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Peter Robinson - image from The Guardian The body of Inspector Alan Banks’ childhood friend, Graham Marshall, is discovered decades after he was killed. Banks returns from a Greek vacation to offer assistance. He learns much about the unseen elements of the world in which he was raised, including tha......more

The discovery of the remains of a childhood friend of Banks, who disappeared when they were in their early teens, makes the inspector cut his Greek vacation short. No more has he gotten home, when he needs to assist Annie Cabbott with a very recent disappearance of another young boy. What looked str......more

The last few DCI Banks novels that I've read have all been excellent, so it was inevitable that the trend couldn't continue. Instalment 13 in the series is till quite entertaining, but it feels more like a crime novel written by the numbers. Neil Pearson still reads the story to his usual high standa......more

Another very good parallel criminal investigation with DCI Banks. A cold case involving Banks’s missing childhood friend Graham Marshall and the current missing child case of Luke Armstrong converge in this instalment. There is little personal progression of his character in this book but a lot of ch......more

I've read the series in order and have always enjoyed the journey; this time not so much. The premise was interesting enough, with two parallel investigations of murders decades apart, but the storytelling felt stale to me this time around. Looking forward to the 14th installment in the Inspector Ban......more