Late one night, Chief Inspector Alan Banks is summoned to the home of Chief Constable Riddle. Riddle’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Emily, has run away, and for once the chief constable is asking Banks to employ his unorthodox methods to find her. Banks tracks her down in London but discovers that she doesn’t want to be found. She is living with gangster Barry Clough and insists that she is happy in her new life. Later, when she shows up at Banks’s hotel asking for help, he is drawn deeper and deeper into the young girl’s life. Banks finds himself caught in a complex web of drugs and murder, police and politics, and fathers and daughters.
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The deep-rooted animosity between Yorkshire detective Alan Banks and his boss, Chief Constable Jeremiah Riddle, provides a psychologically complex subtext that runs throughout Peter Robinson's prize-winning police procedural series. The tormented professional relationship comes to a head in Cold Is the Grave when Riddle asks Banks for a personal favour: to bring home discreetly and unofficially his runaway daughter.
Banks accepts the assignment reluctantly. He will have no official status or support while conducting the investigation in London. Nevertheless, his concern for the teenage girl, whose nude image is showing up on Internet porn sites, sends Banks south to ask questions on his own time. He quickly finds her--and learns that the Riddles have some serious skeletons in their family closet. As the investigation deepens, Banks is partnered with Annie Cabbot, who has her own problems with interdepartmental politics--she fears that reporting her attempted rape by a colleague will kill her career. As these internal dramas play out, Robinson's complex network of plot twists unwinds to a satisfying but deeply disturbing conclusion. --Deirdre Hanna --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
This 11th book about Yorkshire police officer Alan Banks is disappointing after 1999's Edgar-nominee, In a Dry Season, but contains enough elements of the familiar formula to satisfy dedicated fans. DCI Banks, his romance with police colleague Annie Cabbot having cooled off, is seriously thinking of asking his wife, Sandra, to end their separation and give the marriage another try. He's also applied to the National Crime Squad to escape his loathsome boss, Chief Constable Riddle. But just as Banks is packing for a weekend train jaunt to Paris, the wretched Riddle calls to ask a favor. Riddle's nine-year-old son, snooping around on the Internet, has come upon a naked picture of his 16-year-old sister, Emily, who ran away from home and disappeared into the London drugs and smut cesspool. Despite their mutual hatred, BanksArealizing what it took for Riddle to ask for his help in finding the girlAjust can't refuse. This part of the story works well; Robinson makes no attempt to soften the nastiness of the stupid, resentful and politically ambitious Riddle or the apparent coldness of Riddle's wife. But things begin to get more complicatedAand less believableAwhen the powerful London criminal with whom Emily has been living appears to be implicated in murder and business fraud in Yorkshire. Too many plot coincidences and clich?s (a man is described as being "bald as a coot" twice) finally work against Robinson's greatest strength: his ability to keep Banks an interesting, realistic and changing human being. Agent, Dominick Abel. 6-city author tour. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Format:Paperback
Cold is the Grave
Peter Robinson
2000 Viking 454 pages ISBN 0-670-83901-3
Peter Robinson
2000 Viking 454 pages ISBN 0-670-83901-3
A teenager from the Yorkshire Dales runs away to London and falls into bad company - not much new in that. But when Peter Robinson uses it as an introduction to one of his chilling mysteries you have a plot has surprising but logical twists and turns and the tale becomes more intriguing by the page.
The writer manages to create strong, realistic characters that stay in your mind long after you've finished the book. When you pick up another book in the series you meet them again like old friends. The characters carry the plot, complex as it is, and all the sub-plots as the reader is shown the truth behind the veneer of the successful Chief Constable and his lovely family.
This was a book I hated to put down. It is well-paced and carefully structured and both male and female characters are so true that you'd swear you met them just last week. It's rare that a male writer can make female characters seem true to life, especially in their internal monologues (and vice versa - female writers often don't present the male interior monologue well) but this writer is spot on.
This book is a real treat from an accomplished mystery writer. Long may the series last.
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Can't help thinking that this Peter Robinson book is a hangover from the gentility mysteries written by Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. It's full of references to class discrimination: the petty crooks are working class and stupid; the smart crooks are working class and vicious; the upper class are tremendous people, instilled with the wonderful values that only a privileged upbringing can provide. The dialogue between all characters, law abiding and criminal, is mostly polite and deferential to the point of twee, and Inspector Banks floats around in a surreal world of his own, continually congratulating himself on the success of his unorthodox detecting techniques. Perhaps an alternative title to the Banks series could be: It Shoudn't Happen to a Copper.
