First Line: On the day the first woman died, Mark Roper had radio trouble.In a remote area of the Peaks District in England, a prehistoric ring of stones called the Nine Virgins witnesses the brutal murder of a young cyclist. When Detective Constable Ben Cooper and Detective Sergeant Diane Fry learn that another woman was attacked by an assailant with a knife less than half a mile from the Nine Virgins, they feel they've found the start of a pattern that needs to be stopped immediately.After enjoying the first book in the series, Black Dog, I expected to settle down to another good read, and Dancing With the Virgins did start well. Author Stephen Booth is a master of the atmospheric setting of the Peaks District-- making it appear both beautiful and menacing-- and his two main characters are finely drawn. However, I had several major problems with this book.Those very same main characters that I'm getting to know so well are rubbing my fur the wrong way. Diane Fry is the Queen of Not-Letting-Anyone-Get-Close. She realizes this but doesn't know what to do about it... or if she even wants to do anything about it. She's so prickly that, no matter what anyone does, they put their foot in it. I may understand some of her motivations, but after a while prickly gets old, and I begin to wish that she could remain civil to everyone for one entire hour.Ben Cooper, on the other hand, is the opposite of Diane Fry. Where Diane Fry sees black or white, everything is in shades of grey to Ben Cooper. He has a difficult time saying no to anyone and seems to want to be all things to all people. As a result, he seems frozen in place at times.The pacing of the book was glacial and came very close to being a Did Not Finish for me. The first substantive clue for the main murder occurred on page 380 of a 528-page book. The culprits for this were the many subplots that sucked all the life out of the investigation into the murder of the cyclist. Besides the murder, there were plot threads involving child pornography, illegal dog fighting, a corrupt cop, two young homeless men camped out in a broken-down van, domestic violence, a young park ranger learning the ropes... and others. If there'd been fewer subplots, I think things would've moved a bit faster and the book would've held my interest.As it stands, Dancing With the Virgins just didn't work for me. I do have the third book in the series here, and I will read it. But it will be a while before I pick it up.
I've put off reading this book for ages because (nonsensically) I was expecting to enjoy it a lot and also worried that it wouldn't be as good as I hoped despite numerous reports that if anything it was better than Black Dog. One of the offputting things about the book is its 500 odd pages. I don't mind a long read at all, it's more that I've read several long mysteries with filler than plot and I didn't want to be disappointed in this one.This is a book that is well worth its length though. Booth takes what could have been a basic plot driven story and fills it with in depth characters that deserve the attention that they receive. He also does a wonderful job with the setting though this might be helped by the fact that I now know the Peak District myself and am getting to know it better all the time.One of the things that makes this book really good for me is that despite finding that I don't really like either of Booth's lead characters I enjoy finding out about them and I want to know what happens to them in the future. Local boy Ben Cooper is trying to live up to his father's reputation in the police force and still lives on the family farm run by his brother. Incomer Diane Fry has just beaten Cooper to a promotion and is viewed with deep suspicion by most of the local coppers, in trying to keep her personal life separate from her working life she comes over as a very cold person. Both characters are completely believable though and the fact that I want to knock their heads together is a testament to Booth's realistic storytelling.The plot is solid and contains less predictable elements that the first book in the series, I'm very much looking forward to seeing what happens next in Cooper and Fry's world.Oh, and I also wanted to add that Booth gets bonus marks for not falling into the trap that so many other authors seem to of calling men by their surnames and women by their first names. If anything his main characters are Ben and Fry. I got really fed up with Barry Maitland for referring to "Kathy and Brock" all the time and it's a habit that's been annoying me ever since and it's nice to see someone writing in reverse for a change.
What do You think about Dancing With The Virgins (2002)?
The Nine Virgins, a historical prehistoric ring of stones in northern England, is where a dead woman is found. Her body is arranged as a woman who is dancing. Was she killed by the same person who brutally maimed another woman in a nearby area? Detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry are part of the team assigned to the case and search for clues to the crimes as well as determine how they are linked to this mysterious area. As usual, they also battle their own inner demons and have the usual run-ins with the local population and their own team members.This book by Stephen Booth had some interesting twists and the variety of characters made it somewhat compelling, but it just did not grab me as much as some other British mysteries have.
—Greg
I am currently reading my way through this series and really enjoying it. D.C. Ben Cooper is back with a new partner, D.C. Todd Weenick, not a pairing he is particularly happy with, but he figures it's better than being partnered up with the newly promoted Acting D.S. Diane Fry. The body of a cyclist called Jenny Weston is found dead up on the moors in the Peak District, at an ancient site called the Nine Virgins. Ben becomes part of the investigation team, a small team from his division due to cut-backs and a shortage of manpower and initially, they feel like they are looking for a needle in a haystack, as there is no real forensic evidence and no real motive. If it is a random killing, they feel they are going to be in real trouble trying to find the killer. Eventually, after some digging deep and some good old fashioned police detecting, they start to find suspects and motives, but Bens instincts are telling him they are not what they are looking for. Another woman has been previously attacked in the area and left with some devastating knife injuries to her face, some weeks prior to the murder, but she has no memory of what happened. Diane Fry is assigned to her to try and trigger some memories to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding her attack. The police feel the attacks are linked in some way and must act quickly to solve this case before another woman dies. Diane and Ben cross paths once again and their relationship is as frosty as ever. Diane has had a tragic past, which accounts for her characters flaws and her hostility towards Ben, who is a really likable guy. It is also clear, that she has secret feelings for him, which she does not want to admit to herself. It's a big book, over 500 pages, but they turn quickly in a story you just want to keep reading. There is some great humour in the dialogue, some real laugh-out-loud lines, that is always welcome in some serious subject matter, that never belittles or detracts from the sadness or tragedy of the characters lives. This was a really great book and my advice would be to read them in order, starting with "Black Dog" and the best thing is, they keep you guessing until the very end.
—Mary Gilligan-Nolan
Another really good read from Stephen Booth. I read this book and Blood on the Tongue one after the other - unfortunately I got them in the wrong order!! So some of the story lines that filter through the whole series of stories did not quite fit - my fault I know but an important lesson for me and I will make sure I read the follow on books in the right order!! I found this story a little slower paced than Blood on the Tongue but nevertheless, the characters, the subject matter and the need to find out who the killer was kept me turning the pages and I read it over two days. So yes, it is that unputdownable!
—Angela
