Product Description

As volunteers clean up after a huge outdoor rock concert in Yorkshire in 1969, they discover the body of a young woman wrapped in a sleeping bag. She has been brutally murdered. The detective assigned to the case, Stanley Chadwick, is a hard-headed, strait-laced veteran of the Second World War. He could not have less in common with – or less regard for – young, disrespectful, long-haired hippies, smoking marijuana and listening to the pulsing sounds of rock and roll. But he has a murder to solve, and it looks as if the victim was somehow associated with the up-and-coming psychedelic pastoral band the Mad Hatters.

In the present, Inspector Alan Banks is investigating the murder of a freelance music journalist who was working on a feature about the Mad Hatters for MOJO magazine. This is not the first time that the Mad Hatters, now aging rock superstars, have been brushed by tragedy. Banks finds he has to delve into the past to find out exactly what hornets’ nest the journalist inadvertently stirred up.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4029 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-08
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Stephen King
'The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are, simply put, the best series now on the market.'

Review

'Peter Robinson has for too long, and unfairly, been in the shadow of Ian Rankin; perhaps Piece of My Heart, the latest in the Chief Inspector Banks series, will give him the status he deserves, near, perhaps even at the top of, the British crime writers' league . . . Piece of My Heart brilliantly interweaves past and present, providing two strands of tension for the price of one, and further enhancing Alan Banks's reputation as one of crime fiction's most appealing cops.'

(Marcel Berlins, The Times )

'PIECE OF MY HEART brilliantly evokes the time of British psychedelia (which I remember as standing in a muddy field sucking on a weak joint), as well as being a terrific contemporary crime novel.'

(Independent on Sunday )

'This is Banks' 16th outing and the best yet'

(Mirror )

'This book must be the bargain of the year, for it is two riveting, equally interesting crime novels in one. What takes it into the premier league, however, is Robinson's utterly convincing and moving portrayal of Chadwick and Banks'

(Telegraph )

'A fascinating and atmospheric exploration of the way the past intrudes on the present'

(Mo Hayder )

'Robinson has to use all his ingenuity to find the solution to both killings. This book benefits hugely from Robinson's sympathetic leading man and the richly recorded Dales settings.'

(Scotsman )

Synopsis
As volunteers clean up after a huge outdoor rock concert in Yorkshire in 1969, they discover the body of a young woman wrapped in a sleeping bag. She has been brutally murdered. The detective assigned to the case, Stanley Chadwick, is a hard-headed, strait-laced veteran of the Second World War. He could not have less in common with -- or less regard for -- young, disrespectful, long-haired hippies, smoking marijuana and listening to the pulsing sounds of rock and roll. But he has a murder to solve, and it looks as if the victim was somehow associated with the up-and-coming psychedelic pastoral band the Mad Hatters. In the present, Inspector Alan Banks is investigating the murder of a freelance music journalist who was working on a feature about the Mad Hatters for MOJO magazine. This is not the first time that the Mad Hatters, now aging rock superstars, have been brushed by tragedy. Banks finds he has to delve into the past to find out exactly what hornets' nest the journalist inadvertently stirred up.

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Customer Reviews

I'm very impressed
I haven't read any of his other books and I picked this up because it was cheap. And I have to say I am really impressed. The writing flows and is easy to read and the storyline is fantastic and enjoyable. I found this unputdownable and will definitely be chasing up some of his other books to read now.

The twist that never was
Ian Rankin is quoted on the front cover of my edition of this novel as saying "Watch out for those twists - they'll get you every time". Well, the same quote was used on the cover of another of Robinson's tales, AFTERMATH, and I'm beginning to wonder what Rankin and others are on about. There wasn't a mega-twist in either of these stories and the outcome in each case was rather predictable. In Piece of my Heart two whodunits are presented side-by-side, with a 36 year gap in between. As the Summer of Love is drawing to a close in September 1969, a young woman is found stabbed to death just after an open-air rock concert in Yorkshire; WW2 veteran and now DCI Stanley Chadwick hunts down the killer. Meanwhile our more contemporary hero DCI Alan Banks is trying to find out who clubbed a music journalist to death with a poker in a rented Yorkshire cottage. Needless to say, the two murders are linked and with nothing much else to do, the reader must try to guess who did it back then and who did it more recently before all is revealed and we can close the final page.

This story needed a dramatic twist to make it special, and if truth be told it never came - so it's nothing special. If anything it's a journey of nostalgia for the author who, I would wager, had a similar liking for the many rock bands mentioned in `the 1969 story'. These included Led Zeppelin in particular (nothing wrong with his musical taste, then) and Pink Floyd, the Who, the Rolling Stones and others who defined that generation. Personally I think there was far too much name-dropping of groups, the singers and their songs, because it could be said that it was at the expense of some decent fictional character development, which would have been a great deal more interesting - and remember, I'm an ardent fan of all the bands mentioned. Most notably I felt that after 436 pages I hardly knew anything more about central character Banks than I did at the beginning; there are occasions when Robinson dips his toe, if not his pen, into the waters of the personal life outside of Banks' police career but these moments are so fleeting - even the coverage of a potentially emotive issue as the death of his brother - that nothing ever really sinks in, nothing leaves an impression and by and large both of the parallel stories here are just well-written and mildly interesting police procedurals. For crime fiction lovers such as myself, who has read countless forensic, psychological and evidence-gathering police procedure novels, we want more than this, something to put some flesh on the bones of the story. And when we read whodunits, we want to care about the innocent and hate the guilty. This novel fails to really move the emotions such that when we do eventually find out who thrust the knife 36 years ago and who swung the poker this year, there's little sense of satisfaction, no glory rush of justice and no punching of the air while we whisper `Yeah! Got him!'. This wasn't a bad story, and the author, I'm sure, is a talented writer, but I can't help but feel that he had an off-day with this one and that he has the ability to do better. I'll try again with Peter Robinson, but next time I won't be expecting any juicy twists at the end.

Excellent
In the crowded world of fictional detectives/investigators, Peter Robinsons Inspector Banks series stands out - a new Banks novel is always worth reading. Banks himself is a satisfyingly complex creation, and if you have read any of the series, you will know that his love of music features heavily.

So it is no surprise to see this novel use a '70's music festival as the centrepiece of the tale. Robinson has 2 separate threads woven brilliantly together, linking the past with the present, and the efforts to solve both cases running side by side. It is a tribute to his style that this never becomes tiresome, each unwinding to a satisfying and credible conclusion.

If you have not yet discovered Peter Robinson as an author, then be warned - if you buy this you will have to get hold of the rest of the series - this is highly recommended for all lovers of Detective fiction