In a Dry Season (Inspector Banks Novels)

Product Description
Peter Robinson, internationally acclaimed author of literary suspense, knows the serenity found in the rustic Yorkshire countryside can be deceptive. For evil can strike in the most pastoral of surroundings, and go unpunished for years-even decades.Water is the essence of life. Yet during a dry season, when supply cannot meet demand, the precious commodity rapidly drains from a manmade resevoir to reveal a forgotten town that was sacrificed for the sake of water.A blistering summer has struck, and thirst has consumed the resources provided by the Thornfield Resevoir, unmasking the remains of Hobb's End, a small village at its bottom that ceased to exist in post World War II England. A curious child thinks of the resurfaced hamlet as a mystical playground, until he unearths a human skeleton. Modern forensics determine that the skeleton belongs to a young woman who appears to have been brutally murdered and hidden beneath the floor of a decrepit outbuilding in the 1940's. It falls to a grudge-wielding police superior to seclect a detective for the impossible task of putting a name to the unidentifiable remains from a place that no longer exists, and whose living former residents are scattered to the winds.Having challenged the system and his superiors once too often, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks has been restricted to desk duty as punishment for insubordination, until an official telephone call lands him in the muck of the decades-old murder. Given the state of affairs, any sensible policeman would throw in the towel, but not Banks. Aided by Annie Cabbot, an intuitive Detective Sergeant, Banks challenges the odds by identifying the victim and proceeeds to uncover the past buried beneath a flood of time, indiscretions and denial.
Amazon.com Review
Detective chief inspector Alan Banks is a walking midlife crisis, full of rage because of his recently failed marriage, a career crippled by a jealous superior, and problems with his son. In less skilled hands, Banks could have quickly become a royal pain, but Robinson makes him instead a very likable character, who is slightly baffled and bemused by his bad luck. When he criticizes his son Brian's decision to drop out of college to become a rock musician, Banks quickly regrets it--recognizing the same impulses that made him rebel against his own parents, and some of the pain he felt when a college friend died of a drug overdose. The realization that Brian's heavy-metal band is actually quite good brings genuine pleasure to a man whose idea of rock is Love's Forever Changes and other 1970s delights.

Banks is assigned to work on a case that the Yorkshire police department considers to be somewhat of a joke. The skeleton of a woman wrapped in World War II blackout curtains has been found in a dried-out reservoir. This man-made watering hole was a village--Hobbs End--that had been flooded many years earlier. Through the journal of a major player we realize early on who the dead woman is, but a large part of the fun is watching Banks and an edgy, attractive female cop put the pieces of the puzzle together. In a Dry Season is a stylish and gently reflective tale of secrets and lies.

Banks's other books include Wednesday's Child, Final Account, and Blood at the Root. --Dick Adler