lazygal's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this less than [b:Gallows View|102139|Gallows View (Inspector Banks, #1)|Peter Robinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388364064s/102139.jpg|2127790] not because of the mystery or the writing, but because I really hate it when fictional detectives (or characters) get all "meta" and talk about what it would be like if this were the movies/tv/a book, but because this isn't... Grrrr.
It's also odd how far away the time seems, even though the books are written in the late 80s: no cells, no computers, not everyone has a phone. That time is still too recent to be historical fiction, but it's certainly not current.
It's also odd how far away the time seems, even though the books are written in the late 80s: no cells, no computers, not everyone has a phone. That time is still too recent to be historical fiction, but it's certainly not current.
micrummey's review against another edition
3.0
The second in the Inspector Banks series and it's as if Robinson is suffering from the 'second album' syndrome. This is not as good as the first, [b:Gallows View|102139|Gallows View (Inspector Banks, #1)|Peter Robinson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388364064l/102139._SY75_.jpg|2127790] in that it feels a little twee and Banks as a character is out of place in rural Yorkshire.
However towards the conclusion, Robinson's writing style starts to match that of subsequent novels. It's as if the more he practices the better he gets.
I'm glad I didn't read this first and might have thought there's nothing to distinguish this above the crowd of fictional detectives.
As for the plot, it's very simple involving a body discovered in a village which takes banks plenty of beer and cigarettes to solve. Robinson doesn't over complicate things, a book that is anchored in normality.
However towards the conclusion, Robinson's writing style starts to match that of subsequent novels. It's as if the more he practices the better he gets.
I'm glad I didn't read this first and might have thought there's nothing to distinguish this above the crowd of fictional detectives.
As for the plot, it's very simple involving a body discovered in a village which takes banks plenty of beer and cigarettes to solve. Robinson doesn't over complicate things, a book that is anchored in normality.
ksparks's review against another edition
3.0
This is a slow moving read, because there is a baffling lack of suspects--everyone seems to have liked the man who died. Although slow, I enjoyed listening to it as an audiobook and trying to puzzle it out. Most mysteries have the opposite situation--of tons of potential murderers. It was interesting to see how the detective handled it. Also interesting, the details of life in Yorkshire.
margardenlady's review against another edition
4.0
We had not listened to an Inspector Banks mystery prior to this trip and I think we definitely will listen to some in the future. The story centers around an investigator who has moved north to escape the unending crime/murder/mayhem of being a CI in London. An academic recently moved to this rural community has been murdered and nobody has any argument with him. In fact the dead guy seems way too innocuous to be killed. And then a young girl is killed. Can CI Banks solve the crime? Of course and the characters he encounters along the way are charming and quirky.
jensreadinglife's review against another edition
4.0
I am so happy I discovered this series. Wonderful British detective series with an interesting cast of characters. Chief Inspector Banks is a complex man and not without his flaws which makes him all the more likeable. I can't wait to read more!
skinnypenguin's review
4.0
Enjoyed the book. Like how Inspector Banks likes living in a smaller town and not big city London. It is still taking him time to adjust. Small villages operate differently than big cities and everyone knows everyone else and their business. It shows how the past is important when investigating the crime even when people don't think so. Felt bad that the young girl who was so curious got killed.
samhouston's review
4.0
Continuing my recent discovery and exploration of Peter Robinson’s fiction, I have just completed his second Inspector Banks novel, A Dedicated Man. As I mentioned earlier however, this is actually my third Banks novel since I only discovered Robinson with last year’s Careless Love.
It seems that the good inspector has been enjoying something of a major-crime lull since the personal trauma he and wife Sandra suffered in Banks’s debut in Gallows View. All of that though abruptly ends via the brutal murder of a “dedicated man,” a retired college professor who has permanently relocated to Banks’s rather isolated Yorkshire location. Mainly because everyone seems to have loved and respected the victim to such a high degree, the case proves to be a particularly difficult one for Banks to get a handle on, but the inspector counts on his usual persistence, along with a well aimed hard push or two in the right direction, to get the job done.
And it’s precisely that attitude that attracts me to Robinson’s Inspector Banks novels. I have always enjoyed a good police procedural and found them to be more satisfying than detective novels by writers who rely on one thrilling scene after another to carry their books to some kind of (usually preposterous) conclusion. For me the best crime fiction writers are those who combine elements of both styles with an emphasis on process over thrill. Thankfully, too, Inspector Banks is a “talker” and several times in A Dedicated Man he explains his crime solving philosophy to one or another of the locals in great detail.
Robinson first tells the reader something that Banks learned the hard way:
“Banks knew from experience that once a murder investigation begins there is no stopping and little slowing down even for family life. The crime invades mealtimes, ablutions, and sleep; it dominates conversation and puts up an invisible barrier between the investigator and his family.”
There’s also this from Robinson explaining the inspector’s mindset:
“Banks also liked the feeling of being an outsider. Not a stranger, as he had been among the anonymous, international crowds of London, but an outsider. He knew he always would be no matter how deep he put his roots.” (In Yorkshire)
In a revealing conversation with a crime novelist who also is a suspect in the murder investigation, Banks says this:
“In writing, yes. In fiction. But in real life, I’m not so sure. It’d be a damn sight easier if I knew who the criminal was without having to write the whole book and make all the mistakes along the way.”
Later on when another suspect asks if he is close to solving the murder, he says:
“I can’t see it if I am, but detection doesn’t work like that anyway. It’s not a matter of getting closer like a zoom lens, but of getting enough bits and pieces to transform chaos into a recognizable pattern…But you can’t predict when that moment will come. It could be in the next ten seconds or the next ten years. You don’t know what the pattern will look like when it’s there, so you might not even recognize it at first. But soon enough you’ll know you’ve got a design and not just a filing cabinet full of odds and sods.”
I really like Chief Inspector Alan Banks. He may be a bit of a plodder, but he’s not going to quit before he gets the job done. So if police procedurals are for you, I think that author Peter Robinson just may be your guy. And knowing that I have something like 22 more Inspector Banks novels to enjoy makes me happy (hopefully there are many more to come yet).
(As posted on my book blog: bookchase.blogspot.com )
It seems that the good inspector has been enjoying something of a major-crime lull since the personal trauma he and wife Sandra suffered in Banks’s debut in Gallows View. All of that though abruptly ends via the brutal murder of a “dedicated man,” a retired college professor who has permanently relocated to Banks’s rather isolated Yorkshire location. Mainly because everyone seems to have loved and respected the victim to such a high degree, the case proves to be a particularly difficult one for Banks to get a handle on, but the inspector counts on his usual persistence, along with a well aimed hard push or two in the right direction, to get the job done.
And it’s precisely that attitude that attracts me to Robinson’s Inspector Banks novels. I have always enjoyed a good police procedural and found them to be more satisfying than detective novels by writers who rely on one thrilling scene after another to carry their books to some kind of (usually preposterous) conclusion. For me the best crime fiction writers are those who combine elements of both styles with an emphasis on process over thrill. Thankfully, too, Inspector Banks is a “talker” and several times in A Dedicated Man he explains his crime solving philosophy to one or another of the locals in great detail.
Robinson first tells the reader something that Banks learned the hard way:
“Banks knew from experience that once a murder investigation begins there is no stopping and little slowing down even for family life. The crime invades mealtimes, ablutions, and sleep; it dominates conversation and puts up an invisible barrier between the investigator and his family.”
There’s also this from Robinson explaining the inspector’s mindset:
“Banks also liked the feeling of being an outsider. Not a stranger, as he had been among the anonymous, international crowds of London, but an outsider. He knew he always would be no matter how deep he put his roots.” (In Yorkshire)
In a revealing conversation with a crime novelist who also is a suspect in the murder investigation, Banks says this:
“In writing, yes. In fiction. But in real life, I’m not so sure. It’d be a damn sight easier if I knew who the criminal was without having to write the whole book and make all the mistakes along the way.”
Later on when another suspect asks if he is close to solving the murder, he says:
“I can’t see it if I am, but detection doesn’t work like that anyway. It’s not a matter of getting closer like a zoom lens, but of getting enough bits and pieces to transform chaos into a recognizable pattern…But you can’t predict when that moment will come. It could be in the next ten seconds or the next ten years. You don’t know what the pattern will look like when it’s there, so you might not even recognize it at first. But soon enough you’ll know you’ve got a design and not just a filing cabinet full of odds and sods.”
I really like Chief Inspector Alan Banks. He may be a bit of a plodder, but he’s not going to quit before he gets the job done. So if police procedurals are for you, I think that author Peter Robinson just may be your guy. And knowing that I have something like 22 more Inspector Banks novels to enjoy makes me happy (hopefully there are many more to come yet).
(As posted on my book blog: bookchase.blogspot.com )
pgchuis's review
2.0
I had hoped that I might have discovered a long series of police procedurals that I could work my way through, but I don't think I will be doing that. This is set in Yorkshire and features Chief Inspector Alan Banks, who is trying to solve murder case. He spends a lot of time questioning people quite gently in a Midsomer Murders kind of way, while knocking back pints (and more pints) of beer at lunch time and smoking a pipe.
There were things about this novel which I enjoyed: Banks seemed to be a well-adjusted family man with no hidden past tragedy and his relationships with his colleagues were realistically portrayed. However, the standard of the writing was not great (favourite line: "I think I was responding to her sexual power unconsciously, and I was put off by her appearance") and the female characters were a bit off somehow. Penny Cartwright seemed to spend the novel having massive mood swings and behaving completely incoherently. Her back story was odd - I don't think people do make up incest-style gossip at all readily personally.
While I'm glad the villain was who it turned out to be, I don't think we were given enough clues to work things out for ourselves and Banks kind of stumbled across the answer by discovering the baddies red-handed. Finally, the whole Poirot-style "this is how it went down" explanation at the end was very unprofessional, since it is addressed to his wife and two civilians (and he found out most of it from a confession).
Disappointed.
There were things about this novel which I enjoyed: Banks seemed to be a well-adjusted family man with no hidden past tragedy and his relationships with his colleagues were realistically portrayed. However, the standard of the writing was not great (favourite line: "I think I was responding to her sexual power unconsciously, and I was put off by her appearance") and the female characters were a bit off somehow. Penny Cartwright seemed to spend the novel having massive mood swings and behaving completely incoherently. Her back story was odd - I don't think people do make up incest-style gossip at all readily personally.
While I'm glad the villain was who it turned out to be, I don't think we were given enough clues to work things out for ourselves and Banks kind of stumbled across the answer by discovering the baddies red-handed. Finally, the whole Poirot-style "this is how it went down" explanation at the end was very unprofessional, since it is addressed to his wife and two civilians (and he found out most of it from a confession).
Disappointed.