Books by Peter Robinson
The First Cut: A Novel of Suspense
Published in the UK as Caedmon’s Song, this is a gripping standalone thriller from New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson.
On a balmy June night, Kirsten, a young university student, is strolling home through a silent moonlit park when she is viciously attacked.
When she awakens in the hospital, she has no recollection of that brutal night. But then slowly, painfully, details reveal themselves—dreams of two figures, one white and one black, hovering over her; snatches of a strange and haunting song; the unfamiliar texture of a rough and deadly hand . . .
In another part of the country, Martha Browne arrives in a Yorkshire seaside town, posing as an author doing research for a book. But her research is of a particularly macabre variety. Who is she hunting with such deadly determination? And why?
The First Cut is a vivid and compelling psychological thriller, from the author of the critically acclaimed Inspector Banks series.
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Playing with Fire (Inspector Banks Novels, 14)
Chief Inspector Alan Banks finds himself up against a diabolical arsonist in this electrifying novel of suspense from New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson.
In the early hours of the morning, a man reports a fire on two old canal boats. One of the firefighters notices the use of accelerant at the scene and calls the police, but by the time Inspector Banks arrives, the fire brigade have put out the flames and only the smoldering wreckage remains. A body has been found on each barge, and all the evidence points towards a deliberate arson attack.
One of the victims is Tina, a young girl with a drug addiction and a terrible past who had been living with her boyfriend Mark. The other is Tom, an artist who had been living alone. Now, with little evidence to go on and a number of possible suspects, including Tina's boyfriend, the local 'lock-keeper' who reported the fire, and Tina's own father, Banks must begin to delve into the lives of the victims, and to discover who could have wanted them out of the way forever...
From the master of psychological suspense, Peter Robinson, comes a mind-bending thriller of secrets and murder.
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Final Account
“Impressive. . . . A dark, unsettling story.”—New York Times Book Review
There’s more than blood and bone beneath the skin. . . .
The victim, a nondescript number cruncher, was murdered just yards away from his wife and daughter. And the crime scene is one that could chill the blood of even the most seasoned police officer.
But the strange revelations about an ordinary accountant’s extraordinary secret life are what truly mystify Chief Inspector Alan Banks. Lies breed further deceptions and blood begets blood . . . and all the while a killer watches, hidden in plain sight.
Twisty, suspenseful, and thoroughly riveting, Final Account is one of Peter Robinson’s best thrillers.
“Inspector Banks is a man for all seasons.”—Michael Connelly
“Peter Robinson is a master.”—Tess Gerritsen
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How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life
As a young speechwriter in the Reagan White House, Peter Robinson was responsible for the celebrated "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" speech. He was also one of a core group of writers who became informal experts on Reagan -- watching his every move, absorbing not just his political positions, but his personality, manner, and the way he carried himself. In How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life, Robinson draws on journal entries from his days at the White House, as well as interviews with those who knew the president best, to reveal ten life lessons he learned from the fortieth president -- a great yet ordinary man who touched the individuals around him as surely as he did his millions of admirers around the world.
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Playing with Fire: A Novel of Suspense (Inspector Banks Novels, 14)
Chief Inspector Alan Banks finds himself up against a diabolical arsonist in this electrifying novel of suspense from New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson.
In the early hours of the morning, a man reports a fire on two old canal boats. One of the firefighters notices the use of accelerant at the scene and calls the police, but by the time Inspector Banks arrives, the fire brigade have put out the flames and only the smoldering wreckage remains. A body has been found on each barge, and all the evidence points towards a deliberate arson attack.
One of the victims is Tina, a young girl with a drug addiction and a terrible past who had been living with her boyfriend Mark. The other is Tom, an artist who had been living alone. Now, with little evidence to go on and a number of possible suspects, including Tina's boyfriend, the local 'lock-keeper' who reported the fire, and Tina's own father, Banks must begin to delve into the lives of the victims, and to discover who could have wanted them out of the way forever...
From the master of psychological suspense, Peter Robinson, comes a mind-bending thriller of secrets and murder.
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Strange Affair (Inspector Banks Novels)
Chief Inspector Alan Banks faces his most personal case from New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson.
A bullet to the brain abruptly halted a terrified young woman's desperate flight. In her pocket is the name of a policeman whose own life was brutally invaded, mercilessly shaken, and very nearly erased—a policeman who has since gone missing.
The dead woman in the car had been running from something—but she didn't run far or fast enough. Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot would like to question the man the victim was apparently racing to meet: Annie's superior—and former lover—Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks. But Banks has vanished into the anonymous chaos of the city, drawn into a mad whirl of greed, inhumanity, and death, by a frantic phone call from the brother he no longer knows. Banks is unaware that the threads connecting a sinister kidnapping with a savage slaying are as thick as rope . . . and long enough for a haunted and broken rogue cop to hang himself.
One of his most, clever, twisting thrillers, Strange Affair attests once again why readers love and can’t get enough of Peter Robinson’s novels of suspense.
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Piece of My Heart (Inspector Banks Novels)
New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson’s Chief Inspector Alan Banks must turn to a murder committed in the 1960s in order to solve a present-day homicide as he races to uncover their common link.
1969 . . . In an era of free love and rebellion, a dead body is discovered among the detritus of a recently concluded rock festival—a beautiful young woman stabbed so savagely through the chest that a piece of her heart was sliced off.
Now . . . A freelance journalist, a stranger to the region, is savagely bludgeoned to death in a shocking act of violence with no apparent motive.
Two murders separated by four decades are investigated by two very different but equally haunted investigators—one, a casualty of war unable to come to terms with a confusing new world; the other, a rogue policeman harboring ghosts of his own. But the truth behind a grisly present-day slaying may somehow be hidden in the amplified, drug-induced fog of a notorious past, propelling Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks into the darkest shadows of the peace, love, and rock 'n' roll generation.
A complex, multi-layered thriller, Piece of My Heart once again attests to Peter Robinson’s incomparable storytelling genius.
“Keeps you turning the pages into the night.… [Chief Inspector Banks is] good company.”—New York Times Book Review
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Friend of the Devil (Inspector Banks Novels)
Two murders . . . two towns . . .
A woman sits in a wheelchair perched on a cliff high above the sea, her throat slit from ear to ear . . .
In a maze of narrow alleys behind a market square, a teenaged girl has been murdered after a night of drunken revelries with her friends.
