Search - Gallows View (Inspector Banks, Bk 1)

I do love a good British police procedural, and this series is definitely one of the good ones! I had read a couple later on in the series and decided to start at the beginning with this book. It features Alan Banks, an inspector in Yorkshire where he's just moved to from London, expecting it to be much more serene and quiet. Ha! :)

good solid british mystery writer

GALLOWS VIEW by Peter Robinson: This is the first of the Inspector Banks series for which Robinson has become justly famous. Former London policeman Alan Banks has relocated to small Yorkshire village of Eastvale seeking some small measure of peace, but crime and violence are not limited to large cities. . Soon he is dealing with a brazen Peeping Tom who spies on attractive, unsuspecting ladies as they prepare for bed. When an elderly woman is found brutally slain in her home, Chief Inspector Banks wonders if the voyeur has progressed to more violent crimes. I am looking forward to continuing the series.

This book was recommended to me by another PBS member. It was a good read. I liked the character of Inspector Banks. The plot is believeable and the book was well written. In fact, I liked it so much I will request his next book. Inspector Banks is called in to investigate a "peeping tom" that is frightening women in the village. Banks ends up with not only a peeping tom but a murder and home robberies. The suspense is in reading how he solves the crimes.

Gallows View is an okay introduction to the British mystery series featuring Inspector Alan Banks, who lives and works in Eastvale, Yorkshire. As the novel begins, the local police are trying to find a peeper who is frightening some of the town's women. As if that's not enough, an elderly woman living alone has been killed, and there are a series of unsolved break-ins. Banks, who has moved to Yorkshire to get away from the high-stress levels of police work and of life in general in London, takes the lead on all of these cases -- which may or may not be linked together.

As with most first novels in a mystery series, Banks' character isn't as well developed right away as it will hopefully be in the next ones. I expect this, though; it's very rare that a character comes fully fleshed out in a series opener. However, the crime plotting is solid, and the way Robinson writes his story leaves readers guessing until the end.

I can recommend Gallows View. If you like British mystery, or if you're looking for a solid police procedural (with some personal touches) and you haven't tried this series yet, it would be worth your while to do so. It's not on the cozy end of mystery novels, but it's not really hardcore either. Overall -- a good read, and I'll definitely be coming back to this author.

Voyeurs and violent burlars are involved in this supenseful Chief Inspector Banks mystery.