The Hanging Valley (An Inspector Banks Mystery) (Inspector Banks series Book 4)
Description
From AudioFile The title makes THE HANGING VALLEY sound like a Western, but James Langton's broad Yorkshire accents make it clear there are no cowboys here. When a mutilated body is discovered by a hiker in the titular valley, Inspector Banks, formerly of London, must identify the victim. He works with the gruff-voiced Superintendent Gristhorpe, questioning witnesses, including a brutal innkeeper and his traumatized wife. Langton gives most of the women feathery voices, but Katie is made to sound so fragile as to be debilitated. Banks travels to Canada to search for a potential witness, but the voices heard there bear little resemblance to those of actual Canadians. B.V.M. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. From Publishers Weekly A rotting corpse in the Yorkshire Dales brings Chief Inspector Alan Banks to the insular village of Swainshead in the latest of Robinson's ( Gallows View ) justly acclaimed series of procedurals. Aided by a receipt found in the trousers pocket of the murder victim, Banks identifies him as Bernard Allen, a local youth on a visit home from Canada. The investigation leads back five years to the unsolved murder of a PI hunting for a young girl's killer and the nearly simultaneous disappearance of a village woman. Evoking Ruth Rendell's Wexford setting and, like her, posing multiple solutions before the story's closing, Robinson lets Banks do much of his deducing with a pint glass in his hand--here inviting comparisons with Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse. Watching Banks down his beer is the pool of likeliest suspects, including two landowner brothers with sinister pasts, a pretentious B&B owner and his sexually repressed wife. Banks travels to Canada (on the trail of the missing woman) and moves through a maze of passion and possible blackmail before finding the solution in long-kept secrets. Robinson excels in the depiction of character, especially in his portrait of his pleasingly fallible copper. He is steadily ascending toward the pinnacles of crime fiction. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. “Exemplary.” -- New York Times Book Review “The equal of P.D. James.” -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch“A superior detective ... a superior writer.” -- Denver Post --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. 'If you haven't caught up with Peter Robinson already, now is the time to start.' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'The novels of Peter Robinson are chilling, evocative, deeply nuanced works of art' Dennis Lehane --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. "Robinson excels in the depiction of character, especially in his portrait of his pleasingly fallible copper. He is steadily ascending toward the pinnacles of crime fiction." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. “Exemplary.” ( New York Times Book Review )“The equal of P.D. James.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)“A superior detective ... a superior writer.” ( Denver Post ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Library Journal Robinson renders a happy mixture of English village procedural and Canadian atmosphere. After failing to solve the murder of a wandering hiker near a Yorkshire village, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks flies to Toronto to question a key witness. The plot still revolves around several Yorkshire suspects, including an abusive social climber, a wealthy squire, an emotionally repressed innkeeper, and a bitter ex-husband--who all seem to have some secret in common. This solid, straightforward title is recommended for most fiction collections.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. One of the world’s most popular and acclaimed writers, Peter Robinson is the best-selling, award-winning author of the DCI Banksxa0series; he has also written two short-story collections and three stand-alone novels, which combined have sold more than ten million copies around the world. Among his many honors and prizes are the Edgar Award, the CWA (UK) Dagger in the Library Award, and the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy Martin Beck Award. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. No one dreamed something so hideous could grow in so beautiful a place . . . Many who visit the valley are overwhelmed by its majesty. Some wish they never had to leave. One didn't, a hiker whose decomposing corpse is discovered by an unsuspecting tourist. But this strange, incomprehensible murder is only the edge of the darkness that hovers over a small rural village and its tight-lipped residents who guard shattering secrets of sordid pasts and private shames. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks knows that both the grim truth and a cold-blooded killer are hiding here, far from the city, the noise, and safety. And he's determined to walk into the valley of death to expose them both. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Read more
Features & Highlights
- When a faceless body is found in a tranquil valley just south of the village of Swainshead, Chief Inspector Alan Banks soon finds that no one in the village is willing to talk about it, except to say, “Not again.
- ” An unsolved murder from five years before and the unsolved disappearance of a prominent local man’s girlfriend appear to be connected. As Banks delves deeper into the mystery, someone begins to intentionally slow down the investigation. When events take a turn, Inspector Banks must track his killer across the Atlantic and find a way to make a break in the case before time runs out. Fourth in the critically acclaimed Inspector Banks Mystery Series.
