Blood on the Tongue by Stephen Booth

"He was climbing steadily higher toward the top of Irontongue Hill, where the wreckage of Sugar Uncle Victor lay. In the gullies, snow already lay over a thin layer of ice that cracked and gave way under his weight. In the deeper areas of snow, his feet plunged in. But on the smoother areas he was aware only of the crackle and squeak as the snow compressed under his boots."

Protagonists: Diane Fry and Ben Cooper
Setting: Peak District, England
Rating: 4.5
It’s a brutal winter in the Peak District, and bodies are being found all over the place: a woman’s body in a snowdrift; a man’s body alongside the road on Snake Pass, which is very treacherous during the worse of the season; and another body inside the wreckage of a World War II bomber.

As Det. Sgt. Diane Fry investigates those, Det. Constable Ben Cooper is looking at a cold case of sorts: the disappearance of a WWII bomber, Danny McTeague, who vanished shortly after his plane crashed on Irontongue Hill in the changeable moors. McTeague’s granddaughter has received a parcel in the mail -- the pilot’s old medal, mailed from the area. Of course, the cases, new and old, will all coalesce in the end.

The third in the series, this is the strongest Booth book yet -- a very good police procedural, with an interesting cold case (which I always love), and wonderful, atmospheric writing. The maybe or maybe-not Fry/Cooper relationship is, thankfully, not delved into, making for a more potent mystery.

Dying to Sin by Stephen Booth

Protagonists: Ben Cooper and Diane Fry
Setting: Pity Wood Farm, Peak District
Rating: 3.5

When construction workers uncover a skeleton at Pity Wood Farm, police are brought into the muddy, dilapidated farm to uncover the mystery of who this person is, as well. One of the farm's owners is dead, the other is an elderly man in a home, suffering from dementia. And the town, closed-mouthed to outsiders, isn't likely to offer up clues. Booth's series (this is the eighth) is very atmospheric, and this book doesn't disappoint in that regard. You can almost feel yourself mired in the mud along with police, or lost in the fog with Ben and Diane in one pivotal scene. However, I found the main characters' lives to have become, well, a bit dull in this book. Hopefully, that'll change in the next book.

Dancing With the Virgins by Stephen Booth

Protagonists: Ben Cooper and Diane Fry
Setting: Peak District, England
Rating: 4.0

In this second book in the series, Cooper and Fry investigate the death of a woman, and attacks on others, in a national park area, near the Stonehenge-like stones called the Nine Virgins. The book revolves around the investigation, of course, but much of it is also about the water-and-oil relationship between Cooper and Fry. While the book is a bit slow in some parts, the mystery does unravel in rather surprising ways. Booth is an underappreciated mystery writer, which is a shame, because he is really great at bringing his characters to life. He also writes about the haunting moors, the farms and even the slaughterhouses in the area with compelling details. This is a series I'd highly recommend.