Blood on the Tongue (Ben Cooper and Diane Fry, #3)

Guilt, sacrifice and redemption in a freezing Peak District winter feature in this tense psychological thriller from the acclaimed author of BLACK DOG and DANCING WITH THE VIRGINS.
It wasn't the easiest way to commit suicide. Marie Tennent seems to have curled up in the freezing snow on Irontongue Hill and stayed there until her body was frosted over like a supermarket chicken.
And hers isn't the only death the Derbyshire police have to contend with – not after the discovery of a baby in the wreckage of an old Airforce bomber, and the body of a man dumped by the roadside.
As if three bodies on her hands isn't enough, snow and ice have left half of 'E' Division out of action, and Detective Sergeant Diane Fry is forced to partner with DC Gavin Murfin. She and Ben Cooper were never a match made in heaven - but, next to Murfin, working with Ben starts to look like a dream.
Cooper is on a trail of his own, though – and one as cold as the Peak District January. In an equally bitter winter in 1945 an RAF bomber crashed on Irontongue Hill, killing everyone except the pilot, who walked away and disappeared. Now the pilot's grand-daughter is in Derbyshire desperate to clear his name, and Ben can't help taking an interest.
But is a fifty-year-old mystery really the best use of police time? Or does a vicious attack in the dark Edendale back streets prove that the trail isn't quite so cold as he thought?
Could the past be the only clue to present violence as an icy winter looks set to get even chillier?
* The 3rd novel in the multiple award-winning Cooper & Fry series, set in England's beautiful and atmospheric Peak District.
PRAISE FOR THE COOPER AND FRY SERIES:
"Suspenseful and supremely engaging. Booth does a wonderful job." - Los Angeles Times
"Simultaneously classic, contemporary and haunting." - Otto Penzler, Mysterious Bookshop, New York
"Stephen Booth makes high summer in Derbyshire as dark and terrifying as midwinter." - Val McDermid, award-winning crime novelist
"Intelligent and substantive crime fiction, rich with complex characters." - Library Journal
"Booth has firmly joined the elite of Britain's top mystery writers." - Florida Sun-Sentinel
"Crime fiction for the thinking man or woman, and damnably hard to put down." - January Magazine
"Highly recommended - a great series!" - Seattle Mystery Bookstore
"Ben Cooper and Diane Fry are the most interesting crime team to arrive on the mystery scene in a long while." - Rocky Mountain News
"One of our best story tellers." - Sunday Telegraph
"Booth delivers some of the best crime fiction in the UK." - Manchester Evening News
"If you read only one new crime writer this year, he's your man." - Yorkshire Post

Stephen Booth is a multiple award-winning British crime writer, the creator of two young Derbyshire police detectives, DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry, who have appeared in 16 novels, all set in England's beautiful and atmospheric Peak District. Stephen has been a Gold Dagger finalist, an Anthony Award nominee, twice winner of a Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel, and twice shortlisted for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year. DC Cooper reached the finals of the Sherlock Award for the best detective created by a British author, and in 2003 the Crime Writers' Association presented Stephen with the Dagger in the Library for "the author whose books have given readers the most pleasure". The Cooper & Fry novels are published all around the world, have been translated into 15 languages, and are currently in development for a TV series. The latest title is THE MURDER ROAD, with a new book SECRETS OF DEATH due in 2016. A former newspaper journalist, Stephen was born in Lancashire in the North of England and now lives in Nottinghamshire, near Robin Hood Country, with his wife and three cats.