This novel spans a story that started early in the second world war and is intertwined with an investigation spurred by the discovery of skeletal remains at the bottom of a temporarily dry lake. The WW II storyline held my interest and I enjoyed seeing how Inspector Banks was getting along with life after his wife left him in the previous novel. One of the selling points of this series for me is that the writer has done an excellent job creating his fictional world with characters who are affected by the lives they lead. Life changes all of us and that's reflected well here.

I've always said that a writer can do anything as long as the writer keeps it interesting. In this novel, Mr. Robinson does keep it interesting. The information from World War II is well done and was fun to read. However, I didn't care for the story line involving Jem Hylton. From descriptions of the next book in the series, it sounds like Jem Hylton may make another appearance. But the amount of time Banks spent dwelling on his old friend (Jem) just didn't make sense. Banks had a lot going on and we'd never heard of this new character before. The reason given for Banks fascination on his old friend didn't ring true. I don't have a problem introducing new characters but too many pages were devoted to an unrelated sideline story that didn't pay off in any way (in this novel). This information isn't a spoiler because there is never a point when Banks' constant thoughts of Jem ever seem related to this novel. And that's the problem.

Overall, I must emphasize that this is another fine novel in the Inspector Banks series. I look forward to reading the next one. Outside of the character of Jem, the only other complaint I have is that each novel seems to get more long-winded. Tons of background information that seems unnecessary and unrelated. I don't think the storyline for this novel quite fills the length it's given, but lots of writers fall in love with their own voice or hate wasting all that time they spent on research.

In a Dry Season - G+
robinson, Peter

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, on the skids since the breakup with wife Sandra, languishes in "career Siberia" until old nemesis Chief Constable Riddle sends him to remotest Yorkshire on a "dirty, pointless, dead-end case." It seems a local kid has discovered a skeleton in dried-up Thornfield Reservoir, constructed on the site of the deserted bucolic village of Hobb's End. Banks taps into his familiar network of colleagues to identify the skeleton as that of Gloria Shackleton, a gorgeous, provocative "land girl" who worked on a Hobb's End farm while her husband was off fighting the Japanese decades ago. Apparently, Gloria had been stabbed to death. As Banks and Detective Sergeant Annie Cabbot struggle to re-create the 50-year-old crime scene, wartime Yorkshire, with all its deprivations and depravities, springs to life.

Well written but switches POV without advance notice.

Inspector Banks is called upon to identify and solve the murder of a body that had lay buried since the war. The story of who she was and what had happened to hear I’d told through the past and the present.

Enjoyed reading this police procedural especially the budding relationship between Banks and Annie Cabbott, will be interesting to read the next in the series.

http://talesfromfoxglovecottage.blogs...

"In a Dry Season is a 1999 work by Peter Robinson and (I discovered after reading it) one of a series of novels featuring Inspector Alan Banks and set in the fictional town of Eastvale in Yorkshire.

I was drawn to this book (I admit it) because I was intrigued by the photograph on the cover, of a winter tree and a church, almost fully submerged in water. Obviously a manipulated image, but intriguing nonetheless. My copy shows a 1940s bomber aircraft reflected in the flood-water, but this seems to have been removed from later editions. A quick search shows me the front covers of other editions: a painting of a submerged village in a valley, almost wholly obscured by writing (Canada); a rather dull picture of water and a ruin (also Canada); and the view down a hill of a row of old-fashioned English cottages, with a crackled effect on the paper to make it look aged (USA). None of these would have drawn me in.

The text on the back of the book is short and to the point; an accurate summary of the opening of the mystery.

"During a blistering summer, drought has depleted the precious resources of Thornfield Reservoir, uncovering the remains of a small village called Hobb's End - hidden from view for over forty years. For a curious young boy this resurfaced hamlet has become a magical playground...until he unearths a human skeleton. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, unpopular with his superiors for having challenged the system once too often, is given the impossible task of identifying the victim - a woman who lived in a place that no longer exists, whose former residents are scattered to the winds...".

Also intriguing.

And so I started reading.

The text flits between wartime and the present day, the stories running quite quickly beside one another. I was drawn easily into the past, but felt some trepidation on meeting Inspector Banks. Experience has made me cautious. Should I just flick through and skip to the end? Or would this be worth a full reading? I decided to stick to my 50-page rule and continue on. And it didn't let me down... Read more at http://talesfromfoxglovecottage.blogs...

