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43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the series grows, 24 Jan 2004
One morning, a solitary walker finds a body in a quiet valley below the village of Swainsdale. The corpse clearly displays signs of a gruesome [demise]- it's as good as faceless - and has apparently lain undiscovered for quite a while. Enter Chief Inspector Alan Banks, straight into an investigation that is already appearing to be dead in the water. No one has any idea who the victim is, or how he got there. Not Sam or Katie Greenock, the couple who run the local guesthouse. Not Freddie Metcalfe, landlord of the local pub. And not either of the Collier brothers, Stephen or Nicholas, the most wealthy family in the area. Then, a curious lead emerges that could help the identify the body, as well as link this crime to another unsolved murder in the area five years before... My, what a good series this is. If you want a contemporary British police mystery with its grounding in the traditional aspects of detective novels, then these early Inspector Banks books really are the place to look. And The Hanging Valley is the best one so far. The plot is excellent. I couldn't really have asked for more from this sort of book. The pacing is great, and there is even a wonderfully interesting trip to Toronto for Banks (investigating a possible lead) which really gives the story a fresh kick. The ending, also, is absolutely excellent, and the final page or so is shocking, taking the book far above more run-of-the-mill traditional British mysteries. I may be in wrong, but I suspect that the finale of this book was really when the series "grew up". The writing is of an exemplary standard (at times, I think Peter Robinson could easily turn himself to more literary fiction and be held in very high regard), and Banks is a strong lead character and is well developed, even if he'd perhaps a little too distant and cool to achieve the popularity of such peers as Rankin's John Rebus. However, this book does have a slight law in that some of the subsidiary characters (other officers, one or two of the suspects, and evens Banks' own family) could still do with quite a bit more development. Though, I'm almost positive that even those flaws will dissolve as this series progresses.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"He wasn't the kind of guy who gets himself killed", 7 Oct 2007
Peter Robinson has already captured a spot among my favorite mystery authors with this entertaining series. He has done this by a combination of well-crafted plots, interesting and complex characters, wonderful settings for the stories, and overall, a prose that does not bore, not even for a second. Among the characters, the main protagonist, Chief Inspector Alan Banks, is one to cherish. His unimposing physique and mild temperament are not even remotely and obstacle to bringing the culprits to justice, and the gets the job done efficiently and by applying impeccable logic.
The case in this book has to do with the murder of an out-of-towner in the fells near Swainshead, a small village in the Swainsdale. The body has been viciously battered and its identification is not an easy process, especially since it has remained undiscovered for a couple of weeks. Banks is called in to investigate, and in the process he comes across a suspicious set of characters, a possible relationship to an unresolved murder in the past, and a connection that leads him to travel to a foreign land in search for answers.
This novel may not be Robinson's best, but it is definitely a very good mystery. The ability the author usually displays in depicting the characters and in creating engaging interactions among them is present as usual. The main area in which I found this installment lacking was in the development of the personal story of Inspector Banks. One of the things that I enjoy when reading mystery series is to see how the main character evolves in his / her personality, family relationships, etc. Sadly, this was missing in this case.
The only other criticism I have for this book is that even though the story is resolved, it felt a little bit rushed towards the end. It seemed to me as if we got the bare minimum needed to complete the story, but not much else. This is a little disappointing, especially from an author that takes good care in describing the culture, settings and characters so thoroughly and proficiently. Nevertheless, I still think that this is a book worth reading, especially if you have been following this series.
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5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Fourth Inspector Banks Mystery, 18 May 2007
Peter Robinson grew up in Yorkshire, and is the author of a number of previous novels featuring Inspector Banks. He is the winner of numerous awards in the United States, Britain and Canada, and in 2002 he won the CWA Dagger in the Library. As I also come from Leeds the background to his stories is something that I have experienced first hand and because of this I have a special affection for his books. However they would be first class crime fiction wherever they were based.
Chief Inspector Alan Banks is called to a murder scene that is gruesome even to him. Over the years his mind has become conditioned to the dreadful things that one or more human beings can inflict on their fellow man, but the discovery of a faceless corpse in a quiet, seldom visited valley below the village of Swainshead sickens even him.
On his arrival he finds that no one is willing to talk and his frustration only grows when the identity of the body is finally revealed. It seems that the body may be connected to an unsolved murder that took place in the same area over five years ago. Among the suspects are the wealthiest and most powerful family in Swainsdale, the Collier brothers and when they start to use their influence to hamper the investigation the Inspector finds himself in a race against time.
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