Cold Is the Grave [Mass Market Paperback]

Cold is the Grave
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.

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.

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.