A pair of horrific crimes, the first—a seemingly senseless murder of a helpless paraplegic—falls to Inspector Annie Cabbot, on loan to a local police department. The terrible death of young Hayley Daniels becomes Chief Inspector Alan Banks's investigation.
But shattering revelations threaten to awaken the slumbering demons of earlier, darker times, and more blood is in the offing when the two cases brutally and unexpectedly collide.
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Friend of the Devil (Inspector Banks Novels)
Chief Inspector Alan Banks and Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot must work together to solve two chilling crimes in a stunning new novel by New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson
One morning in March, on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea, a woman named Karen Drew is found in her wheelchair with her throat slit. Back in Eastvale on that same morning, in a tangle of narrow alleys behind a market square, the body of Hayley Daniels is found raped and strangled.
Two murders . . . two towns . . .
On loan to a sister precinct, Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot draws the first case. Karen Drew seems to have lived a quiet and nearly invisible life for the past seven years. Try as she might, Annie turns up nothing in the woman's past that might have prompted someone to wheel her out to the sea and to her death.
Meanwhile, in the Hayley Daniels murder, Chief Inspector Alan Banks has suspects galore. Everywhere she went, the nineteen-year-old student attracted attention. Anyone could have followed her on the night she was out drinking with friends, making sure she never made it back home.
Then a breakthrough spins Annie's case in a shocking and surprising new direction, straight toward Banks. Coincidence? Not in Eastvale. Banks and Annie are searching for two killers who might strike again at any moment and with bloody fury.
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Strange Affair: A Novel of Suspense (Inspector Banks Mysteries)
Chief Inspector Alan Banks faces his most personal case from New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson.
A bullet to the brain abruptly halted a terrified young woman's desperate flight. In her pocket is the name of a policeman whose own life was brutally invaded, mercilessly shaken, and very nearly erased—a policeman who has since gone missing.
The dead woman in the car had been running from something—but she didn't run far or fast enough. Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot would like to question the man the victim was apparently racing to meet: Annie's superior—and former lover—Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks. But Banks has vanished into the anonymous chaos of the city, drawn into a mad whirl of greed, inhumanity, and death, by a frantic phone call from the brother he no longer knows. Banks is unaware that the threads connecting a sinister kidnapping with a savage slaying are as thick as rope . . . and long enough for a haunted and broken rogue cop to hang himself.
One of his most, clever, twisting thrillers, Strange Affair attests once again why readers love and can’t get enough of Peter Robinson’s novels of suspense.
Copies
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Piece of My Heart: A Novel of Suspense (Inspector Banks Novels)
New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson’s Chief Inspector Alan Banks must turn to a murder committed in the 1960s in order to solve a present-day homicide as he races to uncover their common link.
1969 . . . In an era of free love and rebellion, a dead body is discovered among the detritus of a recently concluded rock festival—a beautiful young woman stabbed so savagely through the chest that a piece of her heart was sliced off.
Now . . . A freelance journalist, a stranger to the region, is savagely bludgeoned to death in a shocking act of violence with no apparent motive.
Two murders separated by four decades are investigated by two very different but equally haunted investigators—one, a casualty of war unable to come to terms with a confusing new world; the other, a rogue policeman harboring ghosts of his own. But the truth behind a grisly present-day slaying may somehow be hidden in the amplified, drug-induced fog of a notorious past, propelling Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks into the darkest shadows of the peace, love, and rock 'n' roll generation.
A complex, multi-layered thriller, Piece of My Heart once again attests to Peter Robinson’s incomparable storytelling genius.
“Keeps you turning the pages into the night.… [Chief Inspector Banks is] good company.”—New York Times Book Review
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Playing with Fire: A Novel of Suspense (Alan Banks Series)
Investigating a dual arson case that has claimed three lives on an English canal, Detective Inspector Banks teams up with fellow investigator Annie Cabot and discovers that the victims are linked to an art forgery operation. 50,000 first printing.
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Like a Charm: A Novel in Voices
by Lee Child, Karin Slaughter, Laura Lippman, Peter Robinson, Mark Billingham, Denise Mina, Lynda La Plante, Jerrilyn Farmer, Peter Moore Smith
Desire leaves a man destroyed ... A young girl's curiosity reveals secrets better left hidden ... Jealousy drives a woman mad ... An obsession with numbers precipitates a deadly revenge ... Ambition leads to a curious exchange ... An uncanny likeness changes two lives forever ... The hand of fate lies buried in the past ...
An unforgettable novel in sixteen parts by some of the most prestigious crime writers working today.
One bracelet, sixteen charms ...
From nineteenth-century Georgia, where the bracelet is forged in fire, to wartime Leeds, the seedy underside of London's Soho, a Manhattan cab, the frozen cliffs of Nova Scotia, and back to Georgia, each story takes the reader on a gripping journey of murder, betrayal, and intrigue.
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Close to Home: A Novel of Suspense (Inspector Banks Novels, 13)
The past returns to haunt Chief Inspector Alan Banks in this harrowing novel of suspense from New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson.
There are human bones, buried in an open field, the remains of a lost teenaged boy whose disappearance devastated a community more than thirty-five-years ago…and scarred a guilt-ridden friend forever…
A long-hidden horror has been unearthed, dragging a tormented policeman into a past he could never truly forget no matter how desperately he tried. A heinous crime that occurred too close to home still has its grip on Chief Inspector Alan Banks—and it’s leading him into a dark place where evil still dwells. Because the secrets that doomed young Graham Marshall back in 1965 remain alive and lethal, and disturbing them could cost Banks much more than he ever imagined.
Master of suspense Peter Robinson once again delves into the human psyche to reveal what leads some to commit murder in this compelling, unforgettable thriller.
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DEDICATED MAN (Inspector Banks Novels, 2)
New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Peter Robinson delivers a compelling and chilling story of evil in the most unexpected places—perfect for fans of Jo Nesbo and Ian Rankin.
A dedicated man is dead in the wild outdoors—a former university professor, wealthy historian and archaeologist who loved his adopted village. It is a particularly heinous slaying, considering the esteem in which the victim, Harry Steadman, was held by his neighbors and colleagues—by everyone, it seems, except the one person who bludgeoned the life out of the respected scholar and left him half-buried in a farmer's field.
Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks left the violence of London behind for what he hoped would be the peaceful life of a country policeman. But the brutality of Steadman's murder only reinforces one ugly, indisputable truth: Evil can flourish in even the most beautiful of settings. There are dangerous secrets hidden in the history of this remote community that have already led to one death. And Banks will have to plumb a dark and shocking local past to find his way to a killer before yesterday's sins cause more blood to be shed.
A Dedicated Man is a riveting, fascinating, and thoroughly thrilling novel of suspense.
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The Hanging Valley: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 4)
From New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Peter Robinson, a fascinating thriller—perfect for fans of Louise Penny and Elizabeth George—that leads Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks on a harrowing journey into a town’s sordid past where a diabolical killer lies in wait.
Visitors have long been drawn to the beauty and serenity of the Yorkshire countryside. Some never leave—like the hiker whose decomposing corpse is discovered in a wooded valley outside the tiny village of Swainshead.
It is the second such homicide to plague the region in recent years, and it is pulling investigating Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks into a dangerous mire of dark pasts, local power, and private shames. For a shocking truth and cold-blooded killer are waiting there…and Banks is determined to walk into a valley of death to expose them both.
An arresting, electrifying novel of suspense, The Hanging Valley will remain etched in readers’ minds.
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A Necessary End: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 3)
In the tradition of Ian Rankin and Elizabeth George, this masterful novel of suspense—from New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Peter Robinson—spins a story of professional jealousy that could result in more than one murder.
A peaceful demonstration in the normally quiet town of Eastvale ends with fifty arrests—and the brutal stabbing death of a young constable. But Chief Inspector Alan Banks fears there is worse violence in the offing. For CID Superintendent Richard Burgess has arrived from London to take charge of the investigation, fueled by professional outrage and volatile, long-simmering hatreds.
Almost immediately, Burgess descends with vengeful fury upon the members of a sixties-style commune—while Banks sifts through the rich Yorkshire soil around him, turning over the earthy, unsettling secrets of seemingly placid local lives. Crossing Burgess could cost the Chief Inspector his career. But the killing of a flawed Eastvale policeman is not the only murder that needs to be solved here. And if Banks doesn't unmask the true assassin, his superior's misguided obsession might well result in further bloodshed.
Peter Robinson once again explores the human psyche in a novel that demonstrates how our weaknesses can lead to deadly consequences.
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Innocent Graves: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 8)
In New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Peter Robinson’s brilliant thriller, Inspector Banks must solve the grisly murder of a beautiful teenage girl from a privileged family while uncovering the sordid lies that surround a village determined to keep its secrets hidden.
A body is discovered in a graveyard—above ground. It is the sort of horrific crime Chief Inspector Alan Banks fled the city to escape. But the murder of a bright teenager from a wealthy, respected family is not the end of the nightmare. Lies, dark secrets, and sinister clues swirl around this killing like leaves in an autumn wind, leading to a shattering travesty of justice that will divide a suspicious community. Yet Banks must remain vigilant in his hunt—because when the devil is left free to pursue his terrible calling, more blood will surely flow.
Electrifying and utterly addictive, Innocent Graves is one of Peter Robinson’s most chilling tales of suspense.
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Final Account: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 7)
New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Peter Robinson delivers one of his most chilling tales of suspense in which Inspector Banks must uncover the secret life of a seemingly ordinary man after his shocking murder.
There's more than blood and bone beneath the skin...
The victim, a nondescript "numbers cruncher," was murdered just yards away from his wife and daughter. And the crime scene is one that could chill the blood of even the most seasoned police officer.
But the strange revelations about an ordinary accountant's extraordinary secret life are what truly set Chief Inspector Alan Banks off—as lies breed further deceptions and blood begets blood, unleashing a policeman's dark passions...and a violent rage that, when freed, might be impossible to control.
Twisty, suspenseful, and thoroughly riveting, Final Account is one of Peter Robinson’s best thrillers.
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Past Reason Hated: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 5)
From New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Peter Robinson comes this gripping thriller—in the tradition of Louise Penny and Elizabeth George—set in a picturesque Yorkshire village during the upcoming Christmas season...but one of its residents will not be celebrating this holiday.
Chief Inspector Alan Banks knows that secrecy can sometimes prove fatal, and secrets were the driving force behind Caroline Hartley's life…and death.
She was a beautiful enigma, brutally stabbed in her own home three days prior to Christmas. Leaving her past behind for a forbidden love affair, she mystified more than a few. And now she is dead, clothed only in her unshared mysteries and her blood.
In this season of giving and forgiving, Banks is eager to absolve the innocent of their sins. But that must wait until the many facets of a perplexing puzzle are exposed and the dark circle of his investigation finally closes…and when a killer makes the next move.
Past Reason Hated is a relentlessly suspenseful novel that shows why Peter Robinson is one of the world’s most acclaimed and popular mystery writers.
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BLOOD ROOT (Inspector Banks Novels, 9)
New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Peter Robinson brings us a tantalizing tale of suspense in this classic Inspector Banks thriller.
In the long shadows of an alley a young man is murdered by an unknown assailant. The shattering echoes of his death will be felt throughout a small provincial community on the edge—because the victim was far from innocent, a youth whose sordid secret life was a tangle of bewildering contradictions. Now a dedicated policeman beset by his own tormenting demons must follow the leads into the darkest corners of the human mind in order to catch a killer.
Delving into the complicated human psyche, Blood at the Root showcases Peter Robinson’s singular talent in an exceptional novel of suspense that will linger in readers’ minds long past the final page.
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Cold Is the Grave: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 11)
Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks' life is shaken to the core when he is unexpectedly pulled into the investigation of a young girl's disappearance in this shattering suspense novel from the hand of a modern master.
“Full of twists and surprises....Robinson shows he has only begun to dig into the personality of his tenacious, thoughtful inspector.”—Chicago Tribune
When the nude photo of a teenage runaway shows up on a website, the girl's father turns to Detective Chief Inspector Alan banks for help. But these aren’t unusual circumstances, for the runaway is the daughter of a man who's determined to destroy the dedicated Yorkshire policeman's career and good name. Still, it’s a case that Banks—a father himself—dares not ignore as he follows its trail into teeming London. But when a series of gruesome murders follows soon after, Banks finds himself pulled into the past and private world of his most powerful enemy, Chief Constable Jimmy Riddle.
Peter Robinson is at the height of his storytelling skills in this twisting novel of suspense that proves one can never escape their pasts—especially when there are sordid secrets waiting to be revealed.
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Wednesday's Child: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 6)
In New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Peter Robinson’s heart-racing tale of suspense the case of a missing child is inextricably linked to that of the murder of a young man, sending Chief Inspector Alan Banks down a harrowing road to uncover the truth behind the crimes.
It was a crime of staggering inhumanity: a seven-year-old girl taken from her working class Yorkshire home by an attractive young couple posing as social workers. Chief Inspector Alan Banks feels certain little Gemma Scupham is dead, yet the motive for her kidnapping remains a mystery. No ransom is ever demanded, nor could Gemma's tortured, guilt-ridden mother afford to pay one.
And when the body of a young man is discovered in an abandoned mine, slain in a particularly brutal fashion, a disturbing perplexing case takes an even further sinister twist drawing Banks into the sordid depths of an evil more terrible and terrifying than anything the seasoned investigator has ever encountered.
Utterly suspenseful and compelling, Wednesday's Child will leave readers guessing and on the edge of their seats.
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STRANGE AFFAIR (Inspector Banks Novels, 15)
Chief Inspector Alan Banks faces his most personal case from New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson.
A bullet to the brain abruptly halted a terrified young woman's desperate flight. In her pocket is the name of a policeman whose own life was brutally invaded, mercilessly shaken, and very nearly erased—a policeman who has since gone missing.
The dead woman in the car had been running from something—but she didn't run far or fast enough. Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot would like to question the man the victim was apparently racing to meet: Annie's superior—and former lover—Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks. But Banks has vanished into the anonymous chaos of the city, drawn into a mad whirl of greed, inhumanity, and death, by a frantic phone call from the brother he no longer knows. Banks is unaware that the threads connecting a sinister kidnapping with a savage slaying are as thick as rope . . . and long enough for a haunted and broken rogue cop to hang himself.
One of his most, clever, twisting thrillers, Strange Affair attests once again why readers love and can’t get enough of Peter Robinson’s novels of suspense.
Copies
No copies available.
Close to Home (Inspector Banks Novels, 13)
The past returns to haunt Chief Inspector Alan Banks in this harrowing novel of suspense from New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson.
There are human bones, buried in an open field, the remains of a lost teenaged boy whose disappearance devastated a community more than thirty-five-years ago…and scarred a guilt-ridden friend forever…
A long-hidden horror has been unearthed, dragging a tormented policeman into a past he could never truly forget no matter how desperately he tried. A heinous crime that occurred too close to home still has its grip on Chief Inspector Alan Banks—and it’s leading him into a dark place where evil still dwells. Because the secrets that doomed young Graham Marshall back in 1965 remain alive and lethal, and disturbing them could cost Banks much more than he ever imagined. Master of suspense Peter Robinson once again delves into the human psyche to reveal what leads some to commit murder in this compelling, unforgettable thriller.
Copies
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In a Dry Season: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 10)
New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Peter Robinson delivers an unforgettable, compelling thriller of a lost village and the deadly secrets that are unearthed upon its discovery—secrets that include murder.
In the blistering, dry summer, the waters of Thornfield Reservoir have been depleted, revealing the ruins of the small Yorkshire village that lay at its bottom—ruins that house the unidentified bones of a murdered young woman. Detective Chief Inspector Banks faces a daunting challenge: he must unmask a sadistic killer who has escaped detection for half a century. For the dark secrets of Hobb's End continue to haunt the dedicated policeman, even though the town that bred them has died and its former residents have been scattered to far places—or even to their graves.
Demonstrating once again why Peter Robinson is a master of suspense, In a Dry Season is a powerful, insightful, and searing novel of past crimes and present evil.
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Piece of My Heart: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 16)
New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson’s Chief Inspector Alan Banks must turn to a murder committed in the 1960s in order to solve a present-day homicide as he races to uncover their common link.
1969 . . . In an era of free love and rebellion, a dead body is discovered among the detritus of a recently concluded rock festival—a beautiful young woman stabbed so savagely through the chest that a piece of her heart was sliced off.
Now . . . A freelance journalist, a stranger to the region, is savagely bludgeoned to death in a shocking act of violence with no apparent motive.
Two murders separated by four decades are investigated by two very different but equally haunted investigators—one, a casualty of war unable to come to terms with a confusing new world; the other, a rogue policeman harboring ghosts of his own. But the truth behind a grisly present-day slaying may somehow be hidden in the amplified, drug-induced fog of a notorious past, propelling Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks into the darkest shadows of the peace, love, and rock 'n' roll generation.
A complex, multi-layered thriller, Piece of My Heart once again attests to Peter Robinson’s incomparable storytelling genius.
“Keeps you turning the pages into the night.… [Chief Inspector Banks is] good company.”—New York Times Book Review
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BAD BOY (Inspector Banks Novels, 19)
From New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson comes this mesmerizing story-within-a-story—that will thrill his fans and bring him many new readers.
A distraught woman arrives at the Eastvale police station desperate to speak to Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks. But Banks is abroad, and the woman’s revelation of a loaded gun hidden in her daughter Erin’s bedroom leads to a shocking fatality when a police armed-response team breaks into her house. The fallout will have dark consequences for Banks and his partner, DI Annie Cabbot. It turns out that Erin’s best friend is Banks’ own daughter, Tracy . . . who was last seen in the company of the weapon’s actual owner, a very bad boy indeed.
Now that his child is on the run with a psychopath, Banks finds himself caught in a bloody tangle of betrayal and murder. But the rogue DCI is a bit of a bad boy himself, and he’ll freely risk his life and career in the cause of love—and vengeance. Thrilling, harrowing, and utterly compelling, Bad Boy showcases Peter Robinson’s masterful writing.
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All the Colors of Darkness (Inspector Banks Novels)
“The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are, simply put, the best series now on the market.”
—Stephen King
Peter Robinson is one of the very best in the crime fiction business—a teller of dark police tales who stands firmly in the bestseller ranks alongside Ian Rankin and Elizabeth George. In All the Colors of Darkness, the maestro whose masterworks Janet Maslin of the New York Times compares to “the masculine, brooding work of Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly, Harlan Coben, George Pelecanos, and Jonathan Kellerman,” brings back his unforgettable series characters Yorkshire Chief Inspector Alan Banks and Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot. A gripping story with echoes of Shakespeare’s Othello set in our contemporary age of terrorist fears, All the Colors of Darkness supports the Miami Herald’s contention that “it’s a crime if you miss [this] author.”
