Watching the Dark: An Inspector Banks Novel by Peter Robinson

Release Date - February 25, 2014

Peter Robinson
William Morrow

Book Review by Bob Walch

The murder of a fellow detective coupled with the discovery of some rather compromising photos in the dead man’s possession get Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks assigned to a case that has more twists than a narrow, Alpine mountain road.

When it appears that the dead detective’s case is linked to the disappearance of an English girl in Estonia six years previously, Banks heads off to the Continent to do some digging. It doesn’t take him long to realize the local authorities aren’t too anxious to open the cold case and assist him in discovering what happened to the girl.

Meanwhile, in what appears to be a totally different investigation, Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot is looking into a local situation that involves a migrant labor scam. Just the tip of the iceberg, this case is far more detailed and involves much more serious crimes.

Eventually Banks and Cabbot’s investigations connect for an ending that will have the reader shaking his/her head in wonder or dismay. Previous reader reflections on this latest Banks’ caper have been very, very mixed. While many readers liked it, it seems almost an equal number were not too impressed.

What’s my advice? If you have read the other novels in the series, by all means give this one a try, but if you have never read Robinson before, don’t begin with this one. Try an earlier novel such as Strange Affair, Friend of the Devil or Innocent Graves.