Review: NO CURE FOR LOVE, Peter Robinson

• 
  This edition published in 2015. 
  
• originally published 1995
  
• Published by Hodder & Stoughton
• Foreword by Michael Connelly
• ISBN 978-1-473-61093-4
• 383 pages

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

A British actress transplanted to Hollywood, Sarah Broughton plays cool, efficient homicide detective Anita O'Rourke in the hit network series "Good Cop, Bad Cop."

She seems to have it all.... a beach house in Pacific Palisades, all the peace and privacy she needs to forget her troubled past....then she starts receiving disturbing letters from someone who signs himself only as "M". Soon, she is plunged into a nightmare of twisted, obsessive love that threatens her sanity, her life and the lives of her friends. Detectives Arvo Hughes and Maria Hernandez from the LAPD Threat Management Unit must explore the lost years of Sarah's life in order to save her. But Sarah's memories of the long roller-coaster ride of drugs, sex and rock and roll are vague and blurred. When "M's" obsession escalates to murder, the two detectives find themselves in a race against time to save Sarah's life. 

My Take

A stand-alone by Robinson, written nearly 30 years ago, set not in England, but mainly in Hollywood, with a very complimentary foreword by Michael Connelly.

At first the fan letters seem just to be a bit over the top and Sarah does not take them very seriously, but the third has alarming verbal images, and comes at the same time as she discovers a dismembered body on the beach where she lives. Even so, Sarah is going home to England for Christmas ans is convinced that by the time she gets back the police will have found the murderer. 

The LAPD detectives are convinced the clue to the identity of the stalker lies in Sarah's unsavoury past, but even so his final identity in the last few pages comes as a twist to the plot.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read

• 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)
• 4.3, CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION
• 4.8, ABATTOIR BLUES
• 4.4, THE PRICE OF LOVE
• 4.5, BEFORE THE POISON
• 4.6, SLEEPING IN THE GROUND
• 4.8, CARELESS LOVE - #25 
• 4.5, NOT DARK YET - #27

Review: NOT DARK YET, Peter Robinson

• 
  this edition published in 2021 by Hodder & Stoughton
  
• ISBN 978-1-529-34307-6
• 374 pages
• #27 in the Inspector Banks series
  

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction) 

Murder is only the beginning for Banks and his team . . .

The gruesome double murder at an Eastvale property developer's luxury home should be an open and shut case for Superintendent Banks and his team of detectives. There's a clear link to the notoriously vicious Albanian mafia, men who left the country suspiciously soon after the death. Then they find a cache of spy-cam videos hidden in the house - and Annie and Gerry's investigation pivots to the rape of a young girl that could cast the murders in an entirely different light.

Banks's friend Zelda, increasingly uncertain of her future in Britain's hostile environment, thinks she will be safer in Moldova hunting the men who abducted, raped and enslaved her than she is Yorkshire or London. Her search takes her back to the orphanage where it all began - but by stirring up the murky waters of the past, Zelda is putting herself in greater danger than any she's seen before.

And as the threat escalates, so does the danger for Banks and those who love Zelda . . .

My take

Another many stranded plot, firmly rooted in the infiltration of Britain by East European mafia. Added to that the exploration of Banks's personal life. Some heart stopping moments as not only Zelda is abducted but also Banks himself is snatched and then thinks his end has come.  

I am always an advocate of reading a series in order, and that has stood me in relatively good stead in the case of the Inspector Banks series. However I have missed only one of the recent titles in this series, but it was enough to ensure that I did not know who one of the important characters in this title, Zelda, was.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

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)
4.3, CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION
4.8, ABATTOIR BLUES
4.4, THE PRICE OF LOVE
4.5, BEFORE THE POISON
4.6, SLEEPING IN THE GROUND
4.8, CARELESS LOVE - #25 

Review: CARELESS LOVE, Peter Robinson

• this edition published in 2018 by Hodder & Stoughton UK
• ISBN 978-1-444-78698-9
• 340 pages
• source: my local library
• #25 in the Alan Banks series
• author website

Synopsis (publisher)

A young local student has apparently committed suicide. Her body is found in an abandoned car on a lonely country road. She didn't own a car. Didn't even drive. How did she get there? Where did she die? Who moved her, and why?

