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Scared To Live (Cooper & Fry, Bk 7)
Scared To Live - Cooper & Fry, Bk 7
Author: Stephen Booth
A dark night, an open bedroom window -- and three bullets that strike from the darkness. The victim of the shocking assassination is a harmless middle-aged woman, living a reclusive life in a quiet Peak District village. But is she quite so harmless as she seems? — Detective Sergeant Diane Fry knows that innocence is no defence against death. She...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780007172078
ISBN-10: 0007172079
Publication Date: 2006
Pages: 480
Rating:
  • Currently 3/5 Stars.
 1

3 stars, based on 1 rating
Publisher: HarperCollins
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

Cardplayer avatar reviewed Scared To Live (Cooper & Fry, Bk 7) on + 5 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
A very well written book. There are two "grim murders" that are eventually linked. Uncovering the secrets and getting to the solution makes for a very good read. I would give this book 3.5 stars.
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Spuddie avatar reviewed Scared To Live (Cooper & Fry, Bk 7) on + 412 more book reviews
#7 Ben Cooper/Diane Fry police procedural mystery set in the Peak District of the UK. Two major cases are plaguing the local cop shop--a house fire that killed a mother and her two children, determined later to be arson, and thus murder, and the professional-style killing of a sixty-ish reclusive woman in a small neighboring village. No one really knew Rose Shepherd, as she'd moved in just 10 months previously and 'kept herself to herself' as they say. Her history and paper trail was very brief, but Ben Cooper knows if he can find out where the enigmatic woman came from and who she was, he will find a motive for her murder.

Diane concentrates on the fire, believing that if she can solve such a grisly, heart-wrenching crime, it will be a big feather in her cap towards promotion. Ben is in the beginnings of a relationship with a crime scene technician, Liz Petty, and also has to deal with his brother Matt's worries about the inheritability of schizophrenia, which their mother suffered from badly.

I really like this series--the author does a great job of setting the scene in the beautiful Peak District, and I quite enjoy Ben Cooper's character. Diane Fry bugs the hell out of me, but she is at least consistently done. The one thing that I find sets my teeth on edge is that the dialogue at times sounds stilted and unnatural, the characters using each others' names in conversation when they are the only ones in the room and could only be talking to each other, for example. Who does that?

But aside from that one flaw, Booth's stories always read and flow easily, although I figured the ending plot twist out about 2/3 of the way through so it wasn't much of a surprise.
reviewed Scared To Live (Cooper & Fry, Bk 7) on + 2 more book reviews
Booth is among the best mystery writers active now - an unusual north of England setting; detective characters I enjoy following; and plots that are tangled enough to be a challenge.


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