LOST RIVER

TITLE: LOST RIVER
AUTHOR: STEPHEN BOOTH
Pages: 360
Date: 04/09/2010
Grade: 4+
Details: no. 10 Ben Cooper & Diane Fry
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Years ago, when Diane Cooper was a cop in Birmingham, she was raped while on duty and those guilty were never caught. Now the case is being reopened, and Diane is going back to Birmingham. Not as a cop though, but as the victim who has to be prepared for a possible court case.
During her absence, Ben Cooper is temporarily promoted and almost immediately he finds himself having a hard time distinguishing between his job as his superiors view it, and his own instincts. 
When an eight year old girl drowns in a shallow river, it's Ben who lifts her body from the river. And although everybody seems to agree that the girl's death was a tragic accident, Ben is convinced that her family is hiding things. And because he is never able to ignore his instincts, Ben continues looking into the family and the girl's death, even though his superiors tell him to leave the case alone.
Meanwhile in Birmingham the recently reopened case is closed again almost as soon as Diane arrives. But now that she has been forced to face her demons head on, Diane is not prepared to let it lie and decides to for once in her life break all the rules and try to find answers herself.
Both Diane and Ben in their separate cases have to deal with families and the harm they can do to those that are members of them.
As always, Stephen Booth has delivered a beautifully written and well plotted mystery. I didn't appreciate this instalment as much as I have done previous ones though. It seemed to me that in this book too much emphasis was placed on descriptions of places and thoughts, and not enough on action or explanation. That didn't result in a bad read though, just in a reading experience that was a little bit less enjoyable then previous ones had been. It hasn't put me off these books either and I'm already looking forward to the next book in this series. Especially since I'm not quite sure how it's going to continue given the ending of this story.