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Friend of the Devil (Inspector Alan Banks) by Peter Robinson
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Peter Robinson Edition: Hardcover Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published) Published: 2008-03-01 ISBN: 0060544376 Number of pages: 384 Publisher: William Morrow
Book Reviews of Friend of the Devil (Inspector Alan Banks)Book Review: Good writing, very shaky "psychology" Summary: 3 StarsRobinson is a first-rate writer who consistently writes second-rate books (In a Dry Season being the only exception). That being said, Friend of the Devil is probably one of his more readable novels. Some of the bugs have been worked out of his characters, and the double murder makes for an interesting plot.
In Friend of the Devil, Chief Inspector Banks and DI Annie Cabbot, former colleagues and lovers, work on two unrelated murders. Banks takes on the case of a violent rape/murder of a pretty young girl, while Cabbot is assigned to the case of a quadriplegic who is found by the sea with her throat hideously slashed. Like other Robinson novels, the murders are lurid, sordid affairs, with enough graphic details to titillate the most jaded readers. As the novel progresses, the two murders eventually become intertwined, which is something we have come to expect in murder mysteries.
It becomes clear about half way through that Friend of the Devil is basically an excuse to wrap up a previous novel. The First Cut, which was a flimsy, implausible "psychological thriller," and left so many loose ends, Robinson felt compelled to tie them up. Unfortunately, once you've burned the rice, there's nothing you can do to save it. Robinson simply makes the same mistake twice - providing a thoroughly unbelievable motivation for sex crimes.
The motivation for rape is not, as Robinson suggests, the fact that men are humiliated and rejected by women. The age span of rape victims ranges from early infancy to well into old age. And rape is not limited, as we know from the scandals surrounding Catholic priests, to females. Rape occurs because the perpetrator wishes to exert violent control over another (weaker) human being. The motivation for exerting that control has absolutely nothing to do with the way the victim dresses or acts, much less the way women supposedly treat men. (Although, it needs to be pointed out that none of Robinson's male characters treat women particularly well.)
What is so bothersome about Robinson's failures is that he has shown that he is capable of so much more. It would be nice if he would simply sit down and think before he writes his next novel. He might come up with another gem like In a Dry Season.
Summary of Friend of the Devil (Inspector Alan Banks) Chief Inspector Alan Banks and Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot must work together to solve two chilling crimes in a stunning new novel by New York Times bestselling author Peter Robinson One morning in March, on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea, a woman named Karen Drew is found in her wheelchair with her throat slit. Back in Eastvale on that same morning, in a tangle of narrow alleys behind a market square, the body of Hayley Daniels is found raped and strangled. Two murders . . . two towns . . . On loan to a sister precinct, Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot draws the first case. Karen Drew seems to have lived a quiet and nearly invisible life for the past seven years. Try as she might, Annie turns up nothing in the woman's past that might have prompted someone to wheel her out to the sea and to her death. Meanwhile, in the Hayley Daniels murder, Chief Inspector Alan Banks has suspects galore. Everywhere she went, the nineteen-year-old student attracted attention. Anyone could have followed her on the night she was out drinking with friends, making sure she never made it back home. Then a breakthrough spins Annie's case in a shocking and surprising new direction, straight toward Banks. Coincidence? Not in Eastvale. Banks and Annie are searching for two killers who might strike again at any moment and with bloody fury. Amazon Significant Seven, February 2008: Fans of Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels, and anyone who enjoyed In the Woods as much as we did, will love Peter Robinson's smart and absorbing Friend of the Devil. Be sure to set aside some time to dig in--you'll be tempted to devour it in one sitting, but this gripping and finely plotted mystery deserves to be savored. If this is your first introduction to the intrepid Inspector Alan Banks, count yourself lucky--Robinson has been crafting these award-winning police procedurals for more than two decades now, so there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy what Stephen King has called "the best series of British novels since the novels of Patrick O'Brian." --Daphne Durham
Robinson, Peter Books
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