Dead and Buried

Cooper and Fry, Book 12

By: Stephen Booth

Narrated by: Mike Rogers

As riveting as Peter Robinson. As nerve-jangling as Peter James. Dead And Buried. Arson: Brutal acts of fire-starting have ravaged the Peak District, and now a new wave of moorland infernos sweeps across the national park. For DS Ben Cooper, the blazes are best left to the fire-fighters, even with the arsonists still at large.

Burglary: But when an intruder breaks into an abandoned pub, Cooper is on the case - and he swiftly unearths a pair of grim surprises. The first is evidence of a years-old double homicide. And the second is a corpse, newly dead....

Murder: What links the three deaths? Where are the missing bodies? Who is responsible - and how do the raging fires fit in? For Cooper and his rival DI Diane Fry, it's the most twisted investigation of their lives...and with an ingenious killer pulling the strings, it could also be their last. Drenched in atmosphere and danger, Stephen Booth's relentless new thriller builds to a shock finale that will catch even the most seasoned suspense readers off guard.

©2012 Stephen Booth (P)2012 Isis Publishing Ltd

Loved this series

Audible US only has 2 books from this series I really hope they get more. I loved the characters and the narrator was perfect. The Derbyshire Peak District is incredibly wild and beautiful and the author gave a real sense of the place. The story was excellent and did keep me guessing . More please Audible.

The Latest Ben Cooper and Diane Fry.

There are fires being set on the moors and in the peat bogs. These are particularly dangerous because a fire can burn underground in a peat bog for years and re-emerge at another time. But Ben’s bigger concern is that a corpse is found in a pub which has been abandoned. There is no reason for anyone, particularly a corpse, to be there. Again, Diane and a crew insert themselves into the investigation. As they all investigate, clues point from the discovered corpse back to a tourist couple who disappeared two years previously. It becomes likely that the couple didn’t just disappear, but that they’re dead. But where are they, and who killed them and why? Another atmospheric novel which Booth seems, at the end, to be moving along to a different level of involvement between the characters. This is one of those books which ends without telling us the whole end, and so we’ll have to wait for the next book to find out what happened. A very good book

Superb story and a cliffhanger ending

I recently discovered Stephen Booth and this is the second story I've listened to. So obviously there is a lot of history between DC Ben Cooper and DC Fry that i'm not yet privy to. That being said I love these books. I have family in the peak district and it makes me very homesick when I listen and hear village and town names that are so familiar. The story follows Ben as he investigates a series of murders, recent and a couple years old, that center around a now shut down pub called The Lighthouse. Even the name is apt for a pub placed where this one is, as you would know if you have been to the moors. I don't want to give anything away but rest assured (for fans) you'll get plenty of Gavin Murphin (sp) and Ben and Liz are busy planning their wedding. Matt, Ben's brother, is around too having recovered from the brush with the law as detailed in The Devil's Edge.
It's a great listen and Mike does a super job reading Stephens' wonderful story. I hope we don't have to wait long before the previous books are on offer AND for the next story.

So depressing and so repetitive

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Not really. Every single book in this series gasses on and on and on about all the place names the Peak District, and waxes rhapsodic about what a super special it is. We get it already. Move on. Plus the dynamic between Diane Fry and Ben Cooper never seems to change or develop. She's a bag and he's a pushover. Duly noted. The whole series is getting hackneyed.

Would you recommend Dead and Buried to your friends? Why or why not?

No, for the reasons noted above. Character development is sadly lacking, and I feel like the scenery is its own (major) character.

Did Mike Rogers do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

I like his Gavin Murphin. Completely captures the character.

Could you see Dead and Buried being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No.

Any additional comments?

I used to love this series, but there is no longer anything original about it, and the characters haven't developed in any meaningful way.

Marking time

A challenge for a mystery series writer is to keep the protagonist's story moving along for regular readers, but still make it accessible to new readers who may come into the series without reading earlier books. In Dead and Buried, the 13th in the Ben Cooper/Diane Fry series set in the Peak District in England, author Stephen Booth has crafted a story that any new reader will have no trouble following. Unfortunately, those who have read earlier books in the series are likely to be frustrated by the unchanging negative dynamic in the relationship between Ben Cooper and Diane Fry.

Just when Fry thought she'd finally escaped Edendale, its sheep and all the colleagues she disdained in Edendale's CID, she's dragged back. She's now part of a regional Major Crimes unit, called in when evidence is found relating to the high-profile disappearance of a couple on the moors near Edendale over two years earlier. That disappearance happened in a Christmastime blizzard, which is hard to picture now that it's a hot, dry summer and dangerous moorland fires keep popping up. The investigation takes on a new dimension when a murder victim is found in the Lighthouse, a now-closed pub that was connected to the disappearance of the couple. The victim isn't one of the couple, but he was a regular at the Lighthouse.

Ben Cooper, newly promoted to Detective Sergeant, is about to be married to Scene of Crime technician Liz Petty, and is a little distracted by all the wedding and house planning. But not so distracted as to fail to be annoyed at being put in an essentially subordinate position to Fry. For him, it's not so much that Diane is in a flashier position and is running the investigation, as that Diane is still so Diane. Diane is still hostile to everyone on the Edendale force, including (or even especially) Ben. She never misses a chance to make sarcastic and demeaning remarks, to dismiss any suggestions made by anyone else and to let everyone know just what she thinks of Edendale and everyone in it.

The mystery story here was promising, but I found it too easy to figure out what happened and whodunnit---and I'm usually no genius at that sort of thing. There was a piece of the story line that was just dropped, as if it was a red herring, even though it felt more like an additional thread that would be pursued to a separate conclusion. And the ending was jarringly abrupt.

Booth's writing is vividly descriptive and was put to good use in this story, with the moorland wildfires playing a part throughout the book. I just wish he'd use his writing power to go somewhere new with Ben Cooper and Diane Fry, especially Fry. She's painted as a talented, but extremely bitter person who tries to make life as miserable for everyone around her as it seems to be for her. I'm just sick of reading her nasty cracks and the way Ben Cooper seethes but never confronts her. I got the faintest glimmer at the end of the book that this may be about to change; that Ben's anger may boil over now. I hope that happens and that it's the catalyst for real change in the dynamic between these two characters. I'll give Booth one more chance to make that happen.

Mike Rogers does an excellent job with the northern English accents of several of the characters. He has a pleasing voice, clear enunciation and puts a lot of life into his reading.

Gripping -- can't wait until the next one!

A bit slow at times, but still good mystery with an anticipated ending. I look forward to further development of the characters in the next novel!
As always, Mike Rogers' performance is "spot on" and the Devonshire setting is perfect.

Audible, when will the earlier mysteries in this series become available??

ridiculous

What disappointed you about Dead and Buried?

...tell half a story...cut it off with no conclusion...call it a 'shocking' ending

Has Dead and Buried turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, just this writer.

What about Mike Rogers’s performance did you like?

Unaffected and natural.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Dead and Buried?

...it's already been cut

Any additional comments?

...a stupid effort at being 'original'

No good marks from me for this book.

Very disappointed by this book. Of course I hated the ending, who wouldn't?
What really ruined the book for me was Mike Rogers narration. His affectation of the reading was just over the top.
I think in real life Steven Booth must not like women by the way he portrays them in this book.
But then again he also did a pretty good job of making Cooper seem like the dumbest cop who works with the most inept police force ever.