Suspense

This series is deeply focused on the area (the Peak district), its history, its geography, its people. The mysteries are well thought out, and effective at keeping you guessing. And such interesting characters. ( )

About the “failed race horse” meat export to France industry…another on eof those things that you never knew and wished you still didn’t…good book all the same.

The sub story in this one is about the Royal Observer Corps who had a chain of underground “posts” scattered around England, none more that 8 miles apart right up until 1968!. That was the time of Swinging London, Twiggy, the Summer of Love. And at the same time wherever you were inEngland you were never more than 8 miles from at least one if not more of these places. How can that be? After 1968 about half of therm were decommissioned and closed but the remaining 872 were operating right up until 1991.
From 1955 the Corps operated from 1563 ROC underground monitoring ‘posts’ about 7-8 miles apart from each other throughout the UK. In 1968 the Corps was re-organised and about half of the posts were closed . In September 1991 the remaining 872 posts were stood down and were abandoned.

From where I grew up:
Canvey Island:

Vange:

Orsett:

Rainham:

It is truly mind boggling to see exactly how many of them there were around where I lived and I never heard anyone talking about them nor knew of anyone who manned them. There were both male and female observers engaged and stations were mixed gender.



See all of them here ( )

Another excellent mystery, and not a page of boredom in sight. DS Fry keeps on annoying me, but sometimes she turns into a human being and then I like her again.
DC Cooper is my favourite, how couldn't it be? ( )

Another very atmospheric story set in the author's familiar Peak District landscape, where a man is found dead near a meeting of the local hunt - is there a connection? Fry and Cooper begin looking into the background of the dead man and find no shortage of people who might want him dead. As is usual with Stephen Booth, a very evocative sense of location and character stand out in this tale weaving between current and past until the link is made with history. Recommended. ( )