Rating: 
Summary: A Page Turner
Review: Cold is the Grave
Peter Robinson
2000 Viking 454 pages ISBN 0-670-83901-3A teenager from the Yorkshire Dales runs away to London and falls into bad company - not much new in that. But when Peter Robinson uses it as an introduction to one of his chilling mysteries you have a plot has surprising but logical twists and turns and the tale becomes more intriguing by the page. The writer manages to create strong, realistic characters that stay in your mind long after you've finished the book. When you pick up another book in the series you meet them again like old friends. The characters carry the plot, complex as it is, and all the sub-plots as the reader is shown the truth behind the veneer of the successful Chief Constable and his lovely family. This was a book I hated to put down. It is well-paced and carefully structured and both male and female characters are so true that you'd swear you met them just last week. It's rare that a male writer can make female characters seem true to life, especially in their internal monologues (and vice versa - female writers often don't present the male interior monologue well) but this writer is spot on. This book is a real treat from an accomplished mystery writer. Long may the series last.
Rating: 
Summary: Long awaited and I am still waiting...
Review: Having read all of Robinson's previous Alan Banks novels, I eagerly anticipated this new release. It was a tough read for me. Long a fan of Robinson's realistic characterizations, I found the characters in this novel doing predictable and silly things. The resolution of the Banks-Riddle conflict was far too simple and I was very disappointed with it. I did find myself somewhat drawn in by the plot and the cast of "nasty" characters. However, I felt this paled in comparison to "In A Dry Season." I will continue to anticipate the next Robinson release and hope that Banks can untangle himself from his personal woes and really sink his teeth into a truly Banks mystery. My last question remains, as always...why is it these people drink so much?
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but overly long...
Review: I enjoyed Peter Robinson's IN A DRY SEASON so much I did something I seldom do with mysteries, I kept the book and did not pass it on to the local library. COLD AS THE GRAVE is not as well written. It is interesting but overly long for the interest it generates. You may find yourself wondering about Bank's many mental references to earlier cases. I wondered if the references were pertinent to the plot at hand and it seems the majority were not. If Robinson added them to generate reader interest in his former books he failed on my account. Although I finished the book a few hours ago, I can't remember a single specific, and feel only annoyance that he added anything except references to IN A DRY SEASON. I think many of the other references could have been eliminated. Robinson (Banks)is familiar with many different kinds of music--or did a lot of research for this book. While I recognized some of his musical allusions, I became lost. His musical notation is encyclopedic. I suspect most readers are like me, limited in their musical knowledge, and will find the jumble of references overwhelming and distracting. There is nothing wrong with a love of music, Morse loves his Wagner but he's not mentioning it every other page and he's also not into reggae, jazz, hip-hop, blues, ballads, country-western, etc. The title COLD AS THE GRAVE comes from a folk ballad, so I suppose Robinson was trying to weave an integrated story with a musical theme, but something just did not work for me. The plot is a bit hackneyed and contrived. Banks consumes entirely too much alcohol on the job--makes Morse look like a piker. Pardon me, but I don't believe drinking makes you think better. The other adults are sloshed a good part of the time too -- an ironic twist as they are all so concerned with the drug consumption of the young people who are simulaneously ingesting cocaine, ecstasy, Viagra (yes), and a variety of other drugs. Everyone young and old seems to find Marijuana stimulating. In COLD AS THE GRAVE, Robinson has portrayed a Methodist couple as fanatical non-smoking, non-drinking, non-dancing religious prigs who made their little girl wear shoes that pinched so tightly her toenails came off and left bloody stumps! Excuse me! My mom was Methodist and she drank, danced, and smoked and I never wore shoes that did not fit. Robinson obviously does not know the Methodists I know. I am tired of the religious right trying to jam it's agenda down my throat, but I am also equally tired of "sophisticated" writers making fun of people with religious convictions. Couldn't we just give it a break and get back to good old fashioned humanistic secularism--live and let live!! I kept asking myself who is the audience for this book? Research shows that the typical mystery reader is a female over 50. Robinson does a credible job for this audience because he is not given to exploitation of the opposite sex by the protagonist, eschews gratuitous violence, and his female characters are mostly not caricatures. Annie Cabbot is very real and I find her likeable. Some of the other female characters are equally believeable including Banks' daughter Tracy and his wife Sandy. Robinson does not write as well as P.D. James--in spite of what the book jacket says, though IN A DRY SEASON showed a great deal of potential. I prefer the character development of James, Reginald Hill, and Patricia Hall who all write modern British crime novels featuring cop-protagonists. And yes, Morse is one of the best cops ever.
