Cold Is the Grave : A Novel of Suspense

Rating:
Summary: Grave Mistake
Review: NONEXISTENT DIALOGUE. Exchanges that should crackle with tension and friction, don't. So, so many opportunities: his boss who goes out of his way to ruin Banks' career, his estranged wife with whom he wants to reconcile, sleazy porn producers, gangsters who beat up little girls, his now attainable former lover. But everything remains superficial to the point of being polite.

STERILE. A former subordinate with whom he once had an affair has been recently transferred to his newly established unit. The first opportunity he gets to have her alone, a three-hour car ride, they chat about their long commutes and whether she will sell her cottage. Then, I guess to remind us that they really did have an affair since there's been no evidence thus far, we're told that Banks remembers "...kissing the little rose tattoo just above her breast, their bodies, sweaty and tired, the unfamiliar street sounds the following morning." If this is supposed to be a build up of tension between these two, we are left hanging. Instead of using this as an opening to discuss their past together, or anything remotely character-driven, we are given a quick traffic report before he asks her for a report on a suspect without any hint that he had just had a sexual daydream about the woman sitting in the car next to him. Not even a slight glimmer of annoyance at the "maniac in a red BMW that zoomed off at well over a ton."

ABSOLUTELY DEVOID OF ATMOSPHERE. Hours after having lunch with the wayward daughter of his now former superior, she is found dead of an overdose in a bathroom stall of a nightclub. A month ago he had spent a few uneventful days tracking her down and bringing her back to her parents. We are needlessly given a synopsis of that incident before he briefly berates himself that she is dead "...perhaps because of him, because he had respected his vow of discretion [to her parents] and done nothing, despite all his misgivings." That is the full extent of his angst. His son and daughter have already expressed their disappointment in his "not being there" as they grew up; he himself has admitted that their upbringing was left mostly in the hands of his soon-to-be ex-wife. Yet, after once again proving his inability to provide any kind of meaningful guidance to a youth, that one silly sentence is the closest to self-reproach we come. (I had to laugh at the "perhaps". The last he sees her alive, he is a mere spectator as she purchases booze for the two of them with false ID (she's only sixteen), practically drinks him under the table, avoids eating in an effort to maintain her near-anorexic shape, and chain smokes. She tells him of escaping a sexual assault after being passed around by her boyfriend, but he shows more interest in what her father thinks about him.) In the middle of the obligatory procedural and medical chitchat, in what is the most bizarre digression in my literary experience, we are given a nostalgic rundown of train spotting and the appeal of steam versus diesel before he's off to inform the dead girl's parents.

That's when I gave up. I tried. I really did. But I'd slogged through 148 pages and just couldn't manage another 220 of the same.

Rating:
Summary: Grave Mistake
Review: NONEXISTENT DIALOGUE. Exchanges that should crackle with tension and friction, don't. So, so many opportunities: his boss who goes out of his way to ruin Banks' career, his estranged wife with whom he wants to reconcile, sleazy porn producers, gangsters who beat up little girls, his now attainable former lover. But everything remains superficial to the point of being polite.

STERILE. A former subordinate with whom he once had an affair has been recently transferred to his newly established unit. The first opportunity he gets to have her alone, a three-hour car ride, they chat about their long commutes and whether she will sell her cottage. Then, I guess to remind us that they really did have an affair since there's been no evidence thus far, we're told that Banks remembers "...kissing the little rose tattoo just above her breast, their bodies, sweaty and tired, the unfamiliar street sounds the following morning." If this is supposed to be a build up of tension between these two, we are left hanging. Instead of using this as an opening to discuss their past together, or anything remotely character-driven, we are given a quick traffic report before he asks her for a report on a suspect without any hint that he had just had a sexual daydream about the woman sitting in the car next to him. Not even a slight glimmer of annoyance at the "maniac in a red BMW that zoomed off at well over a ton."