Meanwhile a man in his sixties is found dead in a gully up on the wild moorland. He is wearing an expensive suit and carrying no identification. Post-mortem findings indicate he died from injuries sustained during the fall. But what was he doing up there? And why are there no signs of a car in the vicinity?

As the inconsistencies multiply and the mysteries proliferate, Annie's father's new partner, Zelda, comes up with a shocking piece of information that alerts Banks and Annie to the return of an old enemy in a new guise. This is someone who will stop at nothing, not even murder, to get what he wants - and suddenly the stakes are raised and the hunt is on.
 
My Take

Very readable police procedural.

Bank's small team is called to deal with 2 deaths, one a young female uni student, and the other a financier in his 60s. At first the deaths do not seem to be murders but there is no way to explain how the bodies came to be where they are. The young woman appears to have died from a drug overdose but she is sitting in a car waiting to be towed away, and she wasn't there just days before. The man on the other hand is at the bottom of a gully on the moors with a broken neck. It seems unlikely that he walked there.

Then Banks is notified by a colleague of another dead girl and investigation seems to throw up links with the first girl.

I must admit that I came up with a scenario that connected everything up, about 100 pages bcfore the end, but I'm delighted to report that I was wrong!

I love the character development in these novels, both of Banks' team getting on with their lives, and the new characters who become part of the investigation.

There are references to plots from earlier titles in the series (hard to believe we are up to #25), and I should warn readers that the plots have taken a very different path to those of the television series.

My rating : 4.8


I've also read
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)
4.3, CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION
4.8, ABATTOIR BLUES
4.4, THE PRICE OF LOVE
4.5, BEFORE THE POISON
4.6, SLEEPING IN THE GROUND

Review: SLEEPING IN THE GROUND, Peter Robinson - audio book

• read by Mark Meadows
• Isis audio book
• published 2017
• #24 in the Inspector Banks series
• ISBN 978-1-4450-6992-0
• source: my local library
• length: 12 hours 35 mins

Synopsis (Isis audio)

A shocking mass murder occurs at a wedding in a small Dales church and a huge manhunt follows. Eventually, the shooter is run to ground and things take their inevitable course.

But Banks is plagued with doubts as to exactly what happened outside the church that day, and why. Struggling with the death of his first serious girlfriend and the return of profiler Jenny Fuller into his life, Banks feels the need to dig deeper into the murders, and as he does so, he uncovers forensic and psychological puzzles that lead him to the past secrets that might just provide the answers he is looking for.

When the surprising truth becomes clear, it is almost too late.

My Take

When the supposed murderer is identified Banks and his team find it hard to reconcile this conclusion with the opinion everyone who knew him has of the murderer. Nor does there seem to be a cogent motive. It is one of those cases where the ends don't tie up.

If you are a follower of the Inspector Banks TV series then you will notice there are some serious differences between the direction that series has taken and what happens in the books. For me it provided some confusing moments.

Nevertheless this was a "good listen", well narrated (with voice characterisation) by Mark Meadows.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read
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)
4.3, CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION
4.8, ABATTOIR BLUES
4.4, THE PRICE OF LOVE
4.5, BEFORE THE POISON

Review: BEFORE THE POISON, Peter Robinson

Synopsis (Amazon)

 After years of Hollywood success composer Chris Lowndes wanted only one thing: to take his beloved wife home to the Yorkshire Dales.

 But Laura is gone, and Chris is on his own.

 He welcomes the isolation of Kilnsgate House, and the beauty of the dale. And it doesn't surprise him that a man died there, sixty years ago. That his wife was convicted of murder. That something is pulling him deeper and deeper into the story of Grace Elizabeth Fox, who was hanged by the neck until she was dead . . .

