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Dancing with the Virgins (Collins crime)
 
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Dancing with the Virgins (Collins crime) (Paperback)

by Stephen Booth (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Collins Crime (8 May 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0002326949
  • ISBN-13: 978-0002326940
  • Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 14 x 3.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 765,423 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Review

Praise for Black Dog: 'Stephen Booth creates a fine sense of place and atmosphere in his first novel ... the unguessable solution to the crime comes as a real surprise' Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph 'Stephen Booth is a real find, and his book is almost impossible to categorize ... It is a crime novel, or rather a novel about people who are connected with the crime. The characterisation is brilliant, and the motivation for everything that occurs is too credible. A real winner' Shots 'Booth has achieved a tour de force in this his first outing. In fact, it is hard to believe that he is a first time author ... Highly recommended' Mysterybooks.com

Six weeks after solicitor Maggie Fry is found wandering Ringham Moor in an amnesiac daze after a knife slash leaves her face horribly scarred, Jenny Weston is even less lucky. She's stabbed to death and arranged in a cruel parody of a dancer's pose among the moor's Nine Virgins, stones that have stood for thousands of years only half a mile away from the site of Maggie's attack. Edendale detective Ben Cooper is convinced that he could nail Jenny's killer if only Maggie could give him a physical description of her assailant, but the tireless questioning of Ben's colleague and ex-lover, Acting Sergeant Diane Fry, seems only to make Maggie dig in her considerable heels. It looks as if the break will have to come from one of the other locals: louring farmer Warren Leach, farm hand Keith ("Slasher") Teasdale, fey Simon ("Stride") Bevington and his companion Calvin Lawrence. But the ugly, exhausting revelations that keep tumbling out-dogfighting, assault convictions, kiddie porn, an unacknowledged daughter, a remorseful suicide-don't come in time to prevent a third attack, and Ben and Diane are still struggling with half a dozen mysteries-some unrelated, some all-too-related-and with each other moments before the curtain thuds down. As mannered in its writing and cluttered in its plotting as Ben's and Diane's grim debut ("Black Dog, "2000), but even more demanding, more substantial, and more knowing about the darkest recesses of the heart. A strong brew for readers who can take it. (Kirkus Reviews)


Product Description

In a remote part of the Peak District stand the Nine Virgins, a ring of stones overshadowed by a dark legend. Now, as winter closes in, a tenth figure is added to the circle - the body of Jenny Weston is discovered, her limbs arranged so she appears to be dancing. Weeks earlier another woman had been attacked on the moors. Maggie Crew was found by a local farmer's wife, severely traumatized, her face savagely cut open. Is there a maniac at loose, knifing woman at random? Unlocking the memories trapped in Maggie's mind is now a matter of utmost urgency, and Detective Sergeant Diane Fry is given the task of drawing the truth out of her. For DC Ben Cooper there are too many lines of enquiry leading to too few answers. Two travellers, sleeping rough near the scene of the murder, baffle the detectives with their strange rituals and language which may or may not be hiding vital information. Then there is the Park ranger, Owen Fox, whose past hides a shameful secret. And what of the farmer, Warren Leach, on whose land the Nine Virgins stand: a desperate man whose own children fear him. Against the dramatic backdrop of the White Peak, Ben and Diane struggle to make sense of a murder that seems motiveless. But the moors have witnessed more bloodshed than either realize, and violence is to beget more violence before the answer is found.

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Dancing with the Virgins (Collins crime)
76% buy the item featured on this page:
Dancing with the Virgins (Collins crime) 4.8 out of 5 stars (8)
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Enveloping!, 11 Dec 2002
By A Customer
This is the first book by this author that I've read, but it certainly won't be my last! The pace of the story is superb, drawing the reader in very gently until you suddenly realise that you're totally hooked! Towards the end of the book, I couldn't wait to find out the truth about what events had really taken place and I kept reading at every opportunity (even at work, with the book hidden in my desk drawer!). I know it's the wrong way round (I've read the second novel first!), but I can't wait to read Black Dog and then Blood on the Tongue. Superb author, superb work!
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35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A real page-turner, 19 Sep 2003
By O. Southwood "owensouthwood" (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Jenny Weston has been killed, stabbed to death in a stone circle known as the Nine Virgins. Another woman, an apparent associate of hers, Ros Daniels, is missing. A third, Maggie Crew, barely escapes her attacker... but is physically and mentally disfigured as a result.

