An Introduction to the Inspector Banks books by Peter Robinson and A review of Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson
Author Peter Robinson was born in England and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Leeds. After emigrating to Canada he completed his MA in English and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor and his PhD in English at York University. His first novel, Gallows View, published in 1987 was the first of 27 books featuring Detective Chief Inspector Banks.
Alan Banks is lean and wiry with bright blue eyes that reveal intellect, curiosity and charm. Culturally sophisticated, he listens to a wide range of music genres, is familiar with significant painters and their work, and accurately identifies period buildings.
DCI Banks generally treats the people with respect and courtesy. He is sometimes accused by his detractors of being a romantic, tilting at windmills but is often driven in his pursuit of truth and justice. His success is based on thorough information-gathering followed by a period of turmoil which culminates in an imaginative connection that leads to the solving of the case.
In the early volumes, Banks lives happily with his wife, Sandra, and their two children in Eastvale, a fictitious town in Yorkshire, away from the moral pollution of London. Later, the children move out and get on with their own sometimes-troubled lives and Sandra leaves him for a younger man with whom she has a child. Banks loses his direction for awhile then, and for several books engages in romantic liaisons, often related to his work. Some are consummated, some are not. For many volumes he chain smokes and relies heavily on beverages served during meetings in pubs.
While it is not necessary to start with the first volume of the series, doing so provides the reader with the added interest of watching the development of Alan Banks as a growing, changing protagonist.
Robinson’s writing is tight. Even his frequent descriptions usually advance the plot. The action moves quickly, effortlessly taking the reader along, with added the interest of a word or two in each volume that may require a dictionary.
Be warned: if you rely on the library for copies of Robinson’s books, you must be prepared place a hold and wait awhile. Everyone, it seems, wants to read them.
Watching the Dark (2012) begins as a puzzling homicide by cross bow with no apparent motive. Soon tenuous connections link the first crime to a subsequent murder on a deserted farm. This death seems to point to a smuggling ring which brings illegal immigrants into Britain from Eastern Europe. Banks suspects that both murders are related to the disappearance of a young woman years earlier and travels to Tallin, Estonia. Meanwhile he is dogged by Professional Standards officer, Joanna Passero. Professionally, he is irked by her the way she seems set to foil his efforts. Personally he finds himself attracted to her, although he shows only compassion when he begins to understand her at a personal level.
In many ways this is a classic CI Banks story with up-dated technology, vivid descriptions of Tallin and Estonian countryside and some personal changes. The experienced Robinson reader will note that Banks has given up the chain smoking of previous books and drinks wine rather than Laphroaig. Music references are themed to the story: Arvo Part and Erkki-SvenTuur along with Mahler, Ravel and Tchaikovsky.
Watching the Dark is another satisfying read by a master of the genre.
This review first appeared on Jayne Self’s blog at http://www.christianswhowrite.ca/.
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