All the Colours of Darkness: DCI Banks 18

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Is she? Arnold said, looking at the kitchen door with interest. Meeting here wasn’t Walker’s idea. It was mine. I’ve noticed that the place is usually deserted this time of night. Alan Banks is a terrier, unwilling to let go of a case until he has all the answers. I chose 4 stars instead of 5 because I found some of the actions in the book to be a bit unbelievable, by Banks, and by the spies. When Banks realized who was behind the deaths, he continued to push even though admitting that no charges could be brought and nothing proven. Considering the unrelenting pressure to drop the case, I found it hard to believe he would just keep charging on, dragging the faithful friend Annie Cabot deeper into the mess. The spies pat handling of the death at the end of the book I found hard to swallow also.

Arnold walked down to look at Meyers. The scrappy little engineer was grinning as Perrin applied adhesive tape. He hung up. Newark is ready, anyway, he said, his eyes on his watch. Meyers will be stepping through—just—about—now. I have only recently 'discovered' Peter Robinson and his wonderful Inspector Banks novels. They are well planned and realistic. I love the flow and his ability to keep you guessing right to the last chapter.All of which proved nothing except that looks could be extremely misleading, and no one knew that better than private detective Jan Darzek. What can I say about this one? Obviously I love Alan Banks but this book was not up to par with the others in the series. If it’s a police procedural I am usually absorbed with the action, the crime scene crew and resulting investigation. But this time Robinson brought a spy element into the story; MI-5 gets involved on the fringes of the investigation as one of their agents was murdered. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2011-09-26 21:40:33 Boxid IA151201 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City New York Donor That central idea is the invention of a technology which allows instant and safe transmission of people and eventually freight from one place to another. The early chapters explore the idea as a social and business phenomenon. The mystery seems to be one of organised sabotage.

Lccn 2008019015 Ocr ABBYY FineReader 8.0 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.16 Openlibrary_edition It's always fun to accompany Banks and Cabbot on an investigation because they are fully-realized characters. Robinson gives a lot of interesting details (his pub scenes are always absorbing) and a fine sense of place, especially London in this book. Banks is witness to a horrific terrorist bombing in Oxford Circus. Biggle sets up his series to be entertainments relying on the technology of matter transmission but one senses an opportunity lost and an under-use of his talents, a sudden loss of imagination as more than just complicated story lines and aliens. My wife is a fan of this series, so I decided to give it a try. The first volume was published in 1963 and imagines a future 1986 in which a company has perfected a matter transmission system, allowing cheap, instant transportation to and from any point on Earth as easily as walking through a booth and exiting another booth at the destination. There's only one problem: someone doesn't want the company to succeed and they're sabotaging operations. The "Othello" and Iago strands in the story are fascinating. Banks often has girlfriend trouble; this time it's with Sophia. As in many detective novels Banks is defying his bosses in the search for truth. Banks keeps dragging Annie over the brink into his unsanctioned investigation. Then the two of them are out there isolated swinging in the wind--two loners versus the system. Banks, the truth-seeker, is rattling cages, putting himself and Annie in danger of losing their careers. Banks says, "You have to dig deeper. You have to know."Similarly, I think he is trying to go for a hyper-observant effect by choosing irrelevant crap and then describing it in completely excessive detail. Alright, so I seem to have a bit of a problem with how mystery writers talk about coffee, but damn it, NO ONE would say that. Especially when it's ANOTHER cup, so the guest knows what kind of bloody coffee they are getting. I suppose I should just be grateful that it wasn't "another cup of freeze-dried Tesco Gold Medium-Blend coffee, mixed with hot water from the Tefal kettle in my MFI kitchen, and stirred with a spoon that is slightly bent because I use it to open tins of Tate & Lyle's golden syrup".

After reading a not-so-hot book, I will often turn to my short list of reliably good writers, as I did here. Peter Robinson doesn't seem to have the capability to produce a bad book. I've read quite a few of his Inspector Banks' mysteries and have thoroughly enjoyed each.This is a somewhat confused crime tale as Banks investigates a hanging which seems to be part of a murder-suicide case. The murder aspect looks at a gay man found dead in his home. Some years ago he had travelled for the Foreign Office; no stretch of the imagination to see that his continued absences abroad meant he is still working as a spy. So I don't know why it took Banks so long to see it. The photos produced among evidence were obviously the sort taken by a private investigator; again, Banks doesn't realise until the business card falls into his lap. Much confusion in the ranks as the shadowy world of spies seems to have no relation to the real world.