 My Take

In tone this novel reminds me somewhat of the Gothic-style tales that I used to read nearly 50 years ago: an isolated house in the Yorkshire dales where a convicted murderer once lived, a possible ghost sighting, a possible miscarriage of justice.

The author cleverly brings a cold case, via extracts from a book positioned at the beginning of each chapter, together with a modern investigation. What surprised me was that the original case was in the 1950s - that part of the narration has a much older feel, almost 19th century.

But then, mid way, the story takes a turn that I wasn't expecting. At first Chris Lowndes felt the need to prove that Grace was innocent, that there had been a miscarriage of justice. Then comes the about face where he doubts her innocence. But above all he wants to understand what happened and so he sets out to track Sam, Grace's young lover, and then finally the young soldier Grace was seen walking with just days before her husband's death. A stranger turns up at Kilnsgate with some very important evidence.

This is a stand-alone, very readable and almost plausible.
Winner of Canada's Arthur Ellis award for best novel.

 My Rating: 4.5

Review: THE PRICE OF LOVE, Peter Robinson

• first published in Great Britain by Hodder & Stoughton 2009
  
• ISBN 978-0-340-91951-4
• subtitled Eleven Ways to Pay With Your Life
• 338 pages
• Author website 

Synopsis (author website)

This collection of short stories includes, as the centrepiece, a new Banks novella called “Like a Virgin.” The other stories in the book, two of them also featuring Banks, are “Cornelius Jubb,” “The Magic of Your Touch,” “The Eastvale Ladies’ Poker Circle,” “The Ferryman’s Beautiful Daughter,” “Walking the Dog,” “Blue Christmas,” “Shadows on the Water,” “The Cherub Affair,” “The Price of Love” and “Birthday Dance.”

My Take

I read mainly crime fiction novels but occasionally a short story anthology is brought to my attention by a fellow reader.  Short stories often give the reader a different view of a writer's talents. Among my favourite writers who have also produced short stories are Ian Rankin and Ruth Rendell. I cut my teeth on the short stories of Somerset Maugham and Charles Dickens.

These eleven stories first appeared in the first decade of the 21st century. Only three of them, one of them a longish novella,  feature Robinson's detective Alan Banks. The author says that most of them "were written at the request of one editor or another" and at the end of the anthology he gives detail about what led to the writing of each one. He says that he thinks of the stories as challenges, a chance to explore something he hadn't explored before. He says that he finds short stories difficult to write, and that they often take him into uncharted territory.

The story I liked best The Price of Love, the one that gives the anthology its name. Tommy Burford, whose police constable father was recently killed in the line of duty, has discovered something quite strange in the room of Uncle Arthur, his mother's new boyfriend.

It is worth it after you finish each story to take a moment to reflect, to ask who in this story, as the subtitle says, paid with his or her life.

My rating: 4.4

I have also read
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)
4.3, CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION
4.8, ABATTOIR BLUES 

Review: ABATTOIR BLUES, Peter Robinson

• first published in the UK 2014, Hodder & Stoughton
  
• #22 in the Alan Banks series
• ISBN 978-1-444-70496-4
• 367 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (author website)

Taking the title from the Nick Cave album, this sophisticated thriller, featuring DCI Alan Banks, follows the success of No.1 best-seller Children of the Revolution, which shot to the top of the UK charts earlier this year.

When two boys vanish under mysterious circumstances, the local community is filled with unease. Then a bloodstain is discovered in a disused World War Two hangar nearby, and a caravan belonging to one of the youths is burned to the ground. Things quickly become much more sinister.

Assigned to the case, DCI Banks and his team are baffled by the mystery laid out before them. But when a motor accident throws up a gruesome discovery, the investigation spins into a higher gear – in another direction. As Banks and his team struggle desperately to find the missing boy who holds the key to the puzzle, they find themselves in a race against time where it’s their turn to become the prey…

My Take

The blurb (above) promoting this novel, tells you almost as much as the reader needs to be told. The setting is North Yorkshire and Terry Gilchrist, recently discharged from the army is walking his dog. Peaches disappears inside an old hanger and Gilchrist recognises what Peaches has found as blood. Meanwhile Annie Cabot is investigating the theft of a tractor and Alan Banks is returning from holidays.

