RATING: 4.5The snow is falling heavily on the hills of the Peak District. The beauty of the scene is deceptive, as the area is truly a killing field. During World War II, at least 30 airplanes crashed here, and their remains have been left to this day as a silent memorial. And now, suffering and alone, Marie Tennant is lying in the hills, her body not to be discovered until the drifts begin to melt. However, the timetable is moved up when a group of air cadets come across a dead baby underneath one of the wrecked planes.At very nearly the same time, another man has been killed and left in a pile of snow along a roadside. A snowplow uncovers his body, but the man is not a local and no one is able to identify him. The police in the area are working under tremendous pressure; shorthanded, they are barely able to keep up with the most urgent of their cases. It seems that the whole area is in the midst of a crime wave. Detective Sergeant Diane Fry is running the detective squad, and she is often frustrated by her subordinates, in particular, Detective Constable Ben Cooper who just doesn't seem to apply himself to what Diane has identified as priorities. At the moment, Ben has been distracted by a request from a young Canadian woman who has come to the area to clear the name of her grandfather, who was the pilot of one of the planes that crashed in the Peak District and has been accused of deserting his crew. Initially, no one is willing to help Alison Morrissey—after all, it has been 57 years since the crash of the Lancaster bomber known as "Sugar Uncle Victor", coincidentally the plane where the baby's body was found. But Ben is caught up by the mystery and investigates on his own time. As each of the main cases is investigated, it becomes clear that there are links between them. Booth does an exceptional job of showing the relevancy of the past to the present, in a plot that is perfectly constructed. At the same time, he's built a cast that is as solid and as human as they come. Introduced in BLACK DOG, Diane Fry and Ben Cooper continue to have a prickly relationship. Fry is an outsider to the area, whereas Ben has lived there all his life. Most of the time, they clash; however, there are a few moments where they do take care of each other in spite of their less-than-warm feelings about one another. Conflict is to be expected between a woman who is a control freak and a man who is subject to "flights of fancy".BLOOD ON THE TONGUE is the third book the series. Booth is a top-notch writer who balances a complex plot with a perfectly rendered setting and true-to-life characters. One of the great pleasures of being a mystery reader is to discover an author such as Booth and to await his next book, knowing that it will likely be his best. Until the one after that….
It took me a while to pick up this third book in the Cooper and Fry series, and I'm glad I finally did. Blood on the Tongue is an excellent blend of old crime and new. Many threads in the story go all the way back to World War II when a bomber crashed on Irontongue Hill, and-- rumor has it-- the Canadian pilot walked away with a very large shipment of money they were transporting to another airbase. It's a complex and very gratifying plot that Booth has created, and I certainly enjoyed trying to piece together all the clues. I continue to have mixed reactions to the author's dynamic duo of Fry and Cooper. Ben Cooper is the kind of man everyone seems to like and to go to for help. He's nice, he's easy-going, and he has some good intuitive skills that are handy in police work. Him I like, although I should probably be ashamed of falling for him so easily. I'm normally not such a pushover. On the other hand, Fry continues to rub my fur the wrong way, even though I know what happened in the past to help turn her into a person who acts more like a starving pit bull with toothache. I find that I quickly become exasperated with her when she's on the scene. Fortunately she's seldom in the spotlight in Blood on the Tongue, so I never wanted to throw the book at the wall.Even though it has little to do with the actual merits of this book, I think my reading enjoyment was enhanced by a trip to the UK last year in which I experienced blizzard-like conditions, road closures and the like in the Peak District. I found myself being able to picture the countryside, feel the bite of the wind, and hear the crunch of the snow under my feet. Even without my "insider's" knowledge of the weather, I think any reader can and will appreciate those outdoor scenes. Now that I've thawed out enough to share my opinion of this book, I find myself looking forward to reading the next in the series. If only I could find some way not to react so strongly to Diane Fry!
What do You think about Blood On The Tongue (2003)?
Another great read by Booth. Well written and super interesting. I absolutely love Ben's character. Diane pisses me off a lot. She gets better in the end but not much. I think the first book is the best, but this is still great. I love the ties to WWII. That is my favorite time in history to study, so I really enjoyed the connection. The side characters are good, but I have loved his other characters better in previous books. Booth wrote beautiful scenic scenes, but at times it became detracting from the story. I recommend to all crime/mystery lovers. http://twinopinionsreview.blogspot.co...
—Twin Opinions
This is the third in the series of detective novels featuring policemen Ben Cooper and Diane Fry and I notice that there are 14 so I look forward to some enjoyable reading.The novels are set in the Peak District of England in a very rural community. This one deals with a mystery stemming back to the end of WW2 and a plane that crashed in the mountains. There was much about how common this was and how many planes are still there. I was interested in seeing if this was based on fact and it was. Apparently it happened quite a lot even though the mountains were not very high. Some were British and American planes taking off or landing landing from fairly nearby and also some German planes crashed there. For me this added quite a bit of interest to the story. Several puzzles overlapped and all came together in the end. Ben Cooper is an interesting character and a character well-developed. Diane Fry not quite so. I look forward to continuing to read the series.
—Pat Kahn
The third book in the Cooper and Fry series. Set in the Peak district during a heavy snowfall, Blood on the Tongue begins with the death in the snow of a young woman, shortly before the body of a man is found by a snow plough. Alongside these investigations, is the fascinating story of Sugar Uncle Victor - a Royal Air Force crew that crashed into the Derbyshire hills during another bad winter - January 1945. The grandaughter of the pilot has arrived from Canada to clear her grandfather's name of a desertion charge. Cooper is soon interested in the cold case, although his colleague Diane Fry thinks he is wasting his time.Good plot and a great atmospheric setting. The descriptions of the Derbyshire countryside as the weather closes in are superb. Cooper is a likeable young chap, honorable and conscientious. Diane Fry however seems to get more difficult to like with each book. The complex spiky relationship between her and Ben Cooper is well drawn, though I did want to actually strangle Fry. I thoroughly enjoyed the three story strands weaving together, and didn't guess the outcome at all. A real page turner, I raced through it.
—Ali
