Playing
with Fire
DCI Alan Banks Mystery
#14
By Peter Robinson
"Just
when he thought he'd seen and heard it all, dug about as deep
as anyone can into the darkness of the human soul and remained
sane, something else came along and knocked all his assumptions
out of the window." -- Playing With Fire
DI Annie Cabbot
isn't feeling well, but arrives at the crime scene like a trooper.
There she finds two burnt barges and Inspector Alan Banks. Annie
and Banks have a history, but are now involved with other people.
Despite their past, their respect for each other keeps their present
relationship civilized.
The detectives
have a double homicide. The woman was a drug addict and the man,
an artist. At the scene Banks spies someone in the woods, watching.
They catch Mark and learn that he lived with the drug addict, Tina.
Mark's love for Tina seems real, and Banks takes pity on him. Throughout
the storyline, Mark chases his own demons, and readers learn of
his and Tina's sad stories.
Banks
is determined to solve this one. Suspects and clues move into place,
only to be shifted in the wind and smoke of a burnt caravan and
a new victim. Cabbot heads in one direction and Banks in another.
Hopefully their paths will meet up and solve this before another
homeless person succumbs to the arson's match.
Playing
with Fire is number fourteen in the Banks series. It doesn't
have the calculated, coldness of Aftermath, but the storyline is
complex, nonetheless. Readers will be just as surprised at the shocking
conclusion as Banks, Cabbot and the Yorkshire Police.
Robinson
pushes the envelope in his series. His characters go from one extreme
to the other, and there isn't a subject too sacred to be drawn on.
Robinson's Inspector Banks series rivals Dexter's Inspector Morse,
and that is one reason I recommend it.
Reviews
of other titles in this series
Cold
is the Grave #11
Aftermath
#12
Close
to Home #13
Playing
Fire #14
Strange Affair #15 [audio]
[book]
Piece
of My Heart #16
Friend
of the Devil #17
All the Colors of Darkness #18
In The Dark Places #22 [review
1] [review
2]
When The Music's Over #23 [review
1] [review
2]
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