Crime scene investigators affirm that what Peaches found is human blood and Banks takes over the investigation.

I think what I enjoyed most about this novel was the exploration of the roles played by the various members of Banks' team, and particularly the part played by DS Winsome Jackman. And I enjoyed watching from the sidelines as the various plot threads converged.

An excellent read.

My rating: 4.8

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)
4.3, CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION 

Review: CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION, Peter Robinson - audio book

• Narrated by: Simon Slater
• Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins 
• firts published 2013
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Inspector Banks #21 

Synopsis (author website)

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)  

Review: WATCHING THE DARK, Peter Robinson

Published 2013 by Harper Collins

ISBN 978-0-06-200480-2

354 pages

Source: a loan from a friend

Inspector Banks series #20

Synopsis (from author's website)

When Detective Inspector Bill Reid Quinn is found murdered in the tranquil grounds of the St Peter’s Police Treatment Centre, and compromising photographs are discovered in his room, DCI Banks is called in to investigate. Because of the possibility of police corruption, he is assigned an officer from Professional Standards, Inspector Joanna Passero, to work closely with him, and he soon finds himself and his methods under scrutiny.

It emerges that Reid’s Quinn's murder may be linked to the disappearance of an English girl called Rachel Hewitt, in Tallinn, Estonia, six years earlier. The deeper Banks looks into the old case, the more he begins to feel that he has to solve the mystery of Rachel’s disappearance before he can solve Reid’s murder, though Inspector Passero has a different agenda. When Banks and Passero travel to Tallinn to track down leads in the dark, cobbled alleys of the city’s Old Town, it soon become clear that that someone doesn’t want the past stirred up.

Meanwhile, DI Annie Cabbot, just back at work after a serious injury, is following up leads in Eastvale. Her investigations take her to the heart of a migrant labour scam involving a corrupt staffing agency and a loan shark who preys on the poorest members of society. As the action shifts back and forth between Tallinn and Eastvale, it soon becomes clear that crimes are linked in more ways than Banks imagined, and that solving them may put even more lives in jeopardy.

My Take

I'm not sure why this book took me much longer than usual to read. I think it is probably that Robinson's writing is much more detailed than that of most of his contemporaries. There's always a lot going on in an Inspector Banks novel, not just several plot threads, but also connections with previous plots in previous novels. WATCHING THE DARK is no different. They are novels designed to satisfy fans of the series, to further develop threads, characters, and ongoing stories. That is their value as a series, more like episodes in a saga, and that's why the series grows on you. Readers have been with DCI Alan Banks for over 25 years now. I haven't read them all, but certainly most.

Despite, or maybe because, I read the book slowly, I thoroughly enjoyed it: had time to smell the flowers so to speak, to appreciate the connections between the various plot threads. On fairly tenuous evidence, Banks is convinced there are links between the murder of DI Bill Quinn and a case he (Quinn) was involved in 6 years before: the disappearance in Estonia of a young English woman. He decides he needs to go to Estonia to investigate himself, but he will be accompanied by an officer from Professional Standards, and he does not like that one little bit.

The character portrayal is excellent, and for the most part, the plot is believable. Just be prepared for it to be a demanding read.

My rating: 4.7

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 - 2011 - not an Alan Banks title 

Review: BEFORE THE POISON, Peter Robinson

• Format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 646 KB
• Print Length: 460 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1444704834
• Publisher: Hodder (August 18, 2011)
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005GQ6E6W
• Source: I bought it

Synopsis (Amazon)

Through years of success in Hollywood composing music for Oscar-winning films, Chris Lowndes always imagined he would come full circle, home to Yorkshire with his beloved wife Laura. Now he's back in the Yorkshire Dales, but Laura is dead, and Chris needs to make a new life for himself.