Rating: 
Summary: A must for your Inspector Banks Collection
Review: I found the authors last book In a Dry Season well written and quiet enjoyable. It even won an award from the Mysteries Writers of American. But I found I liked this book even better. So if you read and liked In A Dry Season you will without a doubt like this book. The story kept me interested from the begnning to the end. There wasn't one dull moment in the entire book and as always Inspector Banks was great. Annie Cabbot from the last novel re-enters Inspector Banks life which makes for some interesting situations. A must read for any fan of Inspector Banks. Or for that matter anyone who enjoys a good and solid English police investigation.
Rating:
Summary: It gets better with each book
Review: I was on my way out to the airport when amazon.com's e-mail announcing the new release by Peter Robinson came through.(Thanks Amazon) I found a copy at Montreal airport and had an enjoyable time reading this book. Inspector Banks gets more and more sophisticated and Robinson's writing style gets better and better with each book. Look forward to more.
Rating:
Summary: Really, 3.5 stars....
Review: I won't give up on this series yet, partly because Robinson writes so well. However, somewhere after the first several novels in the series, the charm of the Yorkshire setting and the originality of the characters began to be lost; while the plotting more and more takes a backseat to the life and loves of Inspector Banks. In Cold is the Grave, there is an entire subplot that in my view is rather boring and ultimately irrelevant to the central mystery. On the credit side, the family secrets and character motivations are credible enough to support the outcome,and in Mrs. Riddle and Emily Robinson has again displayed his gift for first rate characterization. Oddly, this talent doesn't extend as well to Banks, who remains a somewhat static and not very interesting person going through predictable mid-life changes, except when he is detecting. Robinson should let us see more through Banks' eyes, and less of him.
Rating:
Summary: Not His Best, But Entertaining...
Review: I've enjoyed several of the Inspector Banks series, and I felt that this one had something lacking. While I always enjoy the stories, this one dragged in the middle. Peter Robinson did finish the story strongly, and I had no idea "whodunnit" until the very end. If you're an Inspector Banks fan, I'd defiitely read it. If you're new to this author, start at the beginning with "Gallows View", or read his best, "In A Dry Season".
Rating:
Summary: Not His Best, But Entertaining...
Review: I've enjoyed several of the Inspector Banks series, and I felt that this one had something lacking. While I always enjoy the stories, this one dragged in the middle. Peter Robinson did finish the story strongly, and I had no idea "whodunnit" until the very end. If you're an Inspector Banks fan, I'd defiitely read it. If you're new to this author, start at the beginning with "Gallows View", or read his best, "In A Dry Season".
Rating:
Summary: Barley Entertaining
Review: If you want to be entertained but not into deep thought then Cold is the Grave suits your purposes. It is not challenging by any stretch but it keeps the interest enough to motivate the reader to keep reading even when the outcome is clear. The writing is straight forward by the foreshadowing is heavy handed and hammy. Mr. Robinson has fallen into that familiar trap of continuing a character that was fresh and new to the point of staleness.
Rating:
Summary: Robinson Has Another Winner!
Review: In this eleventh outing for Inspector Banks, he is asked by his Chief Constable and nemesis to go to London to find the Chief Constable's daughter who ran away from home several months earlier. Locating the daughter is not that difficult, even taking her back to Eastvale is easy. But once she's home a series of events, including several murders, has Banks trying to determine who did what to whom and why. The main suspect is a man who seemingly gets away with any crime to which he puts his mind. Banks is a fortysomething divorced man who is coming to terms with his private life and trying to get his professional life back on track as well, but whose choices that are not the best to succeed at either. Robinson reintroduces Detective Sergeant Annie Cabbot, newly transferred to Banks' neck of the woods. As she and Banks unravel the story behind the murders, it is painstaking police work with no leaps of faith or suppressed major clues that appear later in the book and sprung upon an unsuspecting reader. As the clues are discovered,the reader is privy to them. This is police procedural at its best and a great read that you will be loathe to put down. Even if you don't like British procedurals, you should give this series a try. Reading it from the beginning is best since you'll be able to see Banks grow and change from the first in the series to this one.
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