- Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Canada (APB); reprint edition (May 11 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140281770
- ISBN-13: 978-0140281774
- Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 9.7 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 907 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #637,627 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.co.uk
On the outs with their superiors, Detective Inspector Banks and Detective Sergeant Annie Cabbot are lumbered with a case that is supposed to frustrate and annoy them--and find the challenge fascinating. When a reservoir dries out, a flooded village emerges and a boy finds a skeleton buried in an outhouse--by solid police work, and the use of experts, Banks and Cabbot find out who she was and when she died, and then have to find out why. The reader knows more than they do of course--elderly crime writer Vivien has written her own account of what happened during World War Two when she was an intense unhappy teenager, and this is presented in alternate chapters--but there are surprises still in store... An intense sense of period and a celebration of the virtues of solid investigation, this admirable combination of the police procedural and the psychological period thriller was nominated for the Edgar, the US crime writers' best of the year award. Peter Robinson's acute portrayal of his flawed, humane detectives and the charismatic doomed victim the truth of whose death they are trying to uncover has a desperate sadness which comes together in a climax of unexpected power. --Roz Kaveney
From Publishers Weekly
Anyone who loves a good mystery should curl up gratefully with a cuppa to enjoy this rich 10th installment of the acclaimed British police procedural series. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, on the skids since the breakup with wife Sandra, languishes in "career Siberia" until old nemesis Chief Constable Riddle sends him to remotest Yorkshire on a "dirty, pointless, dead-end case." It seems a local kid has discovered a skeleton in dried-up Thornfield Reservoir, constructed on the site of the deserted bucolic village of Hobb's End. Banks taps into his familiar network of colleagues to identify the skeleton as that of Gloria Shackleton, a gorgeous, provocative "land girl" who worked on a Hobb's End farm while her husband was off fighting the Japanese decades ago. Apparently, Gloria had been stabbed to death. As Banks and Detective Sergeant Annie Cabbot struggle to re-create the 50-year-old crime scene, wartime Yorkshire, with all its deprivations and depravities, springs to life. (Banks revives, too, showing renewed interest in his job, and in women.) Robinson brilliantly interweaves the story of Banks's investigation with an ambiguous manuscript by detective novelist "Vivian Elmsley," a 70-ish woman once Gloria's sister-in-law. Is the manuscript a memoir of events leading to Gloria's vicious murder, or "all just a story"? Either way, every detail rings true. Once again, Robinson's work stands out for its psychological and moral complexity, its startling evocation of pastoral England and its gritty, compassionate portrayal of modern sleuthing. Agent, Dominick Abel. Author tour.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent Mystery,
By Untouchable (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: In a Dry Season (Inspector Banks Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)
A village that has been flooded to create a reservoir is uncovered during a particularly dry summer. While exploring, a boy discovers a human skeleton that, in all likelihood had been put there over 50 years ago. Was the person murdered or was it an accident? Will it be possible to solve such an old case?The man chosen for the job is DI Alan Banks. He's been out of favour with his superiors, prompting his selection for what sees to be a hopeless, dead-end job. But, through determination, perseverance and help from local sergeant, Annie Cabbot, he makes slow progress. Peter Robinson alternates between the present and the past in an effective narration of the story. By doing this, we are treated to both the lead up and the aftermath of a time surround by turmoil. As Inspector Banks uncovers clues and chases up leads, we are taken back to when it all took place and get to witness every detail first hand. It really is a technique that works extraordinarily well. As far as police procedurals go, this ranks very highly with pieces of the puzzle revealing a more and more tragic story, leading right up to the consequences played out in the climactic present-day scenes. This is definitely a book to put on your must-read list, particularly if you are a fan of well-constructed mysteries.
4.0 out of 5 stars
I am really surprised and impressed by this novel,
This review is from: In a Dry Season (Inspector Banks Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)
I did not think the story would live up to the billing on the back page or, indeed, my own hopes once I had read the editorial on amazon. I am so pleased that it did. Robinson cooks up a feast of nostalgia, mystery and pshycology in a very unusual detective story.Perhaps most impressive are the diary extracts that tell of life in a tiny Yorkshire village during the War. The voice of the narrator we know is the echo of a million other British voices during those days. Rationing, blackout, land armies and American servicemen all take their place in the reminiscing pages to paint a detailed picture of the life and times of the victim, Gloria. Interspersed there is the police investigation and the trials and tribulations of Robinson's very readable hero, Banks. Difficulties with the boss, ex-wife, son and colleague are juggled admirably by the author who moulds all the rich ingredients into one fast-paced, enjoyable read. Refreshingly, he decides against falling into the ever present trap of saying too much or adding one twist too many, choosing instead to deliver a cameo of shocks in the epilogue. Just when I thought I had finished, there was another couple of pages that caused the eyebrows to raise and the grey matter to think again at what I had just read. I would like to read more of Banks books, but I am wary that the actual subject matter in this novel will far surpass any that appears in the other ten or so volumes. One day I am sure I will have done the set, so to speak, but for now I am going to be content with having had the pleasure of reading this as a brilliant one-off.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Less is More,
By MrsMorland (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
This review is from: In a Dry Season (Inspector Banks Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)
I enjoyed the first half of this book and thought that perhaps it was in a different category from the others in the series, as the reviews suggested. But I grew tired of the constant rapid cuts between past and present--Robinson would have done better to give fewer and more extended sections. And the war-time characters and period detail wore thin. I was skimming by the end.
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