Abattoir Blues
[an Inspector Bank Novel]
Book - 2014
The story begins with a stolen tractor, hardly a job for DCI Banks and his Homicide and Major Crimes team, but the new police commissioner has put rural crime high on her agenda. At the same time, an apparent crime scene is discovered in an old hangar at an abandoned World War II airfield. In addition, two local lads are missing. One of them lives in a caravan, which is burned to the ground one night, and the other's girlfriend receives an unwelcome visit from someone impersonating a police officer. Just as Banks and his team are getting a grip on all these incidents, a motor accident in a freak hailstorm turns up a gruesome discovery that spins the investigation into high gear. Soon it seems that not even the investigators themselves are safe during the race against time that follows.
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Publisher:
Toronto : McClelland & Stewart, ©2014.
ISBN:
9780771076428
Characteristics:
367 pages ;,24 cm.
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Add a CommentExcellent addition to the Inspector Banks series!
A fast paced novel that starts with the two plots of a stolen tractor and two missing men that are eventually connected with solid police work, lots of solid interviewing skills and the usual twists and turns. It was nice to see Winsome and Cabbot taking on lead roles with some interesting character developments for the former.
Another DCI Banks police novel - maybe I've read too many in this series cause this one was a real bore. The storyline and characters involved in the mystery were uninteresting and flat, and even the regular principals seemed to sleepwalk thru this one. It was a challenge to read the whole book, unusual for a Robinson novel.
I wondered if I was the only one who felt that Peter Robinson's former books were better. This one didn't hold my attention as much as the previous books I've read of his. Part of it being, I think, that I didn't know what an abattoir was.
I really enjoy Peter Robinson's books, and this was good, if somewhat gruesome in parts. If you are a vegan, vegetarian or animal lover, you might want to pass on this one.
I have always enjoyed this author, but I found this story based on a gruesome premise that was repeated needlessly. I prefer the more mellow Alan Banks.
This one is OK, but the key breaks in the story rely on technology and Banks' networking with old colleagues - which is probably the way things are solved in the real world nowadays, but somehow seems too convenient when faced with so many "dead-ends". Support characters Annie Cabbot and Winsome Jackman are developed more in this story - which may be leading up to Alan Banks retirement soon? He's got to be well over 60 by now.
Have to agree with previous comment that proof reading is really bad. In this digital age it appears nobody reads the authors draft before it hits the presses..
Peter Robinson with DCI Banks does it so well. A very nasty organised crime ring is uncovered in the process of finding out why two youths disappeared from the same area in the Yorkshire dales.It made a good if gory read and will make good TV. Only a shame about the proofreading.