Author:Peter Robinson
This is, almost unbelievably, the twenty seventh Alan Banks book, featuring the music loving police officer and his usual team. It is a novel that can be read as a stand-alone work, but it works far better if you’ve read at least some of the previous stories so you know the characters and their back stories and relationships, not to mention the plot and how it’s reached the point from where this tale picks up. In summary, we have a gruesome double murder with apparent links to the Albanian mafia, the rape of a young woman and a kidnapping of one of Banks’ close friends. It soon becomes apparent that the three investigations are interlinked, with a couple of clever plot twists at the denouement. This is a cleverly put together crime novel, which fans of the genre and of course of this series will undoubtedly enjoy. It ends though on quite a downbeat note, which makes one wonder what plans the author has for the future of this long running series.
Length of Read:Medium
Might appeal to people who enjoyed…
Police procedurals, Peter James and the like.
One thing you’ve learned
I always thought the original novels were far superior to the rather insipid TV adaptations of a few years back.
Freddy Steady says
Thanks Bargey…I do like this series and yes the book is better than the tv version…usually is!
Sitheref2409 says
Shetland, I think, an honorable exception to that rule.
And probably Morse.
And Inspector Lynley. Elizabeth George can do great plots, but she cannot write dialogue to save herself; she makes George Lucas look like a dialogue genius.
stevieblunder says
Read most of the books, and really enjoyed them, but find Stephen Tompkinson in the tv version irritating, trying to play the tough cop reminded me of the line Dennis Healey used to describe Geoffery Howe ” Being savaged by a dead sheep”.
Moose the Mooche says
He’s a very decent actor but he’s ruined his career with that crap series.
Jaygee says
While will end up getting this (hey, I’ve got all the others), felt the last few Banks’ books were a bit underwhelming compared to what’s gone before
Only seen one episode of the TV series, which was as Moose says was pants. Adaptations of cherished police procedural novels usually are – cf the two goes TV has had at Rebus. John Hannah was way too young for the role, although it has to be said he was apparently dragooned into doing it as he owned the rights. While a first rate character actor, Rebus 2.0 was just one grizzled, world-waary cop role too many for Ken Scott.
Although have no high hopes for the series, they’ve now filmed some of Peter James “Dead” books with the usually excellent John Simm as Roy Grace. Starts tomorrow on ITV. Hope they manage to buck the trend
Bargepole says
I think they have only filmed two, the one being shown on Sunday and one to come later in the year. The early books in the Grace series were a good read, but it has noticeably tailed off in the latest instalments.
dai says
Funny that in the current climate (see also Men and Women thread), we can read stuff like this for fun.
“gruesome double murder with apparent links to the Albanian mafia, the rape of a young woman and a kidnapping of one of Banks’ close friends.”
Not saying it causes violence but it is funny the things we enjoy to read that are completely abhorrent in real life.
Jaygee says
What’s even odder is that starting with giants of the genre such as Agatha Christie and Patricia HIghsmith and continuing through 70s best-sellers like Ruth Rendell, PD James and right up to present day authors like Val McDermid and Belinda Bauer, the best crime writers are very often women.
Moose the Mooche says
Private Eye have got this thing about modern TV dramas being particularly pervy about the murders of young women. I don’t watch enough of them to notice, but I do know that Agatha was fairly democratic when it came to victims – anybody of any type could cop it.
dai says
Most American detective series episodes seem to begin with an attractive, naked young woman on a slab.
mikethep says
Was watching a movie the other day that warned me that it contained nudity. Turned out all the nudity was displayed by murdered women.
Jaygee says
Interesting piece in the most recent Times Crime Newsletter about this very issue.
In 2018, screenwriter Bridget Lawless introduced the £2,000 Staunch Prize for thrillers in “which no woman (was) sexually exploited, beaten, stalked, raped or murdered.”
Perhaps surprisingly, some of the – um – staunchest critics of the prize have been women writers.
Val McDermid said said: “As long as men commit appalling acts of misogyny and violence, I will write about it so that it does not go unnoticed. To impose a blanket ban . . . seems to me to be self-defeating.”
Theakston’s Old Peculiar crime novel of the year winner Sarah Hilary, tweeted: “Surely better to reward the sensitive and compassionate treatment of a difficult but prevalent reality.” She labelled the prize, which closes for entries on July 15, “the least feminist thing ever”.
Another, Sophie Hannah, argued that the prize “makes female writers who have experienced violence feel that they might be at fault for writing about it”.
Junior Wells says
…but it’s gettin late
dai says
As I was saying …
(TV rather than books though)
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/mar/18/from-line-of-duty-to-the-fall-why-cant-tv-shows-stop-killing-women