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IN THE DARK PLACES, Peter Robinson's 22nd Inspector Banks novel, is a welcome addition to the series. Loyal fans are again privileged to spend time with a familiar cast of strongly drawn characters who have developed deep and meaningful relationships with each other over time. Besides Inspector Alan Banks of the Yorkshire police, we again meet DI Annie Cabbot, DS Winsome Jackson, DC Dougal Wilson, and DC Gerry Masterson as well as others. The histories of these characters with each other are referred to but this information informs rather than overshadows the present situation, so a newcomer to the Inspector Banks books may feel welcome. The reader is also treated to beautiful descriptions of the Yorkshire dales in northern England.
As the book opens, Banks is away on holiday in Italy with his latest girlfriend. A number of seemingly small-time rural situations unfold, but nothing seems very important. A wealthy gentleman farmer reports the theft of his expensive tractor. A local man, Mick Lane, goes missing, and his shady friend Morgan Spenser also seems to have disappeared. Then Spenser's caravan is torched before the police can search it. Meanwhile, Terry Gilchrist, an Iraqi war veteran recovering from a leg injury, takes his dog Peaches for a slow walk. The dog squeezes through an opening in the fence around an abandoned airplane hangar and won't come out. When Terry finds him, Peaches is sniffing at what may be a human bloodstain on the floor.
Banks returns to Yorkshire and takes over the investigation, which now may be a murder case. We learn that his current love interest is probably as dead-end as his others have been. His lack of luck in love is a recurrent theme and his cluelessness in relationships is one of his endearing qualities. But he is an astute and intuitive investigator. Soon Banks and his team find connections between seemingly disparate situations and crimes. The dismal, cold, rainy and often horrific weather of the moors plays a part in the drama. A sudden storm causes a car to swerve and fly off a cliff, revealing a gory secret in the wreckage. The officers are soaking and shivering as they make their interview visits, and the weather plays a big part in the demise of one of the villains.
The suspense grows as the reader and the officers put together the clues. A budding romance between one of the officers and Terry Gilchrist inadvertently leads to a rescue from one of the "dark places." As the title suggests, dark places play a big role in this book. Some of these are real and some are psychological, as we are shown the evil of which some people are capable. As in the best mysteries, there are times when the reader is aware of something that a character, to his or her peril, does not yet know or realize. There is also a time when life or death for a character depends on how quickly help can arrive.
IN THE DARK PLACES is a complicated and intriguing mystery. Although Banks is the one in charge, and his contacts help solve the major mysteries, the members of his team are all involved in pursuing the truth. Peter Robinson has again created a believable and entertaining world peopled by these characters.
IN THE DARK PLACES was published last autumn in the UK and Canada as ABATTOIR BLUES
§ Anne Corey is a writer, poet, teacher and botanical artist in New York's Hudson Valley.
Reviewed by Anne Corey, August 2015
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