Dancing With the Virgins

The second in the series set in the Derbyshire Peak District, Dancing with the Virgins is a tense psychological follow-up to Stephen Booth's acclaimed debut Black Dog. / 'Dancing with the Virgins' has the same combination of wonderfully rounded characters, psychological edge and insight, and terrific writing that ensured the success of 'Black Dog'. / Wide appeal along the hugely popular Minette Walter/Barbara Vine/Reginald Hill lines. / This re-issue of Stephen Booth's backlist will consolidate his reputaion as a brand name. / Competition: Reginald Hill, Barbara Vine, Minette Walters

The second in the series set in the Derbyshire Peak District, Dancing with the Virgins is a tense psychological follow-up to Stephen Booth’s acclaimed debut Black Dog.

The second in the series set in the Derbyshire Peak District, Dancing with the Virgins is a tense psychological follow-up to Stephen Booth’s acclaimed debut Black Dog.

'The body of the woman sprawled obscenely among the stones… She looked like a dead woman, dancing.'

The ring of cairns known as the Nine Virgins has stood on the windswept moors of Derbyshire for centuries. Now, as winter closes in, a tenth figure is added – a body – and a modern tragedy is added to the dark legend that surrounds the stones.

There's no shortage of suspects, each with their own guilty secret, but what DS Fry and DC Cooper lack is any kind of motive. As they search separately for answers, it seems the reasons for the strange behaviour of the moor's inhabitants may lie somewhere in the past, in a terrible crime yet to be discovered…