Inspector Alan Banks Series by Peter Robinson
Inspector Alan Banks #7
Final Account
Peter Robinson
From BooklistIn the Yorkshire countryside, middle-aged accountant and financial consultant Keith Rothwell is murdered while his wife and daughter are forced to watch. Detective Inspector Alan Banks and his assistant, Constable Susan Gay, are the lead investigators on the case. As Banks and Gay investigate, they reveal the victim to have been a conservative, quiet man virtually devoid of personality and style. But then a beautiful young musician sees Rothwell's picture in the paper and reveals that he had a secret life: as Robert Calvert, the musician's former lover. Meanwhile, Rothwell's financial dealings are coming into focus: he was skimming from one of his clients, a drug-dealing Caribbean dictator, and may have been murdered for his transgressions. The few loose ends to the case trouble Banks, and he pursues them until he draws a surprising conclusion. Tremendous plotting and solid characters make this a superior British procedural from the critically acclaimed author of Wednesday's Child. Wes LukowskyAbout the AuthorPeter Robinson's award-winning novels have been named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, a Notable Book by the New York Times, and a Page-Turner of the Week by People magazine. Robinson was born and brought up in Yorkshire, England, and now divides his time between North America and Richmond, Yorkshire.
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Inspector Alan Banks #10
In a Dry Season
Peter Robinson
Amazon.com ReviewDetective chief inspector Alan Banks is a walking midlife crisis, full of rage because of his recently failed marriage, a career crippled by a jealous superior, and problems with his son. In less skilled hands, Banks could have quickly become a royal pain, but Robinson makes him instead a very likable character, who is slightly baffled and bemused by his bad luck. When he criticizes his son Brian's decision to drop out of college to become a rock musician, Banks quickly regrets it--recognizing the same impulses that made him rebel against his own parents, and some of the pain he felt when a college friend died of a drug overdose. The realization that Brian's heavy-metal band is actually quite good brings genuine pleasure to a man whose idea of rock is Love's Forever Changes and other 1970s delights.Banks is assigned to work on a case that the Yorkshire police department considers to be somewhat of a joke. The skeleton of a woman wrapped in World War II blackout curtains has been found in a dried-out reservoir. This man-made watering hole was a village--Hobbs End--that had been flooded many years earlier. Through the journal of a major player we realize early on who the dead woman is, but a large part of the fun is watching Banks and an edgy, attractive female cop put the pieces of the puzzle together. In a Dry Season is a stylish and gently reflective tale of secrets and lies.Banks's other books include Wednesday's Child, Final Account, and Blood at the Root. --Dick AdlerFrom Publishers WeeklyAnyone who loves a good mystery should curl up gratefully with a cuppa to enjoy this rich 10th installment of the acclaimed British police procedural series. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, on the skids since the breakup with wife Sandra, languishes in "career Siberia" until old nemesis Chief Constable Riddle sends him to remotest Yorkshire on a "dirty, pointless, dead-end case." It seems a local kid has discovered a skeleton in dried-up Thornfield Reservoir, constructed on the site of the deserted bucolic village of Hobb's End. Banks taps into his familiar network of colleagues to identify the skeleton as that of Gloria Shackleton, a gorgeous, provocative "land girl" who worked on a Hobb's End farm while her husband was off fighting the Japanese decades ago. Apparently, Gloria had been stabbed to death. As Banks and Detective Sergeant Annie Cabbot struggle to re-create the 50-year-old crime scene, wartime Yorkshire, with all its deprivations and depravities, springs to life. (Banks revives, too, showing renewed interest in his job, and in women.) Robinson brilliantly interweaves the story of Banks's investigation with an ambiguous manuscript by detective novelist "Vivian Elmsley," a 70-ish woman once Gloria's sister-in-law. Is the manuscript a memoir of events leading to Gloria's vicious murder, or "all just a story"? Either way, every detail rings true. Once again, Robinson's work stands out for its psychological and moral complexity, its startling evocation of pastoral England and its gritty, compassionate portrayal of modern sleuthing. Agent, Dominick Abel. Author tour. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Inspector Alan Banks #18
All the Colours of Darkness
Peter Robinson
The eagerly awaited new novel from Canada’s top crime-fiction writer. It’s the May half-term school holiday, and the first warm day of the year has drawn a few children to the River Swain for a swim. When one boy chases another off the path that runs alongside Hindswell Woods, a glimpse of orange through the trees tempts them into the shadows. Moments later, their high spirits vanish in an instant, for there, to their shock (and ghoulish fascination), they find a man in a brightly coloured shirt hanging from a branch by a rope around his neck. Alan Banks is in London with his new girlfriend when news of the kids’ ghastly discovery reaches the police in Eastvale, so the case falls to Annie Cabbot. And she’s mystified. Why would a successful set and costume designer, with a well-reviewed production of Othello currently playing, be in such despair that he would take his own life? In All the Colours of Darkness, Peter Robinson has written an exceptionally gripping and intricately plotted story that delivers hard truths about jealousy and betrayal — and of the insidious, corrosive power of secrets. Once more, Robinson proves that he is one of the finest crime-fiction writers in the world. From the Hardcover edition.From Publishers WeeklyAs much spy thriller as crime story, bestseller Robinson's solid 18th DCI Alan Banks novel (after Friend of the Devil) finds the Yorkshire copper trying to unravel a murder-suicide with potential ties to national security. While Banks is on holiday, Det. Insp. Annie Cabbot is called to the woods outside Eastvale, where a hanged man—soon identified as Mark Hardcastle, the local theater's set designer—is discovered in a tree. What looks like a simple suicide takes an unexpected turn when the badly beaten body of Hardcastle's boyfriend, Laurence Silber, is found in Silber's posh home. Banks, who returns to assist in the investigation, uncovers Silber's past life as a spy in MI6, which makes Banks doubt the prevailing theory that Hardcastle murdered Silber and then hanged himself. Robinson deftly integrates the requisite espionage elements with his regular cast. The unexpected cliffhanger will assure readers that this chapter in Banks's life is far from over. 11-city author tour. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Bookmarks MagazinePeter Robinson rarely strikes a false note in his fiction, and All the Colors of Darkness, which draws on elements of espionage and Cold War treachery, is another solid installment in the Inspector Alan Banks series. Banks has become one of the most recognizable figures in a growing stable of gritty British crime solvers (Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus comes to mind). Critics are divided as to whether Robinson's latest effort is his best, but they are unanimous in praising the author's continued strong plotting and his main character's growth. An added bonus: Robinson's eclectic passion for music has become legendary among his faithful readers, who can find the cuts mentioned in the Banks novels on the author's Web site.Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC
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