This is the first Inspector Banks book I've read and maybe it's not representative, but I didn't even feel like finishing it. Banks didn't seem very engaging to me but there wasn't much time to get acquainted with him because we kept getting sent back to WWII era to get to know the victim. I'd rather stay with the detectives as they try to make sense of the mystery, rather than get to know the victim so I feel extra crummy that she dies. But what made me stop reading was when it turned out that Banks can't keep it in his pants. Why be a moron and cause unnecessary complications? It just seemed gratuitous on Robinson's part.

These are my comments from a bookgroup discussion of this book which is why they probably seem a bit decontextified.....

(Comparing Robinson's use of flashbacks to Robert Crais's in LA Requiem) I prefer Robinson's use of flashbacks, they're telling the same story from a different angle. They are almost not flashbacks at all. I feel there are three intertwined stories that are really the same story. I find them much easier to read than Crais's. When Crais switched to italics and switched from first to third person I felt it was jarring. Even though Robinson switches from first to third person too, I feel the transistions are smoother. Even though Robinson almost always leaves us with a mini cliffhanger as he switches tales I'm happy to get back to one of the other stories and find out what's happening there.

(Comparing Robinson's use of flashbacks to Reginald Hill's in On Beulah Height) I read that quite a while ago now. I don't feel Robinson is up to Hill's standard as a writer, but I do feel he weaves the plot together more than competently and am seeing parallels between what happens in one story and what happens in another. It's not of the same standard as Hill's interwoven plot in _On Beulah Height_ though, I think that book was a masterpiece of plotting, and though I haven't finished _In a Dry Season_ yet, I think the weaving is of a more superficial variety here. I may yet be proven wrong but the book hasn't grabbed me in the way OBH did.

I agree that the hostile superior officer is a bit of a yawny cliche, I kind of skipped over that in the book thinking 'yeah yeah yeah, do something new....'. But I didn't realise that I was reading part of a series until I read the other discussion messages here. I can't find anything in my copy that implies that there are earlier books to be read. If I'd picked this book up by myself I'd be a bit pissed off if I later discovered I'd started in the middle of a series unknowingly. Is this an 'Alan Banks' series then?

In which case I'm quite impressed with Robinson for not making me feel I was in the middle of a series. Banks seemed to be a well rounded character to me, he didn't seem to be wallowing in his problems and they seemed realistic sort of problems. He seemed real and I thought his family problems fleshed out his character nicely without becoming the focus of the book.

All the characters in the book in fact seemed quite realistic, flawed but not larger than life with it. I liked Annie and Gwen too, everyone seems very down to earth.

On the whole the book does come over as very real to me, I'm enjoying all the information there is, whether it's about examining old bones or the onset of more rationing or life in the police force, I haven't yet noticed anything that seemed wholly unlifelike.

Unaware of the Inspector Banks series, this was the first Peter Robinson book I read. I quickly fell in love with his writing style. He is one of my favorite authors.

Though I inadvertently picked this up in the midst of the series, I truly enjoyed it. I found the premise of the story so interesting: a seasoned detective is assigned to the case because it is *not* considered a plum case. Due to the dry season, the lake reveals the remains of a woman...from decades before. Banks is the right person for the very cold case due to his integrity and dedication to the investigation.

I truly enjoyed getting to know the characters: Inspector Banks and Annie Cabot. Their interactions and revealing conversations ring sincere and authentic. The case was fascinating to me as they must research the post-WWII crime and recreate experiences of the dead woman's life.

This remains one of my favorite books due to the wonderful characters, superb writing, and creative mystery.

A ‘never-fail’ solid detective read. Robinson’s character of Banks is very easy to enjoy, with his dry sense of humour and self-deprecating nature in regard to his abilities.

The crime in this 10th instalment of the series is interesting and the flashbacks to WWII add intrigue and depth. Another great read.

i missed this one of his and think it's one of his best. a compelling mystery combined with personal studies of his characters' current lives. well-written...

Great backstory to the case being investigated and also the book in which Banks first meets Annie.

Robinson is always good, but this one to me wasn't as strong as others. For one he keeps flashing back to this character, supposedly hugely formative to his career decision, who we've never heard of before - Jem. Huh??? I also didn't buy into Sandra's little appearance - w/o calling, just showing up at the worst time and being a bit of a biotch. That was out of character and a bit too convenient (read: sloppy). I did enjoy progression of the back story (other than the Sandra appearance). But what dragged it down for me more than anything was that much of it was narrated by somebody else, and the narration was, I thought, simplistic, dull and by a character I didn't particularly like. He usually does better at developing things. But having said that, big WW II fans might get a kick out of it as it flashes back to the war.