The Kill Call - Ben Cooper and Diane Fry, #9

On a rain-swept Derbyshire moor, hounds from the local foxhunt find the body of a well-dressed man whose head has been crushed. Yet an anonymous 999 caller reports the same body lying half a mile away.

Called in to investigate the discovery, E Division detectives DS Diane Fry and DC Ben Cooper become entangled in the violent world of hunting and hunt saboteurs, horse theft and a little-known sector of the meat trade.

As Fry follows a complex trail of her own to unravel the shady business interests of the murder victim, Cooper realises that the answer to the case might lie deep in the past.

History is everywhere around him in the Peak District landscape - particularly in the 'plague village' of Eyam, where an outbreak of Black Death has been turned into a modern-day tourist attraction.

But, even as the final solution is revealed, both Fry and Cooper find themselves having to face up to the disturbing reality of the much more recent past.

* The 9th novel in the multiple award-winning Cooper & Fry series.

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

"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 is a modern master of rural noir." - The Guardian

"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