Product Description

'A writer at the very height of his powers' IAN RANKIN.

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks has reached a turning point. With his wife now living with another man in London and his career in the doldrums thanks to Chief Constable Riddle, it is time to ring the changes. Perhaps a move to the National Crime Squad? Perhaps a second chance with Sandra? But then late one night he is summoned to Riddle's house - and his plans take a surprising new turn. For the Chief Constable's sixteen-year-old daughter Emily has run away and for once Riddle wants Banks to use his unorthodox methods to find her without fuss.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15068 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
'A writer at the very height of his powers' Ian Rankin

From the Author
Like so many stories, Cold is the Grave started with a simple, "What if.?"

In this case, what if a young boy, not really old enough to understand what he was seeing, found himself by mistake at an Internet porn site looking at pictures of his runaway teenage sister? And what if this wayward girl happened to be the daughter of the Chief Constable, Detective Inspector Alan Banks's overbearing and malicious boss? Naturally, the best man for the job of finding her and bringing her home is Banks himself, and so the story begins.

It seemed to me that over the last three or four books, Chief Constable Riddle had become a stereotypical by-the-book boss, the sort of person we have all had to deal at one time or another in our working lives, with an unexplained loathing for Banks. I could either keep things that way until I simply tired of him and had him retire, or I could pick up the challenge and try to make him a more sympathetic, understandable human being: someone who has good reasons for being the way he is. I chose the latter course, and through trying to find out what makes him tick, I came up with the story behind the Riddle family, in the process discovering the reason he has such a particular loathing for Banks.

In order to find Riddle's daughter, Banks first has to head to London's sleazy Soho district, far from his regular North Yorkshire patch, but he is soon back up there among the drystone walls, the steeply rising dalesides, the limestone scars and the cobbled market squares, the crumbling castles and narrow, twisting streets of Eastvale. This is the landscape I fell in love with as a child, when I first visited it with my father on his photographic expeditions. We would set off by bus or train, as we didn't have a car, on daytrips to Richmond, Knaresborough, Ripon or Skipton, where I would wait around until the light was right for my father's photographs I never thought then that the landscape would become such a part of my life's work, but looking back, I must have been absorbing it and observing its nuances as I waited for the sun to come out from behind a cloud.

I've always thought that Banks and I led very similar lives until we diverged in our late teens-me to university, teaching and writing, and Banks to the police, marriage and children-and that has always allowed me to pass off certain of my early memories and experiences as his. This is no less a feature of Cold is the Grave as it is of the other books, and here you'll find Banks musing about a school friend who disappeared without trace and a nasty incident down by the canal. Banks's sergeant, Annie Cabbot, also has to confront her past in this book, where people are rarely what they seem, and their reactions to events and revelations are as unpredictable as the Yorkshire weather.

Writing the book was as much a voyage of discovery for me as I hope it will be for the reader. As usual, when I posed my simple "What if?" I had no idea what the journey would be like, what more I would discover about Banks and Annie, and what complications would result, what secrets would be revealed.

About the Author
Peter Robinson grew up in Yorkshire but now spends most of his time in Canada. He is the winner of numerous awards in the United States, Britain and Canada.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant!
This is up to Peter Robinson's usual style: first class! As ever, he keeps the reader guessing as to 'whodunnit' because there are so many suspects on offer!
Inspector Banks is asked by his (much despised) boss, 'Jimmy' Riddle, to carry out a personal (to him), private investigation, ie. to track down his daughter, Emily, who is to be found on a pornographic site on the internet. Banks, against his better nature, complies with Riddle, if only to try to get him off his back for a while. However, Banks finds it impossible to remain impartial and he soon finds himself drawn into a world of glam-pop, drugs, embezzlement and, of course, murder. To add further spice to his life, Annie Cabot ( a former lover) enters Banks' life again and he finds that he must choose between the professional and the personal. Peter Robinson is superb when combining suspense and seriousness with romance and lightheartedness, without sacrificing either the storyline or reader-anticipation. Great reading!

A Page Turner
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.

Crime Writing at its Best

Peter Robinson grew up in Yorkshire, and is the author of a number of previous novels featuring Chief Inspector Banks. He is the winner of numerous awards in the United States, Britain and Canada, and in 2002 he won the CWA Dagger in the Library. As I also come from Leeds the background to his stories is something that I have experienced first hand and because of this I have a special affection for his books. However they would be first class crime fiction wherever they were based.

Detective Chief Inspector Banks is at a low point in his life. His wife has finally left him to live with another man in London and his career is going nowhere thanks to a high ranking officer becoming more and more frustrated with Banks's methods of solving crime.

Maybe a move to the National Crime Squad would kick start his career? Maybe even another chance with Sandra? Then late one night he is summoned to the house of Chief Constable Riddle, which is strange in itself as the Chief Constable is the senior officer who has been blighting Banks's career.

The Chief Constable's 16-yearr-old daughter Emily has run away and for once he is happy to allow Banks to use his unorthodox methods to find the girl and bring her back without any fuss.