- Narrated by:
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- firts published 2013
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Inspector Banks #21
A college lecturer is found dead – murdered and dumped on a railway line near his home with £5,000 in his pocket. DCI Banks and his team are drafted in to investigate, and soon discover that the case is far from clear-cut.
Having spent his last years leading a secluded existence after dismissal for sexual misconduct, Gavin Miller wasn’t short of enemies, including an individual from the college where he used to teach, who has a venomous score to settle, and a mysterious lady he knew in the political-hotbed of Essex University in the early ‘70s.
It doesn’t take Banks long to start digging up old connections that many many people in power think would be far better left buried. Banks is told to back off before he pushes his enquiries too far, but if he did as he was told, he wouldn’t be Banks….”
My Take
To be honest, I don't think this is the best in this series. Mid book, I found myself urging Robinson to "get on with it". I thought he carried the dictum " show not tell" a bit too far. There seemed to be interminable dialogue as the investigation progressed from one set of interviews to the next, without making a lot of progress. Banks, ever the loose cannon, was unwilling to let his colleagues in on all that he had found out, and he certainly didn't apprise them of his surmises.
On the other hand, every base seemed to be covered in terms of all the information we needed to solve the mystery, and the pace of action did pick up in the second half of the book.
My rating: 4.4
I've also reviewed
FRIEND OF THE DEVIL (2007)
4.6, ALL THE COLOURS OF DARKNESS (2008)
4.6, BAD BOY (2010)
4.9. BEFORE THE POISON
4.7, WATCHING THE DARK (2013)
1 comment:
Kerrie - I know what you mean about getting on with it. That said though, I have a real soft spot for this series. I think I forgive it more than I might some others...
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