Strange Affair

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In this artful abridgement of Inspector Alan Banks's 15th series appearance, things get personal for the Yorkshire policeman. Still despondent over the burning of his hearth and home in Playing with Fire, he's drawn to London by a panicked phone message left by his estranged younger brother. Meanwhile, Banks's name and old address turn up in the possession of an attractive young woman murdered on his own turf. That death is being probed by his ex-lover, Inspector Annie Cabbot. The author cleverly keeps things moving by switching from one investigation to the other, introducing both sleuths to a gallery of well-defined witnesses and potential suspects. Narrator Prebble, who can be heard on nearly 200 audiobooks, tells the story with an almost cool British reserve, slipping easily into a panoply of vocal characterizations appropriate to Robinson's large, distinctive cast. >From Banks's pleasant and faintly bemused mum to Cockney thugs and smarmy swells, Prebble gets the job done. He also handles the mood swings of the two main characters with ease. Using subtle shifts in pacing and vocal timbre, he balances Annie's professional patience in her interviews against her growing anger with Banks for the mental anguish he continues to cause her. And for Banks, the narrator runs the emotional gamut—from depression to full fury to a quiet understanding that "everyone gets tainted by a murder investigation." Simultaneous release with the Morrow hardcover (Forecasts, Jan. 17). (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Book Description

On a summer night, an attractive woman hurtles north in a blue Peugeot with an address in her pocket, while, back in London, a desperate man leaves a late-night phone message on his brother's answering machine. By sunrise, the woman is found in her car, shot, execution-style, through the head.

Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot arrives on the scene and discovers a slip of paper in the dead woman's pocket that bears the name of her colleague and erstwhile lover, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks. Banks, meanwhile -- withdrawn after nearly dying in the fire that destroyed his home -- has gone missing just when he's needed most, and has left plenty of questions behind.

As Annie struggles to determine if Banks is safe -- and what role he may have played in the woman's murder -- Banks himself investigates the mysterious disappearance of his estranged brother, Roy. Working from Roy's swank apartment, Banks makes the rounds to Roy's old haunts and slowly inhabits the life of his younger brother, the black sheep of the family. As the trail of clues about Roy's life and associations draws Banks into a dark circle of conspiracy and corruption, mobsters and murder, Banks suddenly realizes he's running out of time to save Roy, and by digging too deep, he may be exposing himself and his family to the same -- possibly deadly -- danger.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Edgar and Anthony Award-winning author Peter Robinson's fourth book is a gritty tale of brothers at odds and a story of unexpected connections. Alan and Roy Banks were never close. Alan was a normal teenager with a chaotic room and appalling taste in music. Roy was compulsively neat and kept a lock on his toy box. Alan went on to become Detective Chief Inspector Banks, with a solid, if not always shining, police career. And Roy, estranged from his brother, became a wealthy entrepreneur. Then Roy disappears, and Alan's search for him soon confirms his long-held suspicion that Roy has been operating on the shady side of the law.

When a murdered woman is found in possession of a piece of paper with Alan's name scrawled on it, Alan must dig deeper into his brother's shadow life. The discovery of the dead woman's connection to a doctor who treated prostitutes off the books as a "public service" gives credence to Alan's fears. Bit by bit, Alan's investigation reveals the sickening evidence of Roy's involvement in kidnapping and prostitution. But recently, something must have changed. The Roy he's unwillingly come to know wouldn't have given up his ill-gotten gains lightly or easily.

As Alan begins to wonder whether his brother finally got mixed up in a crime so terrible that even he had objected, it gradually becomes clear that Alan himself is in deep trouble. He's already learned enough to become a target for whoever had the ruthlessness and power to make his black-sheep brother disappear. Sue Stone

