Detective Sgt. Diane Fry and Detective Constable Ben Cooper of the Derbyshire Constabulary are having a busy time. A mysterious older woman who lived as a recluse is murdered in what seems to be a professional hit, and a young mother and two of her children are burned to death in a suspicious house fire. As these types of cases tend to do in mystery fiction, they connect in an unusual way, involving psychotic behavior and even the Bulgarian mafia.
Stephen Booth’s SCARED TO LIVE is the seventh in his series starring Fry and Cooper, and it’s as good a place as any to start if you’re unfamiliar with the main characters. Booth has a nicely oblique way of fleshing out his characters, never telling you too much at once, and never really telling you everything you want to know. This keeps them fresh in your mind, likable and intriguing.
As I was reading this book, I kept telling people how much I enjoyed it, but it’s too long by almost a third, and as most of the loose ends of the plot wrapped up, I began to feel slightly less enamored of the work. There are rough patches of dialogue that seem just too stilted, the plot bogs down in its far-flung connection to Eastern European crime gangs, and the psychotic aspect seems a little too hastily slapped together. The beginning and middle are a ripping good tale, but the finale seems to jumble everything together all at once with a murky end result.
Still, the best part of the book is its actual detection. These seem to be real detectives, doing real investigative work. Sitting in with the lot of them as they discuss their next moves in the case, or being at the scene of the crime as they break out their investigative gear is more fun than watching a predictable episode of CSI. It’s a good and solid police procedural novel that will satisfy fans of Booth, and should also have some appeal to those new to his work. —Mark Rose
Related posts:
- How the Dead Live
- Live Girls
- Dying to Live
- Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer
- The Gutter and the Grave
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Actually, Scared to Live is Booth’s seventh book in the Fry and Cooper series.
Absolutely correct, Craig. Seventh in the series. The Bantam ARC I had for review only listed the previous three books, and not the first three books in the series. Thanks for the catch.
I’ve made the correction. Thanks for calling us on it, Craig.