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Title: Past Reason Hated: An Inspector Banks Mystery
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Manufacturer: Avon
List Price: $7.50
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| Past Reason Hated: An Inspector Banks Mystery by Avon Start elsewhere if you want to appreciate Peter Robinson | "Past Reason Hated" is the only book I have read by Peter Robinson. I won't read another unless I'm stuck on a island and one washes up on the shore and I am out of matches.
I understand that his later works are better than his earlier works. One reviewer recommends "In a Dry Season." I can only recommend that this not be the first of his books to read. The plot is slow, the sentences are cumbersome and the characters are poorly developed, and he is not funny.
The only reason I finished the book was so I could write this review and warn others not to waste their time. I wanted to be sure that I didn't miss out on a great ending. I am now certain that the ending is not work the labor of the read. Next time the urge to read a British mystery comes upon me as it does from time to time I will go to R. Hill or P.D. James, but I will not return to Mr. Robinson. This is one book you should take your time reading selected pages before you purchase. If you like it, buy it, read it, review it and let me know what other books you like. Life is short and I like to know about other books I should avoid.
| | Past Reason Hated: An Inspector Banks Mystery by Avon "What the hell was it about the music that bothered him? Why did it have to mean something?" | With this novel in the Inspector Banks series, Robinson has taken his work to the next level. His magnificent ability to use everyday situations in his plots, to provide insights regarding the motivations of his characters, and his cleverly-crafted mysteries are complemented with a deeper look at the main characters. This last element is the one that does the trick for me and lifts this effort from very good to excellent.
Inspector Banks has to find Caroline's killer, which is not an easy task, especially due to the number of people that had both opportunity and motive for committing the crime. The fact that she was living as a life-partner with another woman, who is not yet divorced, complicates matters and allows for some very interesting insights into the prejudices of some of the characters involved. When you add a piece of music playing repeatedly at the crime scene, which seems to have a clear symbolism, the elements are set for a compelling mystery.
This novel has all the characteristics that have made this author one of my favorites in the genre, but it goes even beyond that. This is the first time I see several passages with some fine humor, which works very well to provide the story with variety and to lighten the mood. Since before this work Robinson has been compared repeatedly with P. D. James, he just could not refrain himself and I almost started to laugh out loud when Banks thinks to himself: "I'm getting just like that Dalgliesh fellow..."
Robinson also makes great strides in terms of the development of the main characters, giving them even more depth. Not only we get a glimpse of some of Banks' reasons for leaving London and settling on the countryside, but there is considerably more material dealing with the personal relationship among the characters than there was in the previous novel, The Hanging Valley. Another aspect that helps is the inclusion of a new character. Susan, a new constable that has just joined the Eastvale team, possesses a complex personality and a few prejudices that allow for some enlightening contrasts with Banks. She reminds me a little of Sergeant Barbara Havers, the beloved character in the series by Elizabeth George.
There is no question in my mind, this is the best book in the series so far and I recommend it wholeheartedly. | | Past Reason Hated: An Inspector Banks Mystery by Avon Chilling |
Peter Robinson grew up in Yorkshire, and is the author of thirteen previous novels featuring Inspector Banks. He is the winner of numerous awards in the United States, Britain and Canada, and in 2002 he won the CWA Dagger in the Library. As I also come from Leeds the background to his stories is something that I have experienced first hand and because of this I have a special affection for his books. However they would be first class crime fiction wherever they were based. This particular novel is one of the author's earlier books in the series.
The scene looks like a typical Christmas in many households, a log fire, sheepskin rug, lights twinkling on the tree, the all is not as it seems. Caroline Hartley, the attractive woman lying on the couch is dead, brutally murdered. Inspector Banks is allocated the case and he soon has more suspects than he can handle. As he looks into Caroline's past he realises that secrecy was a way of life and her death is no different . . .
| | Past Reason Hated: An Inspector Banks Mystery by Avon An excellent piece of work | | The novel just before this one in the DCI Alan Banks series, _The Hanging Valley_, was pretty lackluster, but Robinson springs back in this one with a major winner. A young woman is found murdered in her own parlor by her lesbian partner, Veronica, a classical recording playing over and over on the stereo. Caroline had been involved in a local amateur theater production of _Twelfth Night_ -- nice bit of irony there, and a plot-point as well if you pay attention -- and the director and the other cast members are all suspects. So is Veronica's ex-husband, so is the husband's current girlfriend, and so is Caroline's emotionally strained teenage brother, all with different and quite reasonable possible motives. The plot becomes more complex but it won't necessarily stay that way, a point the author has the Chief Inspector make several times. Banks is a humane man, not ordinarily quick to judge, and his growing regard for Veronica is very nicely rendered. Also heavily involved is newly-promoted DC Susan Gay -- an unfortunate surname, in the circumstances -- who was only a spear-carrier in the earlier installments. She's young and bright and has a great deal to learn, not least of which is to distrust her prejudices. The writing is smooth, the plotting holds together, the pace and the atmosphere of Eastdale in a rather bleak Christmas season are very well done, and the characterization is excellent. The best of the series so far. | | Past Reason Hated: An Inspector Banks Mystery by Avon Music Plays A Role In Death in the Moors. | A family secret revealed leads to murder, nothing new to Alan Banks, who grew up in an orphanage and has seen it all on the streets of London. He knew from experience that jealousy, hatred and fear are the prime emotions for murder; they are mankind's primitive emotions and instincts. For years he had loved the city's streets, their energy. Even some of the villains he'd nicked had a bit of class; those lacking class at least had a sense of humor. Then, his marriage failed and anxiety attacks had convinced him that he was dying.
Life dragged on without joy, without love. To escape the slump, he had to run away before it got too late. He relocated to the North of England doing the same kind of detecting. A youngish woman with a shady past was found stabbed to death on December 22. Her visitors that day were varied but seemed to be all women -- not the kind of vicious attack noted for that sex.
Banks looks into her past activities in London where he finds her family (any of whom could be the victim of guilt by association), brother, father and ex-husband. Men perceived things differently; they were unsuited to spotting subtle nuance. They were basically selfish and saw things only in relation to their own egos.
Music is the very essence of life; the Vivaldi record playing over and over was important to the identification of the one who hated Carrie enough to take her out of her misery. It goes back to her youth and the hatred which had festered in more than one of the family. | | Past Reason Hated: An Inspector Banks Mystery by Avon Product Description | A picturesque Yorkshire village is dressed in its finest for the upcoming Noel. But one of its residents will not be celebrating this holiday. Chief Inspector Alan Banks knows that secrecy can sometimes prove fatal'and secrets were the driving force behind Caroline Hartley's life…and death. She was a beautiful enigma, brutally stabbed in her own home three days prior to Christmas. Leaving her past behind for a forbidden love affair, she mystified more than a few. And now she is dead, clothed only in her unshared mysteries and her blood. In this season of giving and forgiving, Banks is eager to absolve the innocent of their sins. But that must wait until the many facets of a perplexing puzzle are exposed and the dark circle of his investigation finally closes…and when a killer makes the next move. |
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