by Peter Robinson
This is Peter Robinson's 19th Detective Chief Inspector Banks novel, and it's the first I have read. I really enjoyed it.
Bad Boy starts with DCI Banks in America on holiday and while he is away all sorts of trouble is brewing on the home front. His daughter's best friend triggers a disastrous series of events when she, in a moment of pique, sneaks off with her boyfriend's gun. He is a very charming and dangerous young man and when Tracy Banks, who fancies him, decides to warn Jaff about the police attention coming his way, she ends up on the run with him.
It all starts out as a bit of thrilling fun for her, off with the bad boy, until it turns deadly serious and he shoots DI Annie Cabot in front of her. Tracy then realises just how bad her bad boy is.
DCI Banks comes back from America to find his partner shot and his daughter on the run and implicated in the crime. It all becomes very personal.
This was a great read, fast paced and with compelling and interesting characters, including a couple of particularly nasty fix-it men. It is one of those stories where you can see the inevitable escalation of events and the slide out of control for the players. There are some very nasty moments, but they are done well.
I have to say I did get a shock when it all wrapped up because of how suddenly it ended, for me a little too soon, but it was still finished in a satisfying kind of way.
It was a good read, and I'll certainly look out for some of Peter Robinson's other novels.
Posts
2 comments:
Vanda - I like Peter Robinson's work, so thanks for this review. Bad Boy was one I hadn't yet read, but it's on my TBR list now...
This is one I haven't read, and look forward to it, having read your review. I enjoy Banks and Robinson's good writing, but find him very uneven. His psychological thriller, The First Cut, is outstanding, as is his short story, "Missing in Action" (in The Best American Mystery Stories 2"). At other times he seems at a loss for a good plot.
Post a Comment