One Last Breath
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3.9 • 11 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Major new psychological Peak District thriller from the acclaimed author of Blood on the Tongue and Blind to the Bones.
The vast labyrinth of caverns, passages and subterranean rivers beneath the Peak District are a major tourist attraction. But this summer not all the darkness is underground, and not all the devils are folk legends. Mingling with the holidaymakers is a convicted killer, bent on revenge.
Fourteen years ago Mansell Quinn was sentenced to life imprisonment for stabbing his lover to death. Now he's out and within a matter of hours his ex-wife is found dead – a new identity and a new home no safeguard against murder.
Looking to the original case files for clues to the fugitive’s wherabouts, detectives Diane Fry and Ben Cooper discover there may be other potential victims out there. And as the son of the officer responsible for putting Quinn behind bars, Ben realizes that his own name could be high on the list.
Reviews
Praise for Blind to the Bones:
‘This is another very fine book, masterfully plotted and filled with real flesh-and-blood personalities.’ Susanna Yager, Daily Telegraph
Praise for Stephen Booth:
‘The complex relationship between [Cooper and Fry] is excellently drawn, and is combined with an intriguing plot and a real sense of place: Stephen Booth is an author to keep an eye on.’ T J Binyon, Evening Standard
‘…Stephen Booth makes high summer in Derbyshire as dark and terrifying as midwinter.’ Val McDermid
‘Black Dog sinks its teeth into you and doesn’t let go … A dark star may be born!’ Reginald Hill
'A leading light of British crime writing.' Maxim Jakubowski, Guardian
'Best traditional crime novel of the year.'
Independent, Books of the Year
About the author
Stephen Booth was a journalist for twenty-five years until he turned to writing crime full time in 2001. This is the fifth novel in his series set in the Peak District, and follows on from the success of Black Dog, Dancing with the Virgins, Blood on the Tongue and Blind to the Bones.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British author Booth's fifth crime novel (after Blind to the Bones) is as dark and winding as the labyrinth of caves below its Derbyshire setting. In 1990, Det. Constable Ben Cooper's father arrests Mansell Quinn for the brutal murder of his lover. Thirteen years later, Quinn disappears upon his release from prison, his ex-wife is immediately slain, and another murder soon follows. Convinced they're facing a revenge spree, the police mount a manhunt, probing physical clues and the messy web of relationships that Quinn has not quite left behind. The deeper Cooper and his colleagues probe, the more convinced Cooper becomes that Quinn was innocent of the original crime, a belief that deepens his sense that as the son of the arresting officer, he's personally at risk. Though the pace and focus falter slightly toward the end, this is intelligent, suspenseful reading that should continue to build Booth's U.S. audience. A master of psychological suspense, Booth hauntingly evokes the ambiguities of place and the enduring complexity of human relationships.
