Close to Home: A Novel of Suspense FROM THE PUBLISHER
"A pair of unconscionable deaths separated by miles and years threatens to bring to light shocking revelations that could destroy careers, reputations, cherished myths, and fragile lives. And the terrible truths that lie buried in a mire of betrayal and deception could prove equally devastating to the living and the memory of the dead." "1965. Winston Churchill's funeral. Carnaby Street. The Moors murders. The first U.S. space walk. Help! Mods and rockers. Emma Peel and The Avengers. It was a time of possibility, of hope for the future, the fulcrum point of the sixties. Alan Banks was a teenager on the precipice of manhood with little on his mind but girls and music. Until the day his best friend, Graham, vanished." "For more than thirty-five years, Banks has not forgiven himself for having possibly caused the disappearance and presumed death of Graham that summer. Now a detective chief inspector in Yorkshire, he is consumed by a job that threatens to send him over the edge with its conflicting demands, its proximity to violent death and all that is worst in people. Banks is at an emotional crossroads when, shockingly, brittle bones are unearthed in his childhood town. Identified as Graham's remains, the imagined skeleton in the detective's closet is now all too real. Plummeted back into a past he thought he'd overcome, tormented by guilt over his failure to prevent his best friend's murder so many years ago, Banks is drawn into an investigation that hits dangerously close to home." To Bank's horror, history seemingly repeats itself when a troubled young man, the privileged son of a deceased music legend, goes missing and is presumed dead. Working between the two cases, Banks must draw on all his instincts, his experience, and his memories to find the truth - and lay two innocents to rest.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
In this 12th novel to feature Det. Chief Insp. Alan Banks, the brooding Yorkshire policeman is called back to England from holiday when someone discovers the remains of his old childhood friend Graham Marshall, who disappeared from their hometown in 1965. It's a journey back to Banks's own past and the provincial town of Peterborough, where he assists Michelle Hart, a local detective, on the case. He's also advising his colleague (and former lover) Annie Cabbot as she investigates the more recent disappearance of another teenager: Luke Armitage, the introverted, intellectual son of a British rock star who committed suicide when Luke was a baby. Like P.D. James, Robinson works on a large, intricately detailed canvas (sometimes too detailed-even the minor figures get at least a thumbnail sketch). The plot is richly complex, with lots of forensic science, a fair bit of English criminal history (the Kray brothers, legendary '60s-era London East End gangsters, make an appearance) and some internecine police department feuds. There's a fair amount of action and lots of suspense; someone doesn't want Hart or Banks to pursue the decades-old case, and Cabbot has her hands full with a plethora of unsavory suspects in the Armitage case. Along the way, Robinson probes more abstract ideas: the illusory nature of nostalgia; the dark, secret lives of small towns; middle age; and the oft-lamented challenges of going home again. This satisfying and subtle police procedural has a little bit of everything. Agent, Dominick Abel. (Feb.) Forecast: Robinson's long-running series is gathering readers and recognition. This latest addition will be helped by an 11-city tour. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Robinson's 13th novel is a story of parallel crimes-the disappearance of two 15-year-old boys-that are separated by some 35 years. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks is drawn into both investigations, one because the missing boy, Graham Marshall, whose body turns up at a building site, was a childhood friend; the other because Inspector Annie Cabbot, a friend and former lover, needs his help. As Robinson shifts imperceptibly from one crime to the other, Banks, too, moves back and forth in time. Tormented by guilt after all these years over Graham's disappearance, he searches through childhood diaries for clues and returns to his parents' home, where he confronts his father, still hostile about his becoming a policeman. As he and Cabbot delve into the second crime, he embarks on an affair with the inspector investigating Graham's death. Though Robinson is his usual brilliant self, one wonders why the women Banks is attracted to all seem to have been wounded in some awful way. This quibble aside, Robinson again shows himself to be as astute a writer as P.D. James as he examines the myriad faces of guilt.-Francine Fialkoff, "Library Journal" Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
The New York Times
In light of the slam-bang subtleties of most throwaway thrillers...there is an attractive depth and naturalness about Peter Robinson's "Close to Home." ...refreshingly down-to-earth.... Like Dennis Lehane's "Mystic River," which it resembles in ambition and in pointed contrasts between past and present.... Janet Maslin
Kirkus Reviews
Underneath all the endless complications, Detective Inspector Alan Banks's behemoth 13th appearance is a case of two dead boys. DNA evidence, directed by some smart forensics, identifies the first as Graham Marshall, a childhood friend of Banks's who went missing from his Yorkshire newspaper route 35 years ago. Hearing that his skeletal remains have been found, Banks hastens home from the Greek island where he'd retreated to blot out the memory of his last sour adventure in crime and romance (Aftermath, 2001) to Peterborough, where he finds the local constabulary eyeing his long-withheld revelation-Banks himself had been attacked and nearly drowned by an unidentified stranger two months before Graham went missing-with suspicion and a present-day case unfolding in ways that disturbingly echo the past. The new Graham is Luke Armitage, a sensitive student whose famous mother, retired model Robin Fetherling, and equally famous stepfather, ex-soccer player Martin Armitage, have never helped him come to terms with his own father, a rock star whose life ended in suicide. Haunted by constant reminders of the past he shared with Graham, Banks joins forces (and eventually much more) with Inspector Michelle Hart, unearthing a murky pattern that threatens to swallow every finely limned survivor of the Swinging Sixties, along with some who didn't survive. Robinson unites P.D. James's strengths-breadth, ambition, and an olympian penetration into character-with some of her equally characteristic weaknesses: a tendency to sprawl and a ritual reluctance to tie all those wonderfully woven threads together. Author tour
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