Amazon.co.uk Review
The mystery novels of Peter Robinson (
Aftermath is his 12th) are of increasing power and intensified intelligence. It's a dirty little secret of the crime-fiction genre that many of its writers simply spin their wheels, repeating over and over those old tricks which have always worked for them. They coast on past successes and repeat the formula hoping, if not assuming, that their fans won't notice.
Writers like Robinson, however, actually seem to grow in front of our eyes, delivering books of greater complexity each time. His previous two books, Cold Is the Grave and In a Dry Season, were novels of character and novels of crime, equally, and now Aftermath is here to reward his fans and new readers alike.
Like recent books by fellow English writers Reginald Hill, Val McDermid and Stephen Booth, Aftermath centres upon a grim case in which attractive young girls have disappeared, victims of a cunning psychotic killer whose identity is well concealed behind a façade of respectability. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks of the Yorkshire Police is in charge of the case, but he's also got unavoidable personal distractions. His separated wife Sandra is pregnant by her lover, Sean, and wanting the divorce he's been dragging his heels over.
There is nothing cosy about the kind of English mysteries written by Peter Robinson, even if they do take place where picturesque rural villages make up the landscape. He's not afraid of gore or deviance, of violence or of any of the baser emotions and it's a raw old world behind the hedgerows and cottage walls. If Aftermath is your first taste of his tough-tender sensibility, it won't be surprising if you soon are hooked on the work of one of today's most accomplished practitioners of detective fiction. --Otto Penzler, Amazon.com
Review
'A writer at the very height of his powers.' Ian Rankin; 'What raises Robinson's series out of the routine is the thoughtfulness of the writing, the subtlety of the characterisation and the skill of the plotting.' Observer
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
by Peter Robinson
by Peter Robinson
by Peter Robinson
by Peter Robinson
