One woman has been mutilated and another murdered on the bleak moors of Derbyshire. Detective Constable Ben Cooper and Detective Sergeant Diane Fry in­ves­ti­gate.

The novel is at least as much about the tense re­la­tion­ship between Cooper and Fry as it is about the mystery itself. This is the second in a series of Cooper-Fry books. Cooper is a local boy, deeply rooted in the rural community, pleasant and trusting. Fry is a bitter loner, who trans­ferred in from a distant city. Quickly promoted over Cooper, she can’t understand his easygoing nature.

The mystery is effective, with enough twists to keep you guessing. The characters feel real and human, not authorial puppets.