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"On a warm summer night, an attractive woman hurtles north in a blue Peugeot with a hastily scrawled address in her pocket, while, back in London, a desperate man leaves an urgent late-night phone message on his brother's answering machine. By sunrise the next morning, the woman is found inside her car along an otherwise peaceful country lane, shot, execution-style, through the head." "Welcome to the idyllic Yorkshire Dales, where Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot arrives on the scene and discovers, to her surprise, a slip of paper in the dead woman's pocket that bears the name of her colleague and erstwhile lover, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks. Banks, meanwhile - already haunted and withdrawn after nearly dying in the fire that destroyed his home - has gone missing just when he's needed most, and has left plenty of questions behind." As Annie struggles to determine whether or not Banks is safe - and what role he may have played in the woman's murder - Banks himself investigates the mysterious disappearance of his estranged brother, Roy, whose late-night call for help brings Banks back to London. Working from Roy's swank apartment, Banks makes the rounds to Roy's old haunts and slowly inhabits the life of his younger brother - the black sheep of the family, who always seemed to sail a little too close to the wind. As the trail of clues about Roy's life and associations draws Banks into a dark circle of conspiracy and corruption, mobsters and murder, Banks suddenly realizes he's running out of time to save Roy, and by digging too deep, he may be exposing himself and his family to the same - possibly deadly - danger.

FROM THE CRITICS

Patrick Anderson - The Washington Post

Banks admits that he had assumed that prostitutes were in the business by choice, but the Interpol man shows him that is often not the case. In exploring the issue of sexual slavery, Robinson joins other crime writers, and many journalists, in casting a light on dark corners of our society. John Lescroart's The Motive, reviewed here recently, took a hard look at another urgent issue, prosecutorial misconduct, as have numerous lawyers who have turned to fiction. It is heartening to see first-rate writers like Robinson and Lescroart becoming, in effect, muckrakers, for ours is a world with an inexhaustible supply of muck that needs raking.

Janet Maslin - The New York Times

"Definitely not your everyday quaffing plonk," Mr. Robinson writes descriptively in Strange Affair, abiding by two strict rules of this genre: mention snacks and beverages as often as possible, and don't stint on the colorful lingo. But the small stuff is deftly fused with an engrossing crime story, which also includes the murder of an unknown woman traveling along a highway. Mr. Robinson stocks the book with chapter-ending cliffhangers, among other good reasons to follow his well-crafted story. His finishing stroke of evil is a startling one, even by these books' standards of deviant behavior.

Publishers Weekly

In his last outing (Playing With Fire), Insp. Alan Banks nearly died when a serial killer set fire to his cottage in the Yorkshire village of Eastvale, and the melancholic detective remains understandably depressed as this superlative 15th novel in the series gets underway. Living in a rented flat, Banks is struggling to put his life back together when an urgent phone message from his younger brother, Roy-a successful, slightly shady London businessman-requests his help: "It could be a matter of life and death.... Maybe even mine." When he can't reach Roy by phone, Banks travels to London to see what's wrong and finds his brother's house unlocked and no hint about where he might have gone or why. On the night of Roy's phone call, a young woman is shot to death in her car just outside of Eastvale, and she has Banks's name and address in her pocket. Annie Cabbot, Banks's colleague on the force (and a former lover), is in charge of that case, and her investigation quickly intersects with Banks's unofficial sleuthing into his brother's inexplicable disappearance. The gripping story, which revolves around that most heinous of crimes, human trafficking, shows Robinson getting more adept at juggling complex plot lines while retaining his excellent skills at characterization. The result is deeply absorbing, and the nuances of Banks's character are increasingly compelling. Agent, Dominick Abel. (Feb. 15) Forecast: Robinson's reputation in the States (he is English and lives in Canada) continues to build. With the help of a big marketing campaign and an eight-city author tour, this could be a breakout novel for him. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks is still recovering from a fire that almost took his life (in Playing With Fire) when his estranged brother Roy leaves a message on his machine pleading for his help. When he cannot reach Roy, Alan travels to London and finds his brother's house unlocked and Roy nowhere to be found. Meanwhile back in Eastvale, a woman has been found, shot to death execution-style. In her back pocket is Banks's address, leaving Detective Inspector Annie Cabot to try to figure out who the girl is and where Alan has disappeared to. When the two finally meet up in London, they must work through their personal differences before they can resolve the two crimes. After a break with a standalone novel (The First Cut), Robinson returns to a police procedural series that just keeps getting better. Recommended for all mystery collections. Robinson lives in Toronto. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 10/1/04.]-Deborah Shippy, Moline P.L., IL Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews