All the Colors of Darkness

December 15, 2008
As much spy thriller as crime story, bestseller Robinson's solid 18th DCI Alan Banks novel (after Friend of the Devil
) finds the Yorkshire copper trying to unravel a murder-suicide with potential ties to national security. While Banks is on holiday, Det. Insp. Annie Cabbot is called to the woods outside Eastvale, where a hanged man—soon identified as Mark Hardcastle, the local theater's set designer—is discovered in a tree. What looks like a simple suicide takes an unexpected turn when the badly beaten body of Hardcastle's boyfriend, Laurence Silber, is found in Silber's posh home. Banks, who returns to assist in the investigation, uncovers Silber's past life as a spy in MI6, which makes Banks doubt the prevailing theory that Hardcastle murdered Silber and then hanged himself. Robinson deftly integrates the requisite espionage elements with his regular cast. The unexpected cliffhanger will assure readers that this chapter in Banks's life is far from over. 11-city author tour.

Starred review from December 15, 2008
When Mark Hardcastle and Laurence Silbert are found dead, it looks like a case of murder-suicide. DI Annie Cabbot dutifully conducts a thorough investigation anyway, but she finds plenty of reason to suspect that the crime may not be what it appears. Inspector Alan Banks is called in to lead the case, and the mystery deepens when he uncovers Silbert's past involvement with MI6 (the British Secret Intelligence Service). The two detectives find themselves in a world of deceptions and cover-ups, where the people they encounter aren't who they seem to be. Even the most loyal fans of the series (this is the 18th Inspector Banks novel) will wonder if Banks has finally gotten in over his head. Best-selling author Robinson ("Friend of the Devil") branches out into new territory in what may be his best novel yet. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 10/1/08.]Linda Oliver, MLIS, Colorado Springs

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2009
What looks like a routine murder-suicide turns into a nerve-wracking case for DCI Alan Banks and DI Annie Cabbot.

Set designer Mark Hardcastle's hanging in Hindswell Woods certainly looks like a suicide, his only wounds from a noose tied by someone left-handed, like Hardcastle himself. After Annie Cabbot's initially inconclusive visit to Hardcastle's colleagues at the Eastvale Theatre, an obvious motive for suicide surfaces with the discovery of Hardcastle's lover, retired civil servant Laurence Silbert, clubbed to death in his posh digs. In between the two deaths, a shopkeeper sold Hardcastle, his face grimed in blood, the rope used to hang him. So why does Supt. Catherine Gervaise, who hustled Banks onto the case on his day off, promptly hustle him off and into enforced vacation? Why does she insist that Annie drop her inquiries to focus on the nonfatal stabbing of a teenaged drug dealer in East Side Estate? Why do Banks's unofficial questions lead to threats and worse against his lover Sophia Morton? Why are Her Majesty's minions so transparently eager to draw the curtain on a case that looks open-and-shut? The answers will link Hardcastle's latest work on Othello to the government post Silbert retired from, but in a maddeningly inconclusive way that yields a high degree of realism but a conclusion that drags on forever.

The much-honored Robinson (Friend of the Devil, 2008, etc.) revisits a concept even Agatha Christie, in one of her last novels, couldn't bring to life. Despite his far more subtle and powerful psychological insight, he doesn't pull it off either.

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December 1, 2008
The eighteenth Alan Banks mystery, starring the Yorkshire Dales detective inspector, boasts the same combination of a hard-bitten but introspective hero and a compelling story that has made Robinsons series enduringly successful. This time Robinson doesnt make as much of the Yorkshire Dales as he has in the past, with the landscape more focused on the interiors of flats than the surrounding countryside. The mystery here involves the discovery of a mans body hanging from a tree. When Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot goes to notify the victims partner, that man is found stabbed to death in his flat. Everything points to murder-suicide, but Cabbot and Banks discover a far more complicated and disturbing reality behind the successful and seemingly happy suicide, who ran set and costume design for a local theatre, his partner, their relations, and their pasts. Robinson shows a deft hand at using forensic science, conflict between characters, and recurring series themes. Another winner from one of Britains established A-listers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)