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Friend of the Devil

by Peter Robinson

In his latest Inspector Banks novel, Peter Robinson offers up his usual troika of brilliant writing, compelling plot, and strong, realistic characters. I don’t know of any writer more adept at writing dialogue and using it to push the story forward. Robinson quickly sets his scenes and lets his characters tell the story.

D.I. Annie Cabbot is investigating the death of a woman in a wheelchair, a quadriplegic whose throat was slit while she was sitting alone and staring over the North Sea. The woman is revealed to have been living under a pseudonym in a nursing home to cover an extremely dark and sordid past. Banks, meanwhile, is investigating a rape and murder in a rowdy part of town known as the Maze.

When one of their colleagues is killed