Review: Close To Home

You know, sometimes it's just a pleasure to sit back and read a book knowing that it's going to be good.

Ever since IN A DRY SEASON hit stands almost 4 years ago, Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series has maintained a consistently high level. I thought he couldn't improve much from that book, but along came COLD IS THE GRAVE, and then even more stunningly, AFTERMATH.

So my expectations were naturally high, but Robinson came through once again, and then some.

Recent events, so to speak, have taken their toll on DCI Alan Banks. Thus, a sojourn to Greece, where the only daily requirements include getting a nice tan and relaxing on the beaches. But idylls never last, and when Banks reads in a two-day-old newspaper that the bones of his childhood friend, Graham Marshall, have been discovered and identified, Banks goes back to Yorkshire to try to make sense of the news, and of the secret he's kept for more than 35 years. Even the most forthright of policemen have some explaining to do.

Meanwhile, back in Eastvale, a young teenager has gone missing, possibly kidnapped for ransom. He's Luke Armitage, stepson of a football star, son of a fashion model and whose biological father, a noted folk-rock singer, committed suicide more than a decade ago. DI Annie Cabbot has the case and she doesn't like anything at all about it, especially with shocking discoveries yet to be made...

The cases aren't connected yet there are parallells--both boys were around the same age, keeping secrets and in the end, way over their heads. Investigations are stymied, misdirections abound, but in the end, Banks, Cabbot, and DI Michelle Hart solve the cases, even if the conclusions are less than satisfactory.

Robinson writes like a dream. I've said this before but he really gets the awkwardness that happens between men and women. Banks and Cabbot are still trying to navigate their relationship, veering towards the strictly professional, while DI Hart proves a complicated woman, although more than Banks's match. I'm looking forward to seeing how each relationship progresses, pulling forward and back.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Sarah - RAM

Book Review: Close To Home