Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson

Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson
Buy Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Crime
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: The twentieth book in the DCI Banks series amkes for a good read when it's necessary to investigate the death of a policeman and Professional Standards have their doubts about the dead man's honesty.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 416	Date: August 2012
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1444704877
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Detective Inspector Bill Quinn was killed by a crossbow through the heart in the grounds of a police rehabilitation centre in North Yorkshire. His wife had died about a month ago, but compromising photographs found in his room at the centre suggested that he had been in an adulterous relationship with a very young woman. DI Alan Banks was called in as investigating officer, but it wasn't going to be easy. The photographs meant that Professional Standards had to be brought in and Banks had to incorporate Joanna Passero into his investigating team. He was reluctant to believe that Quinn was bent without solid proof but Passero's presence made this difficult.

Annie Cabbot has returned to work after six months recuperation from her injuries, but there were still demons to be fought and it made Banks uneasy. There was another woman involved in the case too, only this one had disappeared in Estonia six years before. Her body had never been found and there was no explanation for what had happened to her - but Bill Quinn had been obsessed by the case. Then another body was found.

Peter Robinson is particularly good at taking current social problems and building a good story around them. This time it's labour coming into the United Kingdom from eastern Europe, only it's not through legal channels: they're trafficked here and live in dreadful conditions, in debt to those who brought them to the country. It's modern day slavery. Interestingly we also have a look at a part of the problem from the European end when Banks and Inspector Passero visit Estonia. It's a good story with a satisfying conclusion.

Rather than reading the book I listened to an audio download (which I bought myself) narrated by Simon Slater. I'd heard another recording done by Slater and was generally impressed: this book lived up to my expectations. Slater has a good range of voices, with the female voices being particularly strong and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the download. There's no bleeding of one voice into another and I was never in any doubt as to which character was speaking.

Peter Robinson's Chief Inspector Alan Banks Novels in Chronological Order will allow you to read the books in order. They do read reasonably well as stand alones, but you will get more out of them if you read them as they were written.

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