The isolated house he buys sight unseen should give him the space to come to terms with his grief and the quiet to allow him to work. Kilnsgate House turns out to be rather more than he expected, however. A man died there, sixty years ago. His wife was convicted of murder. And something is pulling Chris deeper and deeper into the story of Grace Elizabeth Fox, who was hanged by the neck until she was dead . . .

For an extended synopsis, see the author's own web site, where you can also read an extract.

My take:

BEFORE THE POISON is Peter Robinson's third stand alone novel, and is set near Richmond, Yorkshire where he spends much of his time.

The death of his wife from cancer in the USA prompts Chris Lowndes, successful film music composer, to return to England. He has always promised himself he would return home when he was sixty. He buys Kilnsgate, an old house in the North Riding and is fascinated to learn of its connection to a woman hanged in 1953 for murdering her husband.

Lowndes' determination to know what led to Grace Fox committing murder gives the author the scope to do what he does so well - explore a facet of an historical period, this time World War II, and connect it with the current time. The fact too that Lowndes is a wealthy retiree allows the author to "grow" the plot, as Lowndes explores "leads" about Grace Fox's past, by travelling to France and South Africa. For much of the time Chris Lowndes is determined to prove that Grace could not have committed murder, but doubts creep in, as one theory after another is shattered.

I like the skilful combination of historical and mystery elements and BEFORE THE POISON is mapped against a rich canvas, with plenty to keep the reader thinking. Lowndes feels an affinity with Grace Fox right from the start, feels her presence in the house, and even begins to write music for her, and to envisage a film about her story. There are moments of harsh reality too, about the war in the Far East, and about war crimes on all sides.

The story is told through an interesting format: narration set in 2010 and 2011 by Chris Lowndes; interspersed with passages from a book called Famous Trials giving details about Grace Fox's trial and execution; and a journal written by Grace Fox 1940-1945 recording her experiences as a Queen Alexandra nurse. While the reader is given the story from all three angles, the main characters only gain access to Famous Trials and Grace's journal a littler later. So by the time Chris Lowndes reads these to items, we the reader, already know what he is going to find.

Very enjoyable read.

My rating: 4.9

BEFORE THE POISON was the winner of the Canadian 2012 Arthur Ellis award.

I've also reviewed
FRIEND OF THE DEVIL (2007)
4.6, ALL THE COLOURS OF DARKNESS (2008)
4.6, BAD BOY(2010)

Review: BAD BOY, Peter Robinson

• published by William Morrow (Harper Collins) 2010
• ISBN 978-0-06-136295-8
• 341 pages
• Source: review copy supplied by Random House Australia

Publisher's blurb (author website)

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks faces his most challenging, personal, and terrifying case yet when his own daughter crosses paths with a psychopath...

A distraught woman arrives at the Eastvale police station desperate to speak to Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks. But since Banks is away on holiday, his partner, Annie Cabbot, steps in. The woman tells Annie that she’s found a loaded gun hidden in the bedroom of her daughter, Erin—a punishable offense under English law. When an armed response team breaks into the house to retrieve the weapon, the seemingly straightforward procedure quickly spirals out of control.

But trouble is only beginning for Annie, the Eastvale force, and Banks, and this time, the fallout may finally do the iconoclastic inspector in. For it turns out that Erin’s best friend and roommate is none other than Tracy Banks, the DCI’s daughter, who was last seen racing off to warn the owner of the gun, a very bad boy indeed.

Thrust into a complicated and dangerous case intertwining the personal and the professional as never before, Annie and Banks—a bit of a bad boy himself—must risk everything to outsmart a smooth and devious psychopath. Both Annie and Banks understand that it’s not just his career hanging in the balance, it’s also his daughter’s life.

more

My take

I've followed the Alan Banks series for a number of years and so have a nodding acquaintance with the background to this story. I think however you could probably read BAD BOY as a stand alone because the author does give the reader snippets to fill in the holes.

