ONE LAST BREATH

Stephen Booth

Publisher: Harper-Collins
ISBN: 0007172044
4th April, 2005

Stephen Booth biography by Chris High

Taking the skills of being able to plot a novel to the extremes of craftsmanship, Stephen Booth has once again delivered a novel that is a spellbinding as they come within the realms of British crime writing.

Reviewed:
One Last Breath
by Stephen Booth

Once again set in the Derbyshire Peak District, Detective Sergeant Diane Fry and Detective Constable Ben Cooper find themselves trying to track down a released killer who has gone to ground in the bleak landscape of caves and valleys and hills. Mansell Quinn served 14 years in prison for murdering his mistress and, when released, almost immediately his former wife Rebecca is found dead, despite a new identity and a seemingly secure house. Fry and Cooper discover that Quinn's former friends and acquaintances may well be next on the hit-list, yet seem reluctant to do anything to prevent their own deaths. The question is why and what can Fry and Cooper do to prevent more mayhem?

Fry and Cooper are, possibly, the most mismatched partnership in the history of crime fiction. She has all the moods of a demented jazz performer on speed and prozac cocktails, whereas he is almost as assertive as a rabbit in a hutch. Yet somehow, their chemistry is so enthralling the pages cannot help but flip as the plot takes hold and grips the reader by the throat.

The descriptive prose, too, are a joy, as The Peak District becomes another essential character in a case that embraces the necessity for a fundamental baseness with which to underline the obligatory suspense.

Deftly written and decidedly readable, One Last Breath is the fifth addition to the series of Fry & Cooper novels and can proudly takes its place amongst anything else that has been written in the genre over the past twelve months.

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