Booth's mysteries always have some sort of 'supernatural' aspect, tied into the traditions and folklore of rural England. Both protagonists are sympathetic and madenning by turns. I liked how this one explored more of Fry's backstory. Interesting characters, good reader, fun to listen to. This was a very entertaining police procedural, even with an ending sort of 'pulled out of the hat.'

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Built on the previous book more while keeping the characters believable and the story line interesting. The use of local knowledge makes the story more real and again it makes a nice change for fiction to be based in the UK (and not in London).

3.5

This was goes on the DNF pile. It's not that it's terrible, I just could not get into it. And I've already read 280 pages. That's enough!

I really enjoy this series. Lots of attention to the surroundings, the 'feel' of the place, the people and the culture. Good mysteries too.

As expected this was another excellent episode in what's rapidly become one of my favourite series.

It doesn't hurt that I live almost where the book is set; I know the roads and the villages and the scenery and I can pull out my local OS map to find out which bits Booth is inventing and which bits are for real. I'm pretty certain that there is no Withins village though the setting of Withins Moor is definitely there. Now I have to go and find out how much of the history is for real and how much is fictional. But I'll enjoy crawling round the local library sussing that out.

As well as reading this book in the right place I also read it at the right time. The book is set in April/May and features a group of morris dancers very like the ones I've seen performing in Holmfirth this weekend. It's not often that books collide so closely with reality as this! Whilst I love reading books set in places and cultures that are miles away in both time and space there is definitely something to be said for reading close to home too. Well there is when the writer gets everything as bang on as Booth does.

If forced to choose I'd still say Blood on the Tongue was my favourite of the series so far but this is still an excellent book. I love the way the two main characters are devloping and I like the way that their stories stay open ended and we don't get to learn too much about either of them in a single book.

More please.

I had a hard time getting through this book. It seemed very disjointed. The plotline about the disappearance of Emma was clear, but I kept getting the other characters confused with one another and with the murdered man. And then there was the plotline involving Diane's sister, who shows up at Ben's door. And who is the owner of the fancy car he spots her driving?

I really enjoyed the plot in this book and have given 4 stars for the story. The characters are believable and the stories that come together are interesting and intriguing. It's a great detective novel the way they should be written, The scenery descriptions are wonderful and there is a lot of attention to detail here. I will be reading more by Stephen and would recommend this book to anyone.