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All the Colors of Darkness (Inspector Banks Novels)
In a world of terror and uncertainty, what does one small death matter?
The body hanging from a tree in a peaceful wood appears to Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot to be a suicide. Further investigation into the sad demise of Mark Hardcastle, the set designer for the local amateur theater company, leads to the corpse of Mark's older, wealthier lover, brutally bludgeoned to death.
Suddenly the case demands the attention of Chief Inspector Alan Banks, called back from his vacation even though nothing suggests this wasn't a crime of passion followed by remorse and self-destruction. But machinations within the shadow world of secret government only add to the colors of darkness already shading this troubling affair. And a stubborn policeman who will not be frightened away could lose everything in one terrifying, explosive instant.
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Bad Boy: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 19)
“Brilliant! With Bad Boy, author Robinson once again achieves the high bar he’s set in all his previous Inspector Banks books…This one will stay with you for a long time.”
—Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author of Roadside Crosses
Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks faces his most challenging, personal, and terrifying case yet when his own daughter crosses paths with a psychopath, in Peter Robinson’s superb Bad Boy. Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River and Shutter Island, calls the novels of Peter Robinson, “chilling, evocative, deeply nuanced works of art.” Stephen King calls them, “the best series now on the market.” If you have not yet discovered this New York Times bestselling crime fiction master and his exceptional detective, now is definitely the time.
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Sleeping in the Ground: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 24)
MICHAEL CONNELLY calls Peter Robinson "an author with amazing empathy, a snare-trap ear for dialogue, and a clear eye for the telling detail."
See why in Sleeping in the Ground, the gripping new novel starring Alan Banks — featuring an opening scene you'll never forget, and a finale you won't see coming.
At the doors of a charming country church, an unspeakable act destroys a wedding party. A huge manhunt ensues. The culprit is captured. The story is over.
Except it isn't. For Alan Banks, still struggling with a tragic loss of his own, there's something wrong about this case — something unresolved. Reteaming with profiler Jenny Fuller, the relentless detective deeper into the crime... deep enough to unearth long-buried secrets that reshape everything Banks thought he knew about the events outside that chapel.
And when at last the shocking truth becomes clear, it's almost too late.
Packed with twists and turns, heart and soul, this is another triumph from an author "at the top of his game" (LOUISE PENNY).
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When the Music's Over: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels)
With Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot investigating a young woman’s death, newly promoted Detective Superintendent Banks finds himself taking on the coldest of cases: a fifty-year-old assault allegedly perpetrated by beloved celebrity Danny Caxton. Now Caxton stands accused at the center of a media storm, and it’s Banks’s job to discover the shocking truth.
As more women step forward with accounts of Caxton’s manipulation, Banks must piece together decades-old evidence—while the investigation leads him down the darkest of paths. . . .
Suspenseful, powerful, and surprising, When the Music’s Over is the finest novel to date from one of the foremost suspense writers at work today.
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No Cure for Love: A Novel
Featuring a foreword by Michael Connelly, this relentlessly suspenseful thriller from the New York Times bestselling and Edgar award-winning author of the Inspector Banks novels marks the first time that Peter Robinson has set a novel in America.
Sarah Broughton has come a long way. She’s the star of a hit cop show on TV. She lives in a beautiful California beach house. And—most importantly—she’s put her dark past behind her… as well as her old name, Sally Bolton. No need for anyone to know about that.
When Sarah begins receiving letters mysteriously signed with the letter “M,” she thinks they’re from a harmless admirer… until her real name appears in the third letter. And then she finds that name inscribed in the sand near her home – next to a body.
The message is clear: Someone is watching Sarah’s every move. Someone so obsessed with her that he won’t stop at just one murder in order to prove his love.
Panicked, Sarah turns to Detective Arvo Hughes of the LAPD, a man who specializes in hunting down the most dangerous stalkers. But nothing in Hughes’ experience has prepared him for the mastermind he’s up against. For the killer, there’s no cure for love. And for Sarah and Hughes, there’s no way out.
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All the Colors of Darkness: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 18)
New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Peter Robinson delivers a gripping novel of jealousy, betrayal, envy, ambition, greed, lust, revenge—all the colors of darkness that lead inevitably to murder.
In a world of terror and uncertainty, what does one small death matter?
The body hanging from a tree in a peaceful wood appears to Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot to be a suicide. But further investigation into the sad demise of Mark Hardcastle leads to another corpse, brutally bludgeoned to death.
Suddenly the case demands the attention of Chief Inspector Alan Banks, called back from his vacation even though nothing suggests this wasn't a crime of passion followed by remorse and self-destruction. Shocking revelations broaden the inquiry to unexpected places and seats of power. And a stubborn policeman who will not be frightened away could lose everything in one terrifying, explosive instant.
In this masterful novel of psychological suspense, Peter Robinson delves once again into the dark recesses of the human mind and shows what can happen when evil rests there.
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Friend of the Devil: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 17)
New York Times bestselling and Edgar award-winning author Peter Robinson—a riveting double homicide leaves two seasoned detectives baffled as they race against the clock before more corpses surface.
Two murders . . . two towns . . .
A woman sits in a wheelchair perched on a cliff high above the sea, her throat slit from ear to ear . . .
In a maze of narrow alleys behind a market square, a teenaged girl has been murdered after a night of drunken revelries with her friends.
The seemingly senseless Cliffside killing falls to Inspector Annie Cabbot, on loan to a local police department. The terrible death of young Hayley Daniels becomes Chief Inspector Alan Banks's investigation. But shattering revelations threaten to awaken the slumbering demons of earlier, darker times, and more blood is in the offing when the two cases brutally and unexpectedly collide.
Friend of the Devil is a chilling, brilliant, and utterly mesmerizing novel of suspense.
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Aftermath: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 12)
From New York Times bestselling and Edgar award-winning author Peter Robinson comes this brilliant novel of suspense—a thrilling tale of family secrets and past evils that have spread from one generation to another and wreaked havoc on an unsuspecting town.
One phone call from a concerned neighbor has inadvertently led police to Terence Payne, the elusive serial killer known only as "Chameleon." Now Payne is in custody, perhaps dying, and a long nightmare appears to be over at last. But is it?
