Book #55 When The Music's Over

When the Music's Over by Peter Robinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am a fan of DCI Banks on TV - presently watching re-runs on ITV3. Strangely though, I have only read one previous book by Peter Robinson. I've jumped in at No. 23 here. Alan Banks has been promoted to Detective Superintendent but still retains his active status. Annie Cabbot is now a DI. Familiar characters. Banks has to investigate allegations of rape back in the 60s; Linda Palmer was attacked aged just 14 by celebrity entertainer Danny Caxton, now in his 80s. A case that is as old as they come and has all the hallmarks of similar events with Jimmy Saville and Rolf Harris.

Meanwhile Cabbot is brought in to investigate the vicious beating and murder of a 15-year-old girl found in a remote countryside lane.

The investigations are slow and frustrating. Two young girls, two unspeakable crimes in a labyrinthine plot. The dialogue is spot on. This is how conversation is so realistic, unspectacular language in Robinson's hands. This is top notch police procedure that spans 482 pages - perhaps a tad too long.

Nevertheless a very satisfying read.

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Book #84 Watching the Dark

Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was my first DCI Banks novel and it's Robinson's 20th! Well, I had to start somewhere. Having watched every episode of DCI Banks on television I started this book with preconceived ideas only to find that TV scriptwriters have their own ideas and embellish character backgrounds with gay abandon! I thought Annie Cabbot was married with a child! Anyway, I digress. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Watching the Dark; it can be read as a standalone. The plotting is meticulous with pitch-perfect characterisation (I couldn't help but visualise Stephen Tompkinson as our protagonist!). Banks is something of a maverick and is fanatical about his music. Unlike some reviewers I liked the numerous references to stuff he listens to even going as far as searching iTunes for one of the Bill Evans albums mentioned.

The plot here is slow to unravel and is very moving in parts, covering the dark issues of people trafficking and loan sharking. How is the murder of a DI linked to these events and even more so to the disappearance of an English girl six years ago in Estonia? Robinson handles all of this with deft precision and draws you into this labyrinthine procedural. I won't say more about the plot - others have done that. I do give this 5 stars unreservedly. One of my best reads this year.

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Old Age and Machinations...

It is a fact that you never accept old age. Sinatra sang about 'The September of My Years' and I have always tried to discredit that as wistful humbug. You are as old as you feel, aren't you? But the mind can continue to convince you that physical endeavour is well within your bounds of capability when the reality is somewhat different...

Today the weather was perfect. Blue sky, sunshine and 18℃. Shirt sleeve weather. Time to continue the attack on 25 years of Forsythia growth in my garden. Bow saw, pruning saw, loppers and secateurs were mustered and I hacked away for 4½ hours. Still haven't finished but I'm getting there. Another two large bags of green waste were deposited at the local municipal tip with just enough time remaining to enjoy a large, builders cup of tea before collecting my wife from her place of work. Time to head home for a well deserved roast dinner, a couple of glasses of Cotes-du-Rhone and one or two single malts....

Relaxed and in good humour I sat back to watch one of my favourite TV programmes and enjoy the machinations of DCI Banks as he solved yet another unfathomable crime. I'm not sure that he did though as the young mind was overtaken by the old body and I succumbed to dozing off and missed, not only the entire episode, but most of News at Ten as well.

Mind you, I reckon this young mind in an older body will sleep well tonight...

Goodnight all...