In the Dark Places

June 22, 2015
In bestseller Robinson’s deftly plotted 22nd Inspector Banks novel (after 2014’s Children of the Revolution), the Yorkshire copper investigates the disappearance of a tractor belonging to gentleman farmer John Beddoes. There’s no reason to connect the theft to the mysterious bloodstain found at a nearby WWII-era airplane hangar, until Beddoes mentions his neighbor’s allegedly ne’er-do-well son, a young man named Michael Lane, who apparently runs with the wrong crowd. When Banks and Det. Insp. Annie Cabot look into Michael’s past, they find that he’s mates with Morgan Spencer, a known tough who soon turns up dead. Morgan’s murder leads the team to local abattoirs—scenes that vegetarian readers may want to skip—as Bank tries to tie all the disparate pieces together. Robinson is equally adept at making murder on a small scale as compelling as any serial killer hunt, and Banks continues to charm. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency.

June 1, 2015

DCI Alan Banks's team is miffed at having been sent to investigate a stolen tractor, albeit such an expensive one that the theft is considered a major crime. It's not easy to steal a piece of equipment that size, and the detectives believe that the theft may be tied to a major smuggling operation. Suspicion falls on a neighbor's troubled son, as the young man and a friend have disappeared. Robinson's latest mystery (after Children of the Revolution) finds the team investigating farmers and employees of the local slaughterhouse, offering the author an opportunity to provide abundant descriptions of the unsavory side of the meat industry. VERDICT The focus here is less on Banks and more on the no-nonsense DS Winsome Jackman, her background, and the possibility of a romance. The series remains absorbing, and procedural fans will be satisfied. Robinson's portrayal of the realities of slaughterhouses will, no doubt, inspire new commitments to vegetarianism. [See Prepub Alert, 2/23/15.]--Linda Oliver, MLIS, Colorado Springs

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2015

A fire-gutted van. An odd bloodstain in an abandoned airport hangar. Those are the only clues Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks has when two young men disappear in separate cases. Then a truck slides off the road and a long-dead corpse is found along with the freshly killed driver, leading the inspector in a whole new direction. Continuing a New York Times best-selling series that's won Times Notable Book, PW Best Book, and People Page Turner of the Week plaudits, plus multiple awards.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2015
A case no one in Eastvale HQ wants to work-a gentleman farmer's stolen tractor-leads to all the homicidal twists and turns beloved of Robinson's many fans. Returning from a holiday in Mexico, John and Patricia Beddoes find that someone's broken into their barn-child's play, really-and driven off a tractor worth 100,000. It may not sound like much to Eastvale CID, but Beddoes is worked up about it, and DI Annie Cabbot obligingly begins her inquiries with neighboring farmer Frank Lane, whose son, Michael, exactly the sort of tearaway Beddoes would suspect, has fortuitously vanished. So has his ne'er-do-well mate Morgan Spencer, who's soon linked to a killing in a disused airline hanger. Several pieces of the puzzle come together with a bang when an accident sends Caleb Ross' delivery van hurtling over a cliff and a search discloses the remains of Morgan Spencer, neatly chopped and bagged, among the parcels of dead animals headed for a meat-packing plant. Where did Spencer meet his end, at whose hand, and why? DCI Alan Banks, returning from his own holiday, is nominally in charge of the inquiry, but the mystery this time has so many strands and so many players, some of them quite memorable, that it requires the entire Eastvale team, with a particularly strong performance from DS Winsome Jackman, to chase down every complication. Too diffuse in both its crimes and its coppers to rank among Robinson's finest work (Children of the Revolution, 2014, etc.). But if malfeasance in Yorkshire is what you crave, you won't hesitate, and you won't go wrong.

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May 1, 2015
A tractor is stolen from a gentleman farmer's barn. Members of the North Yorkshire CID carp about having to process such a small crime. At about the same time, a dog walker, whose dog has slipped into an old hangar on an abandoned airfield, discovers what seems to be a fresh bloodstain. In this, the twenty-second novel in Robinson's Inspector Banks series, these two incidents are traces of a much larger organized-crime conspiracy. Detective Chief Inspector Banks and his sidekick and former girlfriend, Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot, sip their way through countless cups of tea as they question anyone with local knowledge (whether or not tea is offered by the person being questioned is significant in Banks' world). Two suspects in the tractor case go missing, then one is found brutally murdered. Robinson's latest takes a good while to get started but steadily builds to some very frightening revelations and a hold-your-breath climax. As usual, the relationships between Banks and his crew and the fascinating way that procedure and forensics are used make for a solid read. Robinson belongs on any P. D. James' fan's must-read list.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)