Because Ideas Matter...
The faculty and staff of Butler University's College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences presents
Recommended Readings
Watching the Dark
by Peter Robinson, William Morrow/Harper Collins, 2012
Reviewed by Larry Riggs
Part of the appeal of Robinson's Alan Banks
mysteries, for me, is the landscape of the North Yorkshire moors
and dales in which much of Banks' work is done. In this latest
entry, the 20th Banks novel, however, Banks spends a
good deal of time in Talinn, Estonia, investigating the 6-year-old
cold case of a young Englishwoman. This is a case that seems to be
linked to the murder of a respected Yorkshire police officer. Bill
Quinn, the murdered detective, had gone to Estonia to observe the
investigation of the Englishwoman's disappearance and had remained
strangely preoccupied with that case. Quinn was shot with a
crossbow on the grounds of a rest and convalescence facility for
injured and troubled officers. Banks' investigation of Quinn's
murder is complicated by the presence of a beautiful female
Professional Standards officer, whose job is to follow up on vague
suspicions that Quinn was somehow corrupted. When compromising
photos of Quinn and an unidentified young woman are found among the
officer's belongings, the suspicions become more specific. While
Banks and the Professional Standards officer are in Talinn, looking
for the links between the two cases, Banks' long-time partner,
Annie Cabot, now recovered from the wounds she received at the end
of the previous Banks story, follows the Yorkshire case into the
world of people-trafficking, loan-sharking, extortion, and what
amounts almost to slavery. Like all of Robinson's books, this is a
worthwhile read, but I missed the North Yorkshire atmospherics.
- Larry Riggs is Professor of French at Butler University.