For Alan Banks – currently head of the local police force – too many questions remain unanswered at the chamber of horrors the press will dub the "House of Payne." Because the darkness has not yet lifted, the casualties are still mounting...and there are still monsters loose in the world.
Showcasing the dark forces of human nature, master of suspense Peter Robinson is at the height of his storytelling powers in a novel that will leave readers guessing until the final page.
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Careless Love: A DCI Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 25)
His fans include Stephen King, Michael Connelly, Tess Gerritsen, Ian Rankin, and Louise Penney. He has won acclaim and numerous international prizes and awards, including the Edgar. Now celebrated New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson, one of the greatest suspense writers of our time, demonstrates his mastery once again in this powerful mystery in which legendary detective superintendent Alan Banks is confronted with a pair of perplexing crimes.
Two suspicious deaths challenge DS Alan Banks and his crack investigative team.
The body of an attractive young woman dressed in evening attire is found in an abandoned car on a country road. The death looks like suicide, but there are too many open questions for Banks and his team to rule out foul play. The car didn’t belong to her—it was badly damaged in an accident involving the vehicle’s owner a week earlier in the same spot. So how did the dead girl get inside the car? Did someone place her there, and if so, why? Where—and when—did she die?
While Banks attends the postmortem, DI Annie Cabot is at the scene of another death. A well-dressed man in his sixties has been found in a gully high up on the wild moorland. His injuries were fatal and consistent with those sustained in a fall. Was it an accident—did the man get too close to the edge and slip? Was he pushed? The man was wearing an expensive suit. What was he doing in a rocky spot popular with hikers? There are no signs of a vehicle near where he fell. How did he get there?
Banks’s and Cabot’s cases share a few curious similarities. Both of the dead were found in the same area of the moorlands. Both were elegantly dressed. The timing of their deaths coincided. And neither carried identification. As the police uncover who these people were and begin to look into their lives, inconsistencies multiply and the mysteries surrounding the two cases proliferate. Then a source close to Annie reveals a piece of information that rocks the Eastvale detectives working both investigations. An old enemy has returned in a new guise—a nefarious foe who will stop at nothing, not even murder, to get what he wants.
With the stakes raised, the hunt is on. But will Banks and his crack squad be able to find the evidence to stop him in time?
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Many Rivers to Cross: A Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 26)
Peter Robinson, the acclaimed author of the bestselling series Stephen King calls “the best now on the market,” returns with a gripping, emotionally charged mystery in which the revered detective Alan Banks must find the truth about a murder with possible racial overtones—and save a friend from ruin.
In Eastvale, a young Middle Eastern boy is found dead, his body stuffed into a wheelie bin on the East Side Estate. Detective Superintendent Alan Banks and his team know they must tread carefully to solve this sensitive case, but tensions rise when they learn that the victim was stabbed somewhere else and dumped. Who is the boy, and where did he come from?
Then, in a decayed area of Eastvale scheduled for redevelopment, a heroin addict is found dead. Was this just another tragic overdose, or something darker?
To prevent tensions from reaching a boiling point, Banks must find answers quickly. Yet just when he needs to be at his sharpest, the seasoned detective finds himself distracted by a close friend’s increasingly precarious situation. Banks needs a break—and gets one when he finds a connection to a real estate developer who could be the key to finding the truth.
With so many loose ends dangling, there is one thing Banks is sure of—solving the case will come at a terrible cost.
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Watching the Dark: An Inspector Banks Novel
New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson brings back Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks and his colleague DI Annie Cabbot in a case riddled with corruption.
A decorated policeman is murdered on the tranquil grounds of the St. Peter's Police Treatment Centre, shot through the heart with a crossbow arrow, and compromising photographs are discovered in his room.
Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks is well aware that he must handle the highly sensitive and dangerously explosive investigation with the utmost discretion. And as he digs deeper, he discovers that the murder may be linked to an unsolved missing persons case from six years earlier—and the current crime may involve some very bad, crooked cops.
A pulsating, electrifying novel of suspense Watching the Dark is one of Peter Robinson’s finest novels.
“Ambitious…Robinson shows a keen awareness of the global reach of crime.”—New York Times Book Review
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Before the Poison: A Novel
From New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson comes this mesmerizing story-within-a-story about a man pulled into a murder from the past—and his quest to uncover the truth.
Quietly reeling from the death of his beloved wife, Chris Lowndes decides to return to the Yorkshire Dales after twenty-five successful years spent in Hollywood composing film scores. He purchases Kilnsgate House, a charming old mansion deep in the country, but something about the place disturbs him. His unease intensifies when he learns Kilnsgate was once the scene of a sensational murder. More than fifty years earlier, prominent doctor Ernest Arthur Fox was poisoned there, allegedly by his beautiful and much younger wife, Grace, who was subsequently tried, condemned, and hanged for the crime.
His curiosity piqued, Chris decides to investigate, and the more he discovers, the more convinced he becomes of Grace's innocence. Despite warnings to leave it be, his quest for the truth is soon leading him through dark shadows of the past . . . and into a strange web of secrets that lie perilously close to the present.
A complex, multi-layered thriller, Before the Poison is one of Peter Robinson’s most brilliant novels—and one readers won’t soon forget.
“A gripping tale that brings to mind not only old-time Hollywood but also British ‘golden age’ storytelling in the Agatha Christie and Daphne du Maurier tradition.”—Wall Street Journal
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Children of the Revolution: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 21)
Multiple award-winning, New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author Peter Robinson returns with Children of the Revolution, a superb tale of mystery and murder that takes acclaimed British Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks back to the early 1970s—a turbulent time of politics, change, and radical student activism.
The body of a disgraced college lecturer is found on an abandoned railway line. In the four years since his dismissal for sexual misconduct, he’d been living like a hermit. So where did he get the 5,000 pounds found in his pocket?
Leading the investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks begins to suspect that the victim's past may be connected to his death. Forty years ago the dead man attended a university that was a hotbed of militant protest and divisive, bitter politics. And as the seasoned detective well knows, some grudges are never forgotten—or forgiven.
Just as he’s about to break the case open, his superior warns him to back off. Yet Banks isn’t about to stop, even if it means risking his career. He's certain there’s more to the mystery than meets the eye . . . and more skeletons to uncover before the case can finally be closed.
