Even though this series has been going on for a long time, I felt comfortable reading this book for a library reading group. The characters were believable and interesting. I have spent some time walking through this part of England so the setting was familiar. Here in California there are reservoirs which nearly dry up from time to time in drought years and long-submerged towns are revealed, and it is fascinating to think what secrets may be revealed which have been hidden beneath the waters for a long time.
In many police procedural mysteries the police make great leaps of intuition. In this book the detective has to circle back and re-interview witnesses. The number one rule in police work is: witnesses lie. They lie about why they were in the vicinity of the crime or what they saw, but they lie (and some are honestly mistaken as well). I look forward to adding another series of books in my Want to Read list.

Peter Robinson´s DCI Banks is the main character in one of the most reliably good police procedural series (geez, I hate that term so let's just them Cop Series). This is not, in my not at all humble opinion, his best work and for a good portion of the book, an image of a three-star rating hung over my visions. I did, however, find the ending done well enough to justify a four!

In a drought, some years back (not the current climatic mess our cowardly political leaders have gotten us into) a reservoir recedes and a tiny one-time village is exposed. Naturally, it is far too attractive to go unexplored. One such ¨explorer¨ is a local lad whose explorations lead him to the roof of a small outbuilding which then, as old, unmaintained, soaked in water for eons, tend to do, collapsed leaving the boy knee-deep in mud. As he worked to extract himself, he grasped something which might provide some leverage, which turned out to be the hand of a human skeleton. Yuch!!

He told his mum, she balled him out first, as mums often do, and then called the police. Uniformed constables come and secure the site and then, our hero, DCI Banks shows up. He knows it must be a crap case because his superior loathes him and will simply not give him anything of interest on which to work. Close by is a small town with a teeny precinct housing a few constables and a lone detective, named Annie Cabbot who rarely has much of anything interesting to do. Her misery is, however, self-imposed as she has chosen to isolate herself from most of the real world.

Banks goes about the investigation with his customary attention to detail and procedure which surfaces some rather interesting information. This person, whose skeletal remains are being investigated was almost certainly murdered. What did you expect???? Robinson wouldn't have written a book about a person who slipped in the mud and died for no good reason! Really!!

The book then splits into two threads occurring at different times with one being the time of the murder and the other being the time of the investigation. In the first half of the book, I got somewhat bored by the parts occurring in the earlier period but later, that picked up and, I believe, justified four stars.

Robinson writes in his typical straightforward and comfortable style, which I find very readable. The plot was clever and unique and, except for the previously mentioned dry spots, held my interest. The characters, both returning and new, were done very nicely and realistically, kind of vivid in an understated way. I really wanted to punch Banks´ boss in the mouth; he was such a jerk! I have previously read tons of books in this series but didn´t know how Banks and Cabbot met and came to work together so that was of particular interest.

So, if you´re looking for a good cop story that is a nice read, you might try this one. Of course, as with most series, you'd be well advised to start with the first book in the series.

Fini

A village flooded for a reservoir 50 years previously is uncovered during a very dry summer in the dales. A body is found buried under Bridge House. So starts the investigation into whose body it is and how it ended up there. Banks meets DS Annie Cabbot and after his recent split with Sandra a new relationship both working and personal begins. Doesn’t take much for Banks to make a pass at anyone. And meanwhile he justifies it all in his head.

Good but please give on on the multitude of music references in every paragraph. Unless the reader is a multi genre music aficionado the references are almost useless and just serve to annoy.

I'm not going to write a synopsis of the story because lots of other readers have, but rather just a couple quick thoughts.

Peter Robinson has a really great way at writing dialogue and a point of view that makes it so easy to follow. In this book I thoroughly enjoyed going back and forth between Banks, Annie, Vivian and Gwen. It amazed me how each section from a different characters perspective added just a little bit more to the story and mystery.
Also, I really appreciated how much he researched what life would have been like for people, especially women in this small town during ww2. It was quite interesting and drew me right into their daily life.

Can't wait to read the next Inspector Banks!

Read 2012

I enjoyed this book, and look forward to reading more from Peter Robinson. Great story!

Long and a bit slow but so worth when I reached the end and the truth was told. I've always preferred and enjoyed more the earlier Banks books as compared to the recent ones. This title was the one I haven't been able to find and I'm so glad I was finally able to read this. This makes me want to reread the early books again.

As usual, it is hard to pick out the worst weed!

This is probably the best Banks novel that I have read so far. The story line is filled with details from the past and the present that cleverly intertwine into a wonderful investigation. As you read, you are drawn into the story and wonderful characters that hold your interest right down to the last page. The sub-plot of his developing relationship with Sergeant Abbott as well as his disintegrating relationship with his ex-wife is an interesting part of the novel. If you haven't read Robinson, you don't know what you are missing. I'm looking forward to my next Robinson read.

It's been a dry season and lakes and rivers are down. Nearby Thornfield Reservoir has dried up and the small village that was drowned when it was created has been revealed once again. A boy playing in the houses and sheds that are now evident finds a body and Inspector Alan Banks is called out.

It's been a dry season personally for Banks as well. His wife left him around a year ago and Banks has been adjusting to life on his own after twenty years of marriage. His last case ended with him punching his boss and he has been reinstated but confined to desk duty and routine tasks.

The body turns out to be that of a young woman who lived in the village in the waning years of the second world war. Gloria was outgoing and attractive, her husband overseas and reported missing. Had one of the soldiers she had dated killed her? The artist who painted her nude? Her husband who returns, shell-shocked and disabled? Banks works with a young female inspector from the area, Annie, and begins a relationship with her. Can they find the answers to a murder that happened so many years ago?

This is the tenth novel in the series. It is interesting to see how Banks's life has changed and how he is adjusting to such a drastic change. He has bought a cottage he is restoring and venturing into new relationships. The reader sees Banks not just as a man who solves mysteries but as a father and a man discovering what his new life will be. The mystery is interesting and has a satisfactory twist at the end. This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks' series get better with each one. That's not always the case with a series. I think this one was the best one he wrote.

Not my favorite so far of the Inspector Banks books. I thought this one drug along slowly in the middle and was a bit too long. It was rather unusual for me to wish the epilogue would be shorter and more to the point. At least we were told finally that Gwen was rather a bad person after all. She covered up Gloria's murder to protect her brother and as a result as many as 4 of more women were later murdered by the same man (PX, Edward Koenig) and then she even killed her husband that one went by me rather fast in the audio, and her brother who was found in despair in 1950 with a gun in his mouth
The set up of Annie and Alan's relationship and Banks' attachment to his ex wife took up too much of the story IMHO. The story was also a bit too long in the set-up although I did enjoy the setting of the flashbacks to WWII times with Gwen and Gloria and Matthew (so sad what happened to him in the war) The connection of the 50 year gap with the "diary" type chapters of Gewn's took some getting used to but was an ok device to tell what happened back then in first person.
Rather unforgettable characters from the 40's, with too much other story around them.