its length and at
times slow-paced, however it's worth it in the end to find
out how everything intertwines.
“This killing will be a model of perfection. An
accomplishment to be proud of. And it could be tonight or
maybe next week. But it will be soon. I promise.”
The anonymous phone calls indicate a disturbed mind with an
unnatural passion for death. Cooper and Fry are hoping
against hope that the caller is just a harmless crank
having some sick fun. But the clues woven through his
disturbing messages point to the possibility of an all-too-
real crime . . . especially when a woman vanishes from an
office parking garage.
But it’s the mystery surrounding an unidentified female
corpse left exposed in the woods for over a year that
really has the detectives worried. Whoever she might have
been, the dead woman is linked to the mystery caller, whose
description of his twisted death rituals matches the
bizarre manner in which the body was found. And the mystery
only deepens when Cooper obtains a positive I.D. and learns
that the dead woman was never reported missing and that she
definitely wasn’t murdered. As the killer draws them closer
into his confidence, Ben and Diane learn everything about
his deadly obsessions except what matters most: his
identity and the identity of his next victim. . . .