Friend of the Devil Book

Whatever the profession (from medicine to cuisine), it's always good to sit back and relax, knowing that you're in the hands of a consummate professional. So it is with crime fiction, and Peter Robinson is one of the most reliable names around. He has written 17 books in his much-acclaimed Inspector Bank series (Friend of the Devil is the 17th), and his writing has the confidence that is commensurate with the best in the field.

DI Annie Cabbot is on loan to another area (and is not working with her colleague, Chief Inspector Alan Banks), and finds herself saddled with a difficult case. A woman’s body is found in a wheelchair by the sea. Her throat has been ripped open. At the same time, a teenage girl has been raped and murdered after an alcohol-fuelled night out. DCI Banks is dealing with another case. The two detectives experience very dissimilar results: Banks is faced with a multiplicity of suspects, while Annie Cabbot makes absolutely no progress in her case. Those familiar with detective fiction won't be surprised to learn that the various cases turn out to be interrelated, and when the duo begin to make considerable inroads into the mysteries, they find that aspects of their own pasts are coming back to haunt them. And a burning question becomes ever more pertinent: just how many killers are involved in these cases?

We may be used to relationships between male and female detectives that alternate between the fractious and the reluctantly affectionate, but Peter Robinson has always been able to steer a very confident route down this particular avenue, always firmly keeping cliché at bay. But (as always with this author), the plot’s the thing to catch the attention of the reader, and Friend of the Devil works out a labyrinthine narrative with a particularly pleasing attention to detail. --Barry Forshaw

When Karen Drew is found sitting in her wheelchair staring out to sea with her throat cut one chilly morning DI Annie Cabbot on loan to Eastern Area gets lumbered with the case. Back in Eastvale that same Sunday morning 19-year-old Hayley Daniels is found raped and strangled in the Maze a tangle of narrow alleys behind Eastvale's market square after a drunken night on the town with a group of friends and DCI Alan Banks is called in. Banks finds suspects galore while Annie seems to hit a brick wall--until she reaches a breakthrough that spins her case in a shocking and surprising new direction one that also involves Banks. Then another incident occurs in the Maze which seems to link the two cases in a bizarre and mysterious way. As Banks and Annie dig into the past to uncover the deeper connections they find themselves also dealing with the emotional baggage and personal demons of their own relationship. And it soon becomes clear that there are two killers in their midst and that at any moment either one might strike again.