As a character Banks doesn't come out of BAD BOY particularly well. True, he's had a tough life, but the fact that he's been a neglectful father rebounds on him when his daughter Tracy at the age of twenty four decides to choose her own path. As second in command of the Western Area, Banks is used to everyone working for his good and over the years that has made him rather self-centred, and to my mind, rather pre-occupied with his own well-being. Mind you, he is surrounded by some female characters, terrifically drawn, such as Annie Cabbott and Winsome Jackman , and even his boss DS Catherine Gervaise, who seem to always anticipate his needs. As a result Alan Banks tends to choose his own path rather than follow protocols.

If you enjoy British police procedurals then you will enjoy BAD BOY despite the fact that Peter Robinson is a Canadian author. (I chose to read this for the Canadian Book Challenge run by John Mutford). Robinson is yet another of those non-British authors who have set their novels in Britain, like Elizabeth George and Deborah Crombie.

BAD BOY isn't the best in the Alan Banks series but don't let that put you off.

My rating: 4.6

Other reviews on MiP
FRIEND OF THE DEVIL (2007)
ALL THE COLOURS OF DARKNESS (2008)

Review: ALL THE COLOURS OF DARKNESS, Peter Robinson

Hodder & Stoughton,2008
ISBN 978-0-340-83693-4
407 pages

A group of children playing in the woods in the Yorkshire Dales discovers a man's body hanging from a tree. Mark Hardcastle, theatre set designer, appears to have committed suicide after killing his lover Laurence Silbert.

DI Annie Cabbot's investigation is complicated by the fact that her boss DCI Alan Banks is having a weekend in London with his girlfriend, and that the Chief Constable, a friend of Silbert's, wants unsavoury details hushed up. Banks is not happy when Superintendent Gervaise insists he is called back early. However when he begins to uncover details, Gervaise is far from happy about the direction the investigation is taking.

The Chief Constable, in response to pressure from higher up, insists that the investigation be wrapped up quickly. Banks however becomes convinced that he is under observation, that there is more to know about Silbert, and, as Gervaise knows, telling him to stop just ensures he will ignore orders. She tells Banks to resume his holidays, and to leave the final details to Annie Cabbot. Which of course he can't do.

It occurred to me, as I read on, that the plot line of the high level detective coming under threat because he won't abandon an investigation is wearing a bit thin. We've seen it used in many other novels - Frost, Harry Hole, and Kurt Wallander, just to name a few that come quickly to mind. But somehow for me that doesn't really detract from the fine plotting in this novel. Banks eventually comes up with a plausible explanation for the murder/suicide after a couple of stuttering and implausible theories. Annie Cabbot, as usual, is drawn in by the charisma of her boss, and puts her career, and her life, on the line.

It always amazes me that Robinson, after all a Canadian, writes such an English novel. And what is it about Yorkshire? Robinson novels are set largely in Yorkshire and London, Reginald Hill's Dalziel & Pascoe are set in Yorkshire. And also, Wingfield's novels are set nearby in the Midlands.Yorkshire must rival Midsomer for murder capital of the world!

ALL THE COLOURS OF DARKNESS seems even more littered than usual with references to Banks' musical taste, and even with references to other writers and their novels. Here are the songs mentioned.

A very acceptable read. My rating: 4.6

Other reviews to check:

• Books to the Ceiling "found it in some degree wanting."

ALL THE COLOURS OF DARKNESS was longlisted for the 2010 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.
See also my review of  FRIEND OF THE DEVIL

Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks site.

Mini-review: PAST REASON HATED, Peter Robinson

Published 1991, winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel 1992, 5th in the Inspector Banks series.

Publisher's Blurb
It should have been a cosy scene - log fire, sheepskin rug, Vivaldi on the stereo, Christmas lights and tree. But appearances can be deceptive. For Caroline Hartley, lying quietly on the couch, has been brutally murdered. Inspector Alan Banks is called to the grim scene. And he soon has more suspects than he ever imagined. As he delves into her past, he realises that for Caroline, secrecy was a way of life, and her death is no different. His ensuing investigation is full of hidden passions and desperate violence...