ABSOLUTELY DEVOID OF ATMOSPHERE. Hours after having lunch with the wayward daughter of his now former superior, she is found dead of an overdose in a bathroom stall of a nightclub. A month ago he had spent a few uneventful days tracking her down and bringing her back to her parents. We are needlessly given a synopsis of that incident before he briefly berates himself that she is dead "...perhaps because of him, because he had respected his vow of discretion [to her parents] and done nothing, despite all his misgivings." That is the full extent of his angst. His son and daughter have already expressed their disappointment in his "not being there" as they grew up; he himself has admitted that their upbringing was left mostly in the hands of his soon-to-be ex-wife. Yet, after once again proving his inability to provide any kind of meaningful guidance to a youth, that one silly sentence is the closest to self-reproach we come. (I had to laugh at the "perhaps". The last he sees her alive, he is a mere spectator as she purchases booze for the two of them with false ID (she's only sixteen), practically drinks him under the table, avoids eating in an effort to maintain her near-anorexic shape, and chain smokes. She tells him of escaping a sexual assault after being passed around by her boyfriend, but he shows more interest in what her father thinks about him.) In the middle of the obligatory procedural and medical chitchat, in what is the most bizarre digression in my literary experience, we are given a nostalgic rundown of train spotting and the appeal of steam versus diesel before he's off to inform the dead girl's parents.

That's when I gave up. I tried. I really did. But I'd slogged through 148 pages and just couldn't manage another 220 of the same.

Rating:
Summary: Barley Entertaining
Review: This book is one of a series whose central character is Alan Banks, a British police detective. In this case, the complexities Robinson introduces into his mysteries generally work well. Banks' search for the missing daughter of his boss leads into a series of unanticipated complications, including murder. His investigation points to different suspects at different times. The boss man's reaction to Banks' lunch with the missing girl (who turns up dead that night) seems strangely muted. Banks' on and off girl friend, another police detective, is treated sympathetically but is not essential to the story. The epilogue seems tacked on. Other than that, the book is a good -- and long -- read.

Rating:
Summary: A well-written British police mystery
Review: This book is one of a series whose central character is Alan Banks, a British police detective. In this case, the complexities Robinson introduces into his mysteries generally work well. Banks' search for the missing daughter of his boss leads into a series of unanticipated complications, including murder. His investigation points to different suspects at different times. The boss man's reaction to Banks' lunch with the missing girl (who turns up dead that night) seems strangely muted. Banks' on and off girl friend, another police detective, is treated sympathetically but is not essential to the story. The epilogue seems tacked on. Other than that, the book is a good -- and long -- read.

Rating:
Summary: Long
Review: This book was just to long to support the shallow ending. The characters were well thought out and in sync. but I began to lose interest after awhile. The sub-plots were of little value and not required to support the main plot. As for a mystery,I don't think so the ending is easily figured out after all the characters are introduced. Still,in all fairness to the author I did finish it and it's not bad reading overall. I will await Peter Robinson's next work, perhaps it's time to retire Alan Banks.

Rating:
Summary: One for a rainy day
Review: This promised to be an interesting book - undisciplined detective with the usual relationship problems and an intriguing problem to solve. Once inside the pages the deaths start, arrive frequently, and eventually the detective manages to tie enough seemingly unrelated fact together to solve the puzzle. In other words, this was very much a book that followed a predictable formula.

Alan Banks is an interesting character but he wasn't as undisciplined and unorthodox as promised. Anne Cabot was a little stale and other than playing a part in Bank's character development, wasn't at all central to the story. Emily Riddle provided a much-needed spark to this cast of really rather wooden players but her appearance was all too brief to instill any real life to this book.

Sure, the descriptions were good, but too often the passages were overly long and the interview sequences read like a long-winded court report. There was maybe a hundred pages could have been trimmed from this novel and it could be a faster, sharper, story.

Having dealt with all the negatives, it's only fair to look at the positives. The plot was well conceived and deployed. The dialogue was good. Banks' character did provoke sympathy at times without ever catching the spark of brilliance promised.

Cold Is The Grave is worth reading, but it is not among the best of the year. Colin Dexter invented Morse and all other detectives from England must now be measured against him. Morse could eat Banks for breakfast (and have solved this mystery 100 pages earlier).