Product Description

When Alan Banks receives a disturbing message from his brother, Roy, he abandons the peaceful Yorkshire Dales for the bright lights of London, to seek him out. But Roy seems to have vanished into thin air.

Meanwhile, DI Annie Cabbot is called to a quiet stretch of road just outside Eastvale, where a young woman has been found dead in her car. In the victim’s pocket, scribbled on a slip of paper, police discover Banks’ name and address.

Living in Roy's empty South Kensington house, Banks finds himself digging into the life of the brother he never really knew, nor even liked. And as he begins to uncover a few troubling surprises, the two cases become sinisterly entwined . . .

'The Banks novels are, simply put, the best series now on the market' STEPHEN KING

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17641 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Review
"'The Banks novels are, simply put, the best series now on the market' Stephen King"

About the Author

Peter Robinson grew up in Yorkshire, and now lives in Canada. STRANGE AFFAIR is the fifteenth novel in his bestselling Inspector Banks series. The critically acclaimed series has won numerous awards in Britain, the United States, Canada and Europe.

Customer Reviews

Inspector Banks is back again!
I have read all Inspector Banks books and I was truly afraid Peter Robinson had lost the "touch" with his last book, "Playing With Fire", witch I consider not to be one of his best. However, with "Strange Affair" he is back again better than ever and I will rate it among his best three along with "Past Reason Hated" and "Aftermath". The story is gripping and the theme is up to date. Once started I could not put the book down and finished it the same day - A real page turner!

Banks - now a great series
I think the Banks books have now got past the stage where you can say such and such a book is "better" or not. They deserve to be taken as a whole - in my opinion, as one of the great series of all detective fiction. Banks has grown, aged and become more serious and more complicated - and so have the puzzles he is faced with. I would recommend new readers not to start with this book - if you have the time, go back to the beginning with Gallows View and proceed from there. The plotting and characterisation in these books seem to me to outrank Ian Rankin and P.D.James - often claimed as reference points - and are well in advance of any other British writer within my experience. The only similarly compelling series I can think of is being produced by Michael Connelly with the Bosch canon, also highly recommended.

Banks returns to the smoke
First of all I should like to warn prospective readers of this fine book that you should read some of his earlier books first because this novel will spoil the plots...

I really like the Banks books but this is rather naughty of Mr Robinson to be so indulgent with his other books. Not all of us read these books in the order they were published.

So I warn you read these two first:
Dead Right
and
A Dedicated Man

A couple of other points... it is getting a little tiresome having detectives whose family and friends are the subject of the crime.

This book deals with some pretty horrendous subjects so it is not for the squeamish. OK Banks has had some real baddies to deal with but this one is especially nasty.

Finally, why oh why have they not made Banks novels into TV dramas?