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 visitors is a convicted killer, bent on revenge.
Fourteen years ago Mansell Quinn was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his lover. Now he's out under licence, whereabouts unknown, and his ex-wife has been murdered.
As they try to anticipate the fugitive's next move, Derbyshire detectives Diane Fry and Ben Cooper become increasingly puzzled by the case. Why did Quinn's two friends refuse to back up his alibi? And why did nobody visit him in prison for the last ten years of his sentence? Nobody, that is, except one of those two friends: ex-soldier Will Thorpe, now living rough somewhere in the Hope Valley.
Overstretched and unable to apprehend a killer who moves around the area with impunity, the police can do little but warn other potential victims to be on their guard. But the case is about to become much more personal for DC Ben Cooper…
A number 18 Sunday Times bestseller in the UK
Finalist for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award
ONE LAST BREATH is the 5th novel in the multiple award-winning Cooper & Fry series, set in England's beautiful and atmospheric Peak District.
PRAISE FOR THE COOPER AND FRY SERIES:
"Suspenseful and supremely engaging. Booth does a wonderful job." - Los Angeles Times
"Simultaneously classic, contemporary and haunting." - Otto Penzler, Mysterious Bookshop, New York
"Stephen Booth makes high summer in Derbyshire as dark and terrifying as midwinter." - Val McDermid, award-winning crime novelist
"Intelligent and substantive crime fiction, rich with complex characters." - Library Journal
"Booth has firmly joined the elite of Britain's top mystery writers." - Florida Sun-Sentinel
"Crime fiction for the thinking man or woman, and damnably hard to put down." - January Magazine
"Highly recommended - a great series!" - Seattle Mystery Bookstore
"Ben Cooper and Diane Fry are the most interesting crime team to arrive on the mystery scene in a long while." - Rocky Mountain News
"One of our best story tellers." - Sunday Telegraph
"There are few, if any, contemporary writers who do this as well as Stephen Booth." - Arena magazine
"Booth is a modern master of rural noir." - The Guardian
"Booth delivers some of the best crime fiction in the UK." - Manchester Evening News
"Stephen Booth has to be one of the best new English mystery writers." - Toadstool Bookshop, New Hampshire
"Booth's aim is to portray the darkness that lies below the surface... in this he succeeds wonderfully well." - Mark Billingham, author of the DI Tom Thorne series
"If you read only one new crime writer this year, he's your man." - Yorkshire Post
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