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Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining but Nothing Special
Review: IN this, the fourth inspector Banks book, a body is found in a wood above the small (and fictitious) Yorkshire village of Swainshead in such bad condition that it takes a decidedly lucky break with some forensic dentistry to identify him. Banks is soon grilling the locals and wondering if the murder is at all connected to another , still unsolved, murder and a disappearance that happened in the same village five years earlier.
It's great fun, well written and extremely readable but, it must be said, not exactly groundbreaking and perhaps a bit routine, very much a standard issue detective story with little in the way of distinguishing features to make it stand out from the crowd.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent! Best book so far!
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't let this one lousy book put you off Robinson
Review: Peter Robinson has turned into a first-rate mystery writer. But he certainly wasn't when he wrote this in 1989. No amount of gorgeous Yorkshire scenery can make up for an uninteresting cast of one-dimensional characters and an abrupt. out-of-left-field ending. Skip this atypical entry and read his later Inspector Banks books --they're first rate and well deserving of all the acclaim and slew of awards he's won. This isn't.
Rating:
Summary: Don't let this one lousy book put you off Robinson
Review: Somehow I got the name, picked up a book, and was hoping to find an elegant new writer of English cozies. Well, it didn't quite make it, but I'm not giving up. Characterization, characterization, characterization! The main flaw in this book for me was that I couldn't really identify with anyone. Inspector Banks is one-dimensional. He has a wife and children, but you only know it because he tells you. Otherwise, they have no reality. He demonstrates no ability to comprehend others beyond whether or not they allow smoking. (As a smoker myself, and thus a member of a increasingly harassed minority, I know the feeling, but really. It's not enough to hang your hat on about everyone's character or lack thereof). All the characters in this book were stereotypes...the bad husband, the tortured and sexually repressed wife, the bad brother, the good brother. Everyone has more to them than meets the eye, but not in this book. Nevertheless, it kept me interested--until the incredibly predictable and hackneyed ending. I almost laughed. Peter, you can do better.
Rating:
Summary: Not Giving Up
Review: Somehow I got the name, picked up a book, and was hoping to find an elegant new writer of English cozies. Well, it didn't quite make it, but I'm not giving up. Characterization, characterization, characterization! The main flaw in this book for me was that I couldn't really identify with anyone. Inspector Banks is one-dimensional. He has a wife and children, but you only know it because he tells you. Otherwise, they have no reality. He demonstrates no ability to comprehend others beyond whether or not they allow smoking. (As a smoker myself, and thus a member of a increasingly harassed minority, I know the feeling, but really. It's not enough to hang your hat on about everyone's character or lack thereof). All the characters in this book were stereotypes...the bad husband, the tortured and sexually repressed wife, the bad brother, the good brother. Everyone has more to them than meets the eye, but not in this book. Nevertheless, it kept me interested--until the incredibly predictable and hackneyed ending. I almost laughed. Peter, you can do better.
Rating:
Summary: Robinson can do better!
Review: The fourth book in Robinson's Inspector Banks series finds DCI Banks investigating the discovery of a decomposing, maggot-ridden corpse near a little village in the Yorkshire countryside. A possible connection with past events comes to light - an unsolved murder and the simultaneous disappearance of a local woman 5 years ago. On the trail of the killer, Banks finds himself frustrated by the reticence of the local villagers, and it is clear that they know much more than they are letting on. When all the evidence points towards a Canadian connection, Banks heads to Toronto, where he makes a number of startling discoveries. Banks returns to Yorkshire with the mystery mostly pieced together. Unfortunately, the novel ends rather unexpectedly and almost anti-climatically, with little sense of closure. The novel features an unnecessarily large cast of mostly one-dimensional characters, at the expense of already established characters. We do see more of Banks' superior, Superintendent Gristhorpe, and the interaction between them is fascinating. Unfortunately, Banks' family is relegated to the background, and their rare appearances serve only as a reminder that Banks has a family, rather than showing any meaningful interaction. What frustrated me more were the 80-odd pages that Robinson devotes to Banks' trip to Toronto. A Torontonian myself (as is Robinson), I typically enjoy books that are set in Toronto - in this case, unfortunately, it turned out to be a major turn off. Robinson goes into almost excruciating detail describing the highlights of the city - it almost seems that the only reason Banks goes to Toronto is to give Robinson a chance to wax poetical about the city! Finally, after tolerating a slew of in-jokes and stereotypical "Canadian-isms", I was practically eyeing the book with distaste. I was greatly relieved when Banks returns to his native England ("the old country" as Robinson puts it countless times). All in all, The Hanging Valley falls short of expectations. As part of the series, it is an interesting book to read. I'd recommend it only to those who are willing to read anything starring DCI Banks (or those who want a detailed description of Toronto!).
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