This is volume 15 of Stephen Booth’s “Cooper & Fry” series of crime novels – or, as it rather should be called at this stage, his “DI Ben Cooper” series, because the supposed other protagonist Diane Fry hardly shows up at all in this novel; she has only two (possibly three, I am not quite sure) short scenes from her point of view. On one hand, I can see why Booth has been sidelining her – you just need to skip through the reviews of previous novels in the series on Goodreads and you can’t help but notice that Cooper is by far more popular with readers, but nobody seems to like Fry much. Which, again, is understandable because she is far more unlikeable than genial local policeman Ben Cooper – she is rather prickly, keeps to herself to the point of being anti-social and makes no secret of wanting to advance in her job. All of which may not make her the nicest person to be around, but does make her a by far more interesting character than Cooper who, frankly, is a bit boring and Booth had to go to considerable trouble and introduce a major tragic event into his life to give him some colour.

After reading The Murder Road I am suspecting that Booth shares this assessment of his two main characters. All but jettisoning Fry in favour of Cooper may have seemed like a good idea to please his readers, but with Fry mostly missing from the novel, an essential element has been removed, and the resulting book seems to have taken on Cooper’s traits – in other words, I found The Murder Road rather bland. While I do not necessary read Stephen Booth’s novels for the mystery element, it still does not help the novel that the plot is rather flimsy – coincidences as well as (what I perceived as) inconsistencies abound, and I am not sure the crime is ever explained satisfactorily and plausibly. It seems like a lot of events had to align for the crime to even take place, several of which appear to be quite out of the control of its perpetrators and there definitely are one or two threads left dangling – which may very well have been intentional, to show that things are not resolved all that neatly in real life, but together with everything else one does wonder if may not have been laziness on the author’s part.

I do read Stephen Booth’s novels mainly for his descrptions of the Peak Districts and the way of live of its inhabitants as well as his realistic depiction of police procedure, and at least The Murder Road still delivers on that, so reading it was not a complete waste of time, and I will continue with the series in the hope that things will improve again. But even those parts are strangely listless, not at all like what one is used to from Booth’s earlier novels, and I had the distinct impression that his heart was not really in it and that The Murder Road was mostly phoned in.

I like to think of Booth's long-running series as the anti-Midsomer Murders. In place of Midsomer's pretty countryside, twee villages and charming eccentric residents, Booth gives us the bleakness of the Peak District, small, huddled villages and ugly towns, and sullen inhabitants. This latest entry is no different, set in a village so small it barely qualifies, where everyone has secrets and little interest in divulging them to newly promoted Ben Cooper. A truck driver is murdered after his vehicle jams under the bridge on the only road into Shawhead. When Cooper discovers the truck should not have been there at all, it leads him into a mystery based around a horriffic vehicle accident from 8 years before. In addition to the case, Cooper also has to deal with the retirement of long-serving comic relief Gavin Murfett, the advent of a new team member Dev Sharma, whom Cooper is not all sure about, and the continuing pain of the loss of his fiancee. His long-time foil Diane Fry, for he whom he has confusing feelings, makes only a cameo appearance, but it is decisive, and ends one long-running thread apparently for good. This is as good an entry as any other in the series, never exciting, but full of interesting characters, meticulously plotted and comfortably paced. Above all, there is the enduring appeal of the Peak District, one of Britain's bleakest regions but parodoxically it's most desired tourist and residential destination. Worthwhile reading. ( )

Mac Kelsey got lost driving the lorry to make deliveries for Windmill Feed Solutions. His GPS led him off on the wrong exit. Unable to turn the lorry around on this tiny one-lane road, he kept driving. First sheep blocked his path; then his lorry became irreversibly stuck under a bridge. What else could go wrong? He didn’t have to wait long to find out … and it would be the last day of his life.

Amanda Hibbert came along the road later and was tic’d because a lorry was blocking her path. She couldn’t see it was stuck until she got out of her car. She didn’t see the driver anywhere so she opened the cab door and stepped up to look inside. She still didn’t see the driver, but she found a lot of blood. She called the authorities. Detective Ben Cooper was given charge over the investigation. He and several other officers began studying any forensics left at the scene of the crime and began interviewing nearby residents. The area was largely built around agriculture and farming so the houses were far and few between.

This murder is set around the tiny English village of Shawhead. The author’s vision of the area was well captured in words. The reader could easily ‘see’ the land with farmhouses and animals and farmers who are used to keeping to themselves. The characters of DI Ben Cooper, DS Diane Fry and others they work with were very likeable and realistic. Diane Fry did have a much smaller part on this particular writing. It is the fifteenth book of the Cooper and Fry series, but I read it as a stand-alone quite easily. The novel starts off at a great pace but tends to slow midway and then pick up again making for a satisfying end. Rating: 3.5 out of 5. ( )