Is there a blood-thristy psychopath attacking women... or is there something much worse going on?

This was an excellent read, I was engrossed from start to finish. The plot is multi-layered and cleverly constructed, with characters you genuinely care about - whilst at the same time becoming suspicious of them. There is a dark, windswept, desolate atmosphere to this story which reflects it's setting perfectly. And there are quite a few jaw-dropping moments.

Great stuff - already looking forward to reading the next in the series....

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30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Dancing With The Virgins, 26 Aug 2001
By Susan Hartigan (Riverside, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Ranger Mark Roper loved to patrol the hills of the Peak District. But on this particular day something was wrong. Something made him feel very uneasy.

No matter how many times he tried to roust his supervisor on the radio, he had no luck. He was alone, and felt very uncomfortable. Suddenly, as he comes around a bend in the trail, he sees just what has made him uncomfortable. There in the middle of the circle, made of huge stones, lay the body of a girl. Her body arranged in a grotesque dance, a dance of death.

Only weeks prior another woman had been attacked in the area. Scarred, physically and mentally, she had survived death, but her life had still been taken from her.

Diane Fry, and Ben Cooper team up again to try and figure out who is out there attacking and killing women on Ringham Moor. Was it some psychopathic drifter, or could it have been Jenny Weston's, the dead girls, ex husband who obviously had an agenda of his own.

There is no shortage of suspects in the area. In fact there are too many. And the surviving woman, Maggie Crew, is of absolutely no help in weeding out the one who attacked her.

Stephen Booth has done it again. He takes you on a trip through the lives of the people in the Peak District and draws you in. You feel the desperation and sadness. But you also experience their stubbornness and pride. You even experience their failure at trying to overcome overwhelming odds.

You feel the soft peat under your feet, the wind in your face, the chill in the air as the clouds fill the sky, and the rain that pelts on you, as you climb the trails that lead above the valley to the site of The Dancing Virgins. You see the huge stones move, and dance, as the sun slowly goes down over the hill. You wonder what secrets these stones hold.

I didn't think Mr. Booth could even come close to what he did with Black Dog. But he not only came close, he outdid himself. This book drags you in, and won't let you go. Many of the same characters from Black Dog are there, and they hold the same fascination as they did before. Even more so now. They have become friends. Friends you want to see more often. And hopefully they will stay around for a long time to come.

I highly recommend that you run, don't walk, run, and get a copy of this book. You are in for a wonderful adventure. An adventure into the lives of some very interesting, and complicated people. And a land that will haunt you even in your dreams.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Yes, it's definately starting to grow on me.
I realy enjoyed the first book, and the second has only cemented my liking for this new (to me) police procedural series. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Ms. E. J. White

5.0 out of 5 stars Second book in the Ben Cooper and Diane Fry series

A newspaper and magazine journalist for over 25 years, Stephen Booth was born in the English Pennine town of Burnley. Read more
Published on 11 Oct 2007 by J. Chippindale

4.0 out of 5 stars Another good novel from Stephen Booth
Another good novel from Stephen Booth, I really enjoyed it and I thought that Stephen is very good at describing, the pace of the novel was very fast and I think that the... Read more
Published on 27 April 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Why was Laura Weston killed?
Why was Laura Weston killed? A body has been found among the ancient standing stones, The Dancing Virgins, stabbed to death. Read more
Published on 19 Jul 2001 by shadoez@yahoo.com

5.0 out of 5 stars An atmospheric cracker!
Having read, and enjoyed, Stephen Booth's first novel 'Black Dog' I wondered if his second book 'Dancing With the Virgins' would be equally enjoyable. Read more
Published on 13 May 2001

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