By comparison, Ian Rankin, James Lee Burke and Michael Connelly have created characters with lives and conversations that resonate with gritty reality. Rebus, Robicheaux and Bosch are on a journey through life; Banks is commuting.
And Robinson has the most irritating habit of parading his learning out of context. Inspector Banks is often reminded of what Milton said or Proust thought - sure, give me a break!
In one chapter, Inspector Banks is having a beer while he talks to a London copper about a villain he wants to obtain more information on. During the conversation, Banks modestly makes a mental note that the other copper is a racist, alcoholic while he, Banks, is still a compassionate, caring human being, branded a 'pinko' by his drinking colleague because of his socialist sensibilities. At that point I put the book down and picked up the latest Ian Rankin.
By comparison, Ian Rankin, James Lee Burke and Michael Connelly have created characters with lives and conversations that resonate with gritty reality. Rebus, Robicheaux and Bosch are on a journey through life; Banks is commuting.
And Robinson has the most irritating habit of parading his learning out of context. Inspector Banks is often reminded of what Milton said or Proust thought - sure, give me a break!
In one chapter, Inspector Banks is having a beer while he talks to a London copper about a villain he wants to obtain more information on. During the conversation, Banks modestly makes a mental note that the other copper is a racist, alcoholic while he, Banks, is still a compassionate, caring human being, branded a 'pinko' by his drinking colleague because of his socialist sensibilities. At that point I put the book down and picked up the latest Ian Rankin.
By A Customer
Format:Mass Market Paperback
If you want to be entertained but not into deep thought then Cold is the Grave suits your purposes. It is not challenging by any stretch but it keeps the interest enough to motivate the reader to keep reading even when the outcome is clear. The writing is straight forward by the foreshadowing is heavy handed and hammy. Mr. Robinson has fallen into that familiar trap of continuing a character that was fresh and new to the point of staleness.
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3.9 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A well-written British police mystery
This book is one of a series whose central character is Alan Banks, a British police detective. In this case, the complexities Robinson introduces into his mysteries generally work... Read more
Published on Feb 6 2002 by M. A Michaud
3.0 out of 5 stars
Long
This book was just to long to support the shallow ending. The characters were well thought out and in sync. but I began to lose interest after awhile. Read more
Published on Oct 23 2001 by "shamus13"
3.0 out of 5 stars
One for a rainy day
This promised to be an interesting book - undisciplined detective with the usual relationship problems and an intriguing problem to solve. Read more
Published on Oct 1 2001
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another "stunner"
Cold is the Grave by Peter Robinson William Morrow 2000
Peter Robinson is one of my favorite mystery authors and this his latest book did not disappoint me. Read more
Published on April 5 2001 by Glenn McLeod
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting but overly long...
I enjoyed Peter Robinson's IN A DRY SEASON so much I did something I seldom do with mysteries, I kept the book and did not pass it on to the local library. Read more
Published on Jan 19 2001 by Dianne Foster
5.0 out of 5 stars
Robinson Has Another Winner!
In this eleventh outing for Inspector Banks, he is asked by his Chief Constable and nemesis to go to London to find the Chief Constable's daughter who ran away from home several... Read more
Published on Dec 10 2000 by P. Bigelow
4.0 out of 5 stars
It gets better with each book
I was on my way out to the airport when amazon.com's e-mail announcing the new release by Peter Robinson came through. Read more
Published on Oct 24 2000
3.0 out of 5 stars
I love Banks, but this mystery is less than enthralling.
Any new book featuring one of my favorite detectives, Alan Banks, is always welcome. In "Cold is the Grave," Peter Robinson continues the saga of the brilliant but... Read more
Published on Oct 23 2000 by E. Bukowsky
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good writing can't overcome worn plot and wordy angst
After his taut, atmospheric "In a Dry Season" (nominated for Edgar and Anthony awards), Peter Robinson's latest Inspector Banks novel drags, padded with Banks' personal... Read more
Published on Oct 22 2000 by Lynn Harnett
3.0 out of 5 stars
Really, 3.5 stars....
I won't give up on this series yet, partly because Robinson writes so well. However, somewhere after the first several novels in the series, the charm of the Yorkshire setting and... Read more
Published on Oct 17 2000 by Suzanne G. Kerry
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