THE CORPSE BRIDGE

An exciting new crime thriller in the award-winning Cooper & Fry series.

Crime novelist Stephen Booth has hit number 1 spot in the US ebook bestseller lists with the first title in his award-winning Cooper & Fry series BLACK DOG. The entire 13-book series was recently licensed to a new HarperCollins digital imprint, Witness Impulse, which launched last October. BLACK DOG was one of their launch titles, with another book in the Cooper & Fry series being released each month. The old Corpse Bridge is the route taken for centuries by mourners from villages on the western fringes of Derbyshire to a burial ground across the River Dove, now absorbed into the landscaped parkland of a stately home called Knowle Abbey, owned by the aristocratic Manby family. When the new Earl Manby announces plans to deconsecrate the burial ground to turn it into a car park for his holiday cottages, bodies begin to appear once again on the road to the Corpse Bridge. Is there a connection with the Earl's plans? Or is a serial killer at work on the borders of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, always the greatest fear for the overstretched detectives of E Division? Between the peaceful scenes of visitors around the duck pond at Hartington and industrial activity at the massive limestone quarries on the outskirts of Buxton, one small, forgotten corner of Derbyshire is living in a state of fear. Back in his job after the traumatic events of previous months, Detective Sergeant Ben Cooper seems to be his normal self again - at least, most of the time. He certainly knows that he has to face up to one of the biggest challenges of his career if he's going to be able to move on with his life. Will he succeed in unravelling the mystery of the Corpse Bridge, with the support of his team? Or will he fail, as some might be hoping? And who can he turn to for help when the investigation reaches a critical moment? A former newspaper journalist, Stephen Booth is a CWA Gold Dagger nominee, winner of the Dagger in the Library, and twice a finalist for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year. His series features two young Derbyshire police detectives, DC Ben Cooper and DC Diane Fry, and is set in and around England's Peak District.