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In the Dark Places: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 22)
Published in the United Kingdom and Canada as Abattoir Blues
Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks is back in this crackling novel of suspense, a moody and sophisticated mystery full of serpentine curves from New York Times bestselling, Edgar Award-winning author Peter Robinson.
One of the world’s greatest suspense writers returns with this sensational new novel featuring Inspector Alan Banks, hailed by Michael Connelly as “a man for all seasons.”
It’s a double mystery: Two young men have vanished, and the investigation leads to two troubling clues in two different locations—a scorched van and a peculiar bloodstain in an abandoned airport hangar.
As Banks and his team scramble for answers, the inquiry takes an even darker turn when a truck careens off an icy road in a freak hailstorm. In the wreckage, rescuers find the driver, who was killed on impact, as well as another body—a body that was dead well before the crash.
Snow falls. The body count rises. And Banks, perceptive and curious as ever, feels himself being drawn deeper into a web of crime, and at its center something—or someone—dark and dangerous lying in wait.
Vibrating with tension, ingeniously plotted, and filled with soul and poignancy, In the Dark Places is a remarkable achievement from this masterful talent.
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In the Dark Places: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 22)
Published in the United Kingdom and Canada as Abattoir Blues
Louise Penny calls In the Dark Places "brilliant." Tess Gerritsen says it's "thrilling." And Michael Connelly describes Peter Robinson as "amazing." One of the world's greatest suspense writers returns with this sensational new novel featuring Inspector Alan Banks, hailed by Michael Connelly as "a man for all seasons."
It's a double mystery: Two young men have vanished, and the investigation leads to two troubling clues in two different locations.
As Banks and his team scramble for answers, the inquiry takes an even darker turn when a truck careens off an icy road in a freak hailstorm. In the wreckage, rescuers find the driver, who was killed on impact, as well as another body—a body that was dead well before the crash.
Snow falls. The body count rises. And Banks, perceptive and curious as ever, feels himself being drawn deeper into a web of crime, and at its center something—or someone—dark and dangerous lying in wait.
Vibrating with tension, ingeniously plotted, and filled with soul and poignancy, In the Dark Places is a remarkable achievement from this masterful talent.
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The Price of Love and Other Stories
The award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling Inspector Alan Banks novels, Peter Robinson dazzles with his first collection of short fiction, The Price of Love and Other Stories. Marked by the piercing psychological insight, brilliant characterization, and riveting suspense that are the hallmarks of Robinson’s fiction, The Price of Love gives us ten remarkable tales—two of which feature Robinson’s inimitable Yorkshire police detective Alan Banks—as well as a stunning pair of new Banks novellas. The Price of Love is a bravura demonstration of the exceptional storytelling skill that has made critics, mystery lovers, and famous literary peers the world over—including Dennis Lehane and Stephen King—fervent Peter Robinson fans.
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Watching the Dark: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 20)
One of the premier masters of modern British crime, New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson brings back Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks and his colleague DI Annie Cabbot in a complex case involving corruption, a dead cop, and a missing girl
Watching the Dark
A decorated detective inspector is murdered on the tranquil grounds of the St. Peter's Police Treatment Centre, shot through the heart with a crossbow arrow, and compromising photographs are discovered in his room. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks is well aware that he must handle the highly sensitive—and dangerously explosive—investigation with the utmost discretion.
Because the case may involve police corruption, an officer from Professional Standards, Inspector Joanna Passero, has arrived to work with Banks and his team. Though he tries to keep an open mind and offer his full cooperation, the dedicated Banks and his practical investigative style clash with Passero's cool demeanor and by-the- book professionalism. All too soon, the seasoned detective finds himself under uncomfortable scrutiny, his methods second-guessed.
As Banks digs deeper into the life and career of the victim, a decorated cop and recent widower named Bill Quinn, he comes to believe that Quinn's murder may be linked to an unsolved missing persons case. Six years earlier, a pretty nineteen-year-old English girl named Rachel Hewitt made national headlines when she disappeared without a trace in Tallinn, Estonia. Convinced that finding the truth about Rachel will lead to Quinn's killer, Banks follows a twisting trail of clues that lead from England to the dark, cobbled alleys of Tallinn's Old Town. But the closer he seems to solving the complicated cold case, the more it becomes clear that someone doesn't want the past stirred up.
While Banks prowls the streets of Tallinn, DI Annie Cabbot, recovered from her near-fatal shooting and back at the station in Eastvale, is investigating a migrant labor scam involving corrupt bureaucrats and a loan shark who feeds on the poor. As evidence in each investigation mounts, Banks realizes the two are linked—and that solving them may put even more lives, including his own, in jeopardy.
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Before the Poison
Chris Lowndes built a comfortable career composing scores for films in Hollywood. But after twenty-five years abroad, and still quietly reeling from the death of his beloved wife, he decides to return to the Yorkshire dales of his youth. To ease the move, he buys Kilnsgate House, a rambling old mansion deep in the country. Although Chris finds Kilnsgate charming, something about the house disturbs him, a vague sensation that the long-empty rooms have been waiting for himfeelings made ever stronger when he learns that the house was the scene of a murder more than fifty years before. The former owner, a prominent doctor named Ernest Arthur Fox, was supposedly poisoned by his beautiful and much younger wife, Grace. Arrested and brought to trial, Grace was found guilty and hanged for the crime. His curiosity piqued, Chris talks to the locals and searches through archives for information about the case. But the more he discovers, the more convinced he becomes tha
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Gallows View: The First Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks, 1)
Former London policeman Alan Banks relocated to Yorkshire seeking some small measure of peace. But depravity and violence are not unique to large cities. His new venue, the quaint little village of Eastvale, seems to have more than its fair share of malefactors, among them a brazen Peeping Tom who hides in night's shadows spying on attractive, unsuspecting ladies as they prepare for bed. And when an elderly woman is found brutally slain in her home, Chief Inspector Banks wonders if the voyeur has increased the intensity of his criminal activities. But whether related or not, perverse local acts and murderous ones are combining to profoundly touch Banks's suddenly vulnerable personal life, forcing a dedicated law officer to make hard choices he'd dearly hoped would never be necessary.
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Innocent Graves (Inspector Banks Novels, 8)
The worst that can possibly happen . . . has.
A beautiful child is dead—defiled and murdered in a lonely graveyard on a fog-shrouded evening. It is the sort of horrific crime Chief Inspector Alan Banks fled the city to escape. But the slaying of a bright and lovely teenager from a wealthy, respected family is not the end of a nightmare. Lies, dark secrets, unholy accusations, and hints of sexual depravity swirl around this abomination like leaves in an autumn wind, leading to a shattering travesty of justice that will brutally divide a devastated community with suspicion and hatred. But Banks must remain vigilant in his hunt—because when the devil is left free to pursue his terrible calling, more blood will surely flow.
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In a Dry Season (Inspector Banks Novels)
New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Peter Robinson delivers an unforgettable, compelling thriller of a lost village and the deadly secrets that are unearthed upon its discovery—secrets that include murder.
In the blistering, dry summer, the waters of Thornfield Reservoir have been depleted, revealing the ruins of the small Yorkshire village that lay at its bottom—ruins that house the unidentified bones of a murdered young woman. Detective Chief Inspector Banks faces a daunting challenge: he must unmask a sadistic killer who has escaped detection for half a century. For the dark secrets of Hobb's End continue to haunt the dedicated policeman, even though the town that bred them has died and its former residents have been scattered to far places—or even to their graves.
Demonstrating once again why Peter Robinson is a master of suspense, In a Dry Season is a powerful, insightful, and searing novel of past crimes and present evil.
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Splash!: Rock and Water Design in Gardens
Whether you want a small feature or a series of waterfalls, this practical and extensive guide provides a host of inspirational ideas for using water in your garden.
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Many Rivers to Cross: A DCI Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 26)
Peter Robinson, the acclaimed author of the bestselling series Stephen King calls “the best now on the market,” returns with a gripping, emotionally charged mystery in which the revered detective Alan Banks must find the truth about a murder with possible racial overtones—and save a friend from ruin.
In Eastvale, a young Middle Eastern boy is found dead, his body stuffed into a wheelie bin on the East Side Estate. Detective Superintendent Alan Banks and his team know they must tread carefully to solve this sensitive case, but tensions rise when they learn that the victim was stabbed somewhere else and dumped. Who is the boy, and where did he come from?
Then, in a decayed area of Eastvale scheduled for redevelopment, a heroin addict is found dead. Was this just another tragic overdose, or something darker?
To prevent tensions from reaching a boiling point, Banks must find answers quickly. Yet just when he needs to be at his sharpest, the seasoned detective finds himself distracted by a close friend’s increasingly precarious situation. Banks needs a break—and gets one when he finds a connection to a real estate developer who could be the key to finding the truth.
With so many loose ends dangling, there is one thing Banks is sure of—solving the case will come at a terrible cost.
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When the Music's Over: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Banks Novels, 23)
Inspector Alan Banks—hailed as “a man for all seasons” by Michael Connelly—must face the music when he becomes embroiled in one of his most perplexing and distressing cases in this haunting page-turner from New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson.
Two women. Two crimes.
The first is a poet claiming she was assaulted decades earlier by a man now regarded as one of the country’s national treasures. The second is a girl found on a remote roadside, her body broken, her life snuffed out.
For Alan Banks, newly promoted to Detective Superintendent, the first case rips a tunnel into long-ago days of innocence and discovery, of music and light. And in the victim, he sees an opportunity for magic recaptured—if he can bring her assailant to justice.
For Detective Inspector Annie Banks, the lifeless young woman poses a baffling mystery—a mystery that will lead her into the unlikeliest of places, interviewing the unlikeliest of suspects.
Emotionally resonant and ingeniously plotted, When the Music’s Over begins a new chapter for Banks—and shows Peter Robinson at his tense, triumphant best.
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Sleeping in the Ground An Inspector Banks Novel
MICHAEL CONNELLY calls Peter Robinson "an author with amazing empathy, a snare-trap ear for dialogue, and a clear eye for the telling detail."
See why in Sleeping in the Ground, the gripping new novel starring Alan Banks — featuring an opening scene you'll never forget, and a finale you won't see coming.
At the doors of a charming country church, an unspeakable act destroys a wedding party. A huge manhunt ensues. The culprit is captured. The story is over.
Except it isn't. For Alan Banks, still struggling with a tragic loss of his own, there's something wrong about this case — something unresolved. Reteaming with profiler Jenny Fuller, the relentless detective deeper into the crime... deep enough to unearth long-buried secrets that reshape everything Banks thought he knew about the events outside that chapel.
And when at last the shocking truth becomes clear, it's almost too late.
Packed with twists and turns, heart and soul, this is another triumph from an author "at the top of his game" (LOUISE PENNY).
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The Look of Goodbye
The Look of Goodbye contains Peter Robinson's poetry from his last half dozen years living and working in Sendai and Kyoto. Difficulties associated with having your heart in Europe and your life in Japan are explored across the shadowy terrains of a world grown decidedly more at risk, dangerous, and violent. The stays of love, friendship, family, place, and memory are tested by death, loss, and displacement; yet Robinson's poetry celebrates all that it can by means of the poet's rhythm, formal dexterity, and his eye for the energized processes of landscape and atmosphere. Composed at the same time as their author began to write and publish aphorisms, these poems show Robinson extending his range of subjects and developing the fresh directness with which he treats them. While bidding farewell to his Japanese years, The Look of Goodbye is as welcoming of readers, new and returning, as ever.
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Spirits of the Stair
When Peter Robinson published Untitled Deeds in 2004, a number of his readers expressed surprise that the writer who, as early as 1983, had been described as 'the finest poet of his generation' in PN Review and, two decades later in The Reader, 'the finest poet alive', should suddenly emerge from his exile in Japan as an aphorist. What had happened? While the Western world was declaring war on an abstraction, Robinson had been drawing up peace terms with a host of them. Finding weapons of mass destruction in the speechifying of politicians, and the toxicity of pension plan promises, feeling chilled by global warming, and hot under the collar, the poet found no other respite than to reach for his notebooks. What came from them were wrung-out dishcloths and acupuncturists' needles, sound bites that chew on what they eschew, salves for old saws, and less-is-more morsels which were promptly anthologized in The Boodaxe Book of Poetry Quotations (2006) and Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists (2007). Now, five years further, in Spirits of the Stair: Selected Aphorisms, Robinson's enlarged and extended reflections look out on the world and see a wounded head bandaged in clouds. These words that didn't come to mind when occasion demanded, words that were the right thing to say when the moment had passed, now reach us with a timely lateness that appears, for all that, to be just what we were waiting for.
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