Standing in the Shadows
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4.2 • 58 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
The twenty-eighth and final installment of the #1 bestselling Inspector Banks series by “the grand master of the genre” (Literary Review), Peter Robinson.
In November 1980, student Nick Hartley returns from a lecture to find his house full of police officers. As he discovers that his ex-girlfriend has been found murdered in a nearby park, and her new boyfriend is missing, he realizes two things in quick succession: he is undoubtedly a suspect as he has no convincing alibi, and he has his own suspicions as to what might have happened . . .
Decades later, in November 2019, an archaeologist unearths a skeleton that turns out to be far more contemporary than the Roman remains she is seeking. Detective Superintendent Alan Banks and his team are called in, and as an investigation into the find begins, the past and the present meet with devastating consequences.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Robinson's excellent 28th novel featuring Det. Supt. Alan Banks (after 2021's Not Dark Yet) interweaves the 1980 murder of college student Alice Poole with the discovery in 2019 of a man's body buried in an old farm about to be razed for a shopping center in Eastvale, Yorkshire. The earlier crime is related through the eyes of Poole's ex-boyfriend, Nicholas Hartley, who's haunted by the fact that no one was charged with Poole's murder—and the obvious suspect, her then boyfriend, Mark Woodcroft, who disappeared without a trace. The narrative alternates between Hartley's lifelong interest in the case while he becomes a successful journalist and Banks leading his team, including Det. Sgt. Winsome Jackman and other regulars, in the dogged, needle-in-a-haystack search for the identity of the man buried on the farm and, ultimately, his killer. The story enables Robinson to delve deeply into Banks's backstory, including a stint undercover in London early in his career, along with policing and corruption from Thatcherite England to the present. As always in the Banks novels, readers will enjoy the details of pop culture and social history. This is an intelligent and satisfying procedural.
Customer Reviews
Never disappointed with this book series
This book series has stood the test of time due to the quality of writing. I was very sad to hear of Peter’s passing and treasured this last book even more.
As always with his books, it was a top shelf mystery which kept me engaged and guessing.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.