My take:
Susan Gay, newly appointed Detective Constable at Eastvale, her second day on the job in D.I. Bank's team, is called to a murder scene. It is 22 December, Christmas is approaching, and the rest of the team are at D.S. Hatchley's wedding celebrations. The victim Caroline Hartley lies stretched out on the lounge in front of the fire, with multiple stab wounds in her throat and chest, and blood drenching her whole body. She is part of the cast of a local dramatic production of Twelfth Night, and right from the beginning it seems as if there are far too many suspects.

My rating 4.7

Peter Robinson's site

Inspector Banks series (Fantastic Fiction's list)
1. Gallows View (1987)
2. A Dedicated Man (1988)
3. A Necessary End (1989)
4. The Hanging Valley (1989)
5. Past Reason Hated (1991)
6. Wednesday's Child (1992)
7. Dry Bones That Dream (1994) aka Final Account
8. Innocent Graves (1996)
9. Dead Right (1997) aka Blood at the Root
10. In a Dry Season (1999)
11. Cold Is the Grave (2000)
12. Aftermath (2001)
13. The Summer That Never Was (2003) aka Close to Home
14. Playing with Fire (2004)
15. Strange Affair (2005)
16. Piece of My Heart (2006)
17. Friend of the Devil (2007)
18. All the Colours of Darkness (2008)

Review: FRIEND OF THE DEVIL, Peter Robinson

Hodder & Stoughton, 2007, ISBN 978-0-340-83690-3, 424 pages

Sunday morning brings with it the discovery of two murders, both women, one in a seedier part of the town of Eastvale, and the other in a wheelchair on a headland near Whitby.
DCI Alan Banks attends the Eastvale crime scene while his former colleague DI Annie Cabbot, on loan to Eastern Area, takes on the wheelchair murder.

The body of nineteen year old Hayley Daniels is discovered in the storeroom of a leather good shop in the Maze. CCTV shows Hayley entering the Maze on her own, so was her murderer waiting for her?

The body in the wheelchair, on the other hand, is that of a quadraplegic. Her murderer appears to have collected her from the care facility where she has been living, taken her to the headland, and slit her throat. Annie Cabbot's search for clues to the woman's background and identity unearths a connection to an old case that both she and Banks were involved in.

Annie is not handling her current situation at all well. She misses working with Banks and her search for personal reward is leading her down paths fraught with disaster. From the moment it is revealed that Banks and Cabbot are working apart, it is inevitable that their paths will cross. This does give THE FRIEND OF THE DEVIL a certain sense of predictability, although the nature of their relationship when they meet is problematic for both Banks and Cabbot. I enjoyed the expansion of the other characters including Detective Superintendent Catherine Gervaise, DS Kevin Templeton, and DC Winsome Jackman. Jackman in particular acts as a bridge between the investigations of Banks and Cabbot.

THE FRIEND OF THE DEVIL is the 17th Inspector Banks novel, and Robinson shows that he still has the capacity to surprise even while plumbing new depths in the Banks/Cabbot relationship. Annie Cabbot first appeared in 1999 IN A DRY SEASON, eight books before FRIEND OF THE DEVIL. Through her, Robinson has been exploring the parameters of successful detective partnerships. It is an issue which other authors like Ruth Rendell, Reginald Hill, and Colin Dexter avoided with their male duos. The relationship between Banks and Cabbot is not that of two equals: he after all is the "boss", and he is also quite a bit older than her. Robinson asks questions about whether the relationship between male and female detective duos needs to be emotional and whether it can ever be sexual. The changing landscape of the Banks/Cabbot relationship is part of what keeps fans coming back to this series.

