Why a Booktrail?
2000s: A killer in the Peak District whose motives appear to be shrouded in bloody history
Dancing with the Virgins (Cooper & Fry 2)
What you need to know before your trail
In a remote part of Northern England’s Peak District there are Nice ancient stone monoliths known as the Nine Virgins and it believed that these ancient stone forms harbour dark legends.
However now another figure has joined them, this time of a young cyclist whose body and limbs have been arranged in a macabre dancing pose. For the police investigating the case, there are shocking similarities to another case and so they start to wonder if the two are connected and if so why.
One was carrying an unusual object and two drifters have been spotted who practice strange rituals? And what about the legend of the stones themselves?
Too many questions without answers out on the barren moors.
Travel Guide
The barren landscape of the Peak District in Derbyshire is awash with strange rock formations, local folklore and legends so a crime novel featuring all of these really brings the spirit of the area together.
The atmosphere is dark and chilling from the start. Ranger Mark Roper loves his job wandering across the Peak District landscape whilst patrolling the area. His work involves the usual job of a ranger such as looking after the natural area, keeping things clean and tidy, maintaining the land.
One day he is patrolling the area and even he feels uneasy as if his usual setting is against him, someone is watching. His radio isn’t working and so his sense of isolation is all around. The discovery of a young girl’s body at the stones of the Nine Virgins is not something he ever expected to find.
The multilayered plot and dark setting – and the fear that a deranged killer could be stalking this beautiful countryside is too shocking to contemplate for out in the woods, no one would hear you scream.
The weather here is not your friend either as the rain makes the forensics harder, the dark clouds foreshadow doom and the thin and spindly branches of the trees reach out and try to grab you.
Then there’s the local community. They know and understand the folklore and are very disturbed to think that someone who probably knows the area well, is using local knowledge and folklore to entrap victims and leave one near such a site as The Dancing Virgins.
As you climb the rocky hill to view these Dancing Virgins, the wind tries to knock you back, the light is getting faint now, you should be getting back, it’s not safe out here. And the Dancing Virgins hold secrets you may not dare to know.
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