Excellent detective drama
|
I've only recently discovered Peter Robinson and after reading Friend of the Devil I was impressed enough to buy all the Inspector Banks books. I have chosen to review this one, the first in what is shaping up to be an excellent series (I haven't read them all yet).
For me, the finest aspect of this novel is that it never strays from what happens in real life and so maintains credibility. In many detective novels half the characters end up dead - how often does this really happen? Here we have a Peeping Tom, several burglaries, a rape and a single murder - fairly standard fare for the average CID, I imagine, yet it never becomes boring. A good writer can keep the reader hooked without artificial "cliffhanger" chapter endings, unlikely twists right out of left field and gore aplenty, and Peter Robinson does this as well as anyone. I read this in two sittings and would have completed it in one, but real life has an annoying habit of getting in the way.
Also to Robinson's credit is his characterisation. We have real people who speak for themselves, especially the main character DCI Alan Banks. I became rather tired of detectives who quote poetry, read Shakespeare and solve the Times crossword in four minutes as a way of making them "real". From my experience of the police, most of them wouldn't know Keats from Ovid and would struggle with the quick crossword in the Sun. True, Banks has an interest in opera - something which endeared me to him as I love opera - but it's made plain that his hobbies are somewhat short-lived and he's not some sort of artistic genius who somehow ended up in the police force. I do agree with the reviewer who said that the feminist character comes over as stereotypical, but don't forget that the book was written in 1987 when there was no shortage of such people.
The only thing that's dated is the frequent reference to characters lighting up in pubs - but that's hardly Peter Robinson's fault as he couldn't have predicted today's meddlesome nanny state!
I would strongly recommend this and the series to anyone who likes good detective stories. Enjoy!
|
|
Regional Detective
|
|
The thing about the Inspector Banks' novels is that they are nothing you haven't read before. You know the score right from the beginning - ageing detective with great track record, moves to a new area, slightly troubled home life, likes a drink but he's a great guy. For all that though, there is something about Inspector Banks that is interesting and Gallow's View, the first in the series, moves at a good pace. It's still a page-turner and the characters and plot are believable. I will read more of these, and I will enjoy reading them, because the quality of writing and storytelling is solid and enjoyable.
|
|
Soft-boiled thriller
|
I had expected something more hardhitting, given the reviews I'd read on Amazon and on the jacket, but this was a distinctly soft-boiled thriller in my opinion. It felt pedestrian in pace and suffers from very poor, stagey dialogue. Characters were one dimensional and the overall flavour was of an updated episode of "Heartbeat".
Only in the last thirty pages did I wonder how it was going to end - that I got that far was really more surprising than the ending itself. Very much a first novel - I don't think I'll try another from Robinson if this is typical of his work.
|
|
|
The First Inspector Banks Book
|
Peter Robinson grew up in Yorkshire, and is the author of a number of previous novels featuring Inspector Banks. He is the winner of numerous awards in the United States, Britain and Canada, and in 2002 he won the CWA Dagger in the Library. As I also come from Leeds the background to his stories is something that I have experienced first hand and because of this I have a special affection for his books. However they would be first class crime fiction wherever they were based.
This is the first book in what has turned out to be an excellent series of crime novels, in fact I would go so far as to say that they are up there with the best of them.
There is a peeping tom frightening the women of Eastvale. On top of that two young hooligans are breaking into homes and causing mayhem and an elderly woman may or may not have been murdered. Inspector Banks is called upon to investigate these cases and soon realises that all the cases could be interlinked, but nothing is as simple as it seems for the Inspector.
|
|
Lunch in the Queens Arms anyone?
|
The author builds up the scene with care and the result is that both the town of Eastvale and it's occupants are very realistic. Although Eastvale itself is fictious, being a Yorkshire lass I enjoyed the descriptions of the dales and the factual places that I know.
The plot itself kept my interest throughout and all the crimes were plausible which makes a change as sometimes although I've enjoyed a novel, the crimes can occasionally be a bit far-fetched for the setting.
I was on tenterhooks as to whether DCI Banks would betray his wife with the female psychologist, and the climax of the two main crimes put the Inspector in a dilemma which was expertly done.
I shall definitely read more of Robinson's work.
|
|
|
United States | 
United Kingdom | 
Canada