My rating: 4.3

Other references in my blog to Peter Robinson

Peter Robinson's site

• All the Colours of Darkness - 2008
• Friend Of The Devil - 2007/2008
• Piece Of My Heart - 2006
• Strange Affair - 2005
• Playing With Fire - 2004
• The Summer That Never Was - 2003 (US title, Close to Home)
• Aftermath - 2001
• Cold is the Grave - 2000
• In a Dry Season - 1999
• Not Safe After Dark - 1998
• Dead Right - 1997 (US title, Blood at the Root)
• Innocent Graves - 1996
• No Cure For Love - 1995 [Non-series book]
• Dry Bones That Dream - 1994 (US title, Final Account)
• Wednesday’s Child - 1992
• Past Reason Hated - 1992
• Caedmon’s Song - 1990 (US title, The First Cut) [Non-series book]
• The Hanging Valley - 1989
• A Necessary End - 1989
• A Dedicated Man - 1988
• Gallows View - 1987

Favourite Author, Peter Robinson

Peter Robinson's 16th novel in the Inspector Banks series, PIECE OF MY HEART, is one of the nominations for the 2008 Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award, which will be presented at the Harrogate festival, at which Peter will be present.

Fantastic Fiction has a list of all 18 titles published over the last 21 years. I haven't read them all by any means. FRIEND OF THE DEVIL (2007) is ensconced on Mt. TBR, and the 18th ALL THE COLOURS OF DARKNESS is due out later this year.

Most people don't realise that Peter Robinson is in fact Canadian - his books come over, not just in setting but also in style, as British police procedurals.

If you want to look at Peter's own website, you have a choice of two, both called, confusingly, "Peter Robinson's Official Website". The Inspector Banks site is really a blog and has an RSS feed. There is a list of Peter's public appearances. It also told me that Peter won the Crimespree award for 2007 the best on-going series. The other site is a splashier one, divided in two: a US site and a Canadian one, contains comprehensive information on his last 7 novels, and interviews which reveal more about him.

Anyway my own little database contains mini-reviews of 4 of his novels that I have read in the last 40 months. You'll see that all have rated very highly.

PAST REASON HATED (1991) My rating: 4.7
Susan Gay, newly appointed Detective Constable at Eastvale, her second day on the job in D.I. Bank's team, is called to a murder scene. It is 22 December, Christmas is approaching, and the rest of the team are at D.S. Hatchley's wedding celebrations. The victim Caroline Hartley lies stretched out on the lounge in front of the fire, with multiple stab wounds in her throat and chest, and blood drenching her whole body. She is part of the cast of a local dramatic production of Twelfth Night, and right from the beginning it seems as if there are far too many suspects.

INNOCENT GRAVES (1997) My rating: 4.6
The worst that can possibly happen...has.
A beautiful child is dead -- defiled and murdered in a lonely graveyard on a fog-shrouded evening. It is the sort of horrific crime Chief Inspector Alan Banks fled the city to escape. But the slaying of a bright and lovely teenager from a wealthy, respected family is not the end of a nightmare. Lies, dark secrets, unholy accusations, and hints of sexual depravity swirl around this abomination like leaves in an autumn wind, leading to a shattering travesty of justice that will brutally divide a devastated community with suspicion and hatred. But Banks must remain vigilant in his hunt -- because when the devil is left free to pursue his terrible calling, more blood will surely flow.

STRANGE AFFAIR (2005) My rating: 5.0
On a warm summer night, an attractive woman hurtles north in a blue Peugeot with a hastily scrawled address in her pocket, while, back in London, a desperate man leaves an urgent late-night phone message on his brother's answering machine. By sunrise the next morning, the woman is found inside her car along an otherwise peaceful country lane, shot, execution-style, through the head.
Welcome to the idyllic Yorkshire Dales, where Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot arrives on the scene and discovers, to her surprise, a slip of paper in the dead woman's pocket that bears the name of her colleague and erstwhile lover, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks. Banks, meanwhile -- already haunted and withdrawn after nearly dying in the fire that destroyed his home -- has gone missing just when he's needed most, and has left plenty of questions behind.

PIECE OF MY HEART (2006) My rating: 4.7
An interesting structure this one: two investigations in one. In 1969 as organisers cleaned up after Yorkshire's biggest rock festival they discovered that an abandoned sleeping bag contains the body of a young woman who has been murdered. The victim has links to one of the bands, the Mad Hatters, that performed at the festival. And now in the present, Detective Inspector Banks is involved in investigating the murder of a journalist writing an article on the Mad Hatters. The novel pursues the two investigations and gradually they begin to converge..