Category Archives: Stephen Booth

Review: Blood on the Tongue by Stephen Booth

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Title: Blood on the Tongue (the 3rd Ben Cooper and Diane Fry book)

Author: Stephen Booth

Publisher: Harper Collins [2002]

ISBN: 0-00-713066-X

No. of Pages: 632

A Canadian woman asks the police of England’s Peak District for assistance into the investigation of the war-time crash of an air craft in the area. Her grandfather had been the pilot but had disappeared from the accident site and never been seen in the 57 years years since the night of the crash. Of the remaining crew only one person, a Polish man, survived and is still in the area today. The police hierarchy refuses to assist the Canadian because they’re busy. A man’s body has been cut in half by a snow plough, another man’s been beaten up and, although they don’t know it yet, a young woman has died in the snow too. However DC Ben Cooper is intrigued by the Canadian’s quest and, almost against his own will, becomes involved in investigating the story. His boss, DS Diane Fry, is angry at him about that.

As I mentioned the other day, this book dragged for me. Seriously dragged. Every person’s clothes, every building, every location seemed to be described in minute, unnecessary detail. It soon became impossible to tell which people and events were crucial to the story because every body and every thing was given the same detailed introduction. And then there were the tangents. For example at one point a character notices a police car has the force’s website address written on it which is followed by a long description of what one would find on the website. None of which is even remotely relevant to the story. Alone this example wouldn’t bother me but it is one of dozens of such tangents that detracted from the flow of the narrative and turned what should have been an interesting story into a directionless amble. At one point Police realise that the woman who died in the snow probably had a baby but they don’t seem to put much effort into locating the child, or at least no more than they do for anything else, which seems highly improbable to me.

I don’t think this is an issue of length or pace. I have loved longer books and slower ones. This is an issue of storytelling where knowing what to leave out is as important, if not more so, as what is included. For me anyway story telling is about being taken on a journey and here I felt as if I’d been dropped in the middle of a forest and had to find my own way out without the benefit of a compass or the ability to leave a breadcrumb trail. I found my way out in the end but I’d taken so many wrong turns I’d lost interest in the outcome.

I did like Ben Cooper who is a far cry from the alcohol-addled, ex-wife trailing cop so prevalent in crime fiction. His introspection and somewhat naive outlook were refreshing and the way he and his experiences were used to explore themes of family and community was first rate. There appeared to be some kind of unresolved issue between him and Diane Fry but I really couldn’t work out whether it was professional or personal (it seemed to be both at different times). Perhaps this is explained more in the first two books in this series which I haven’t read. Regardless, I neither liked Fry nor found her particularly credible but I really can’t explain why.

I really wanted to like Blood on the Tongue as Booth’s books have been recommended by many people whose tastes I trust. Although I did enjoy meeting Ben Cooper I didn’t enjoy it enough to make me come back for more so this series is one I’ll just have to agree to disagree about.

My rating 2/5

Other stuff

Other readers enjoy the pacing of this book so don’t rely on my voice alone. Paul at Reviewing the Evidence loved it.

According to Fantastic Fiction there are now 9 books in this series with the most recent having been released in April this year.

Can you have too much of a good thing?

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I’ve got two books on the go at the moment and coincidentally am experiencing the same problem with both: they’re too long although neither is a bad book.

I’m about half way through Michael Connelly’s The Lincoln Lawyer which runs to 12 CDs (just over 14 hours). It follows the plight of Mickey Haller, a 40-something defence lawyer in Los Angeles. There’s a big case where Mickey is defending a rich person who’s been accused  of assaulting a woman and there are a lot of other cases along the way. I’m quite engaged by Mickey and the big case has just gotten to a crucial point which I am very curious to see resolved. But, and it’s a big but, the thing is dragging like a wet weekend. I can’t believe the amount of detail included (long descriptions of meals eaten and every item of clothing someone is wearing etc).

I’m about a third of the way through the print version of Stephen Booth’s Blood on the Tongue. This one weighs in at 632 pages. The third in a series featuring DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry who operate in England’s Peak District. A Canadian woman wants the local war-time crash of her grandfather’s plane to be re-investigated 57 years after the incident occurred and an unidentified man has been found in the snow. Both cases are at least mildly interesting and Ben Cooper is a character who has the potential to be someone I would like. But, and again it’s a big but, this one is dragging even more slowly. I’m at page 184 and I’d only need the fingers of one hand to count the important plot developments. But I can tell you what everyone’s wearing and describe in some detail the shops in the high street of the local town.

It’s not a length issue precisely, I recently listened to Child 44 which was also 14+hours long and I loved it so much I’d have been happy for it to go on longer. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed both the Stieg Larsson books that have been translated to English so far and they were nearly as long as Booth’s. It’s more an issue of the lack of a red pen during the editing process.

Normally I don’t have a problem stopping a book if I’m not enjoying it but in both these cases I’m quite interested in the stories.

I’m just not sure I’m interested enough to slog through the minutiae both have incorporated, especially with so many titles giving me come hither looks from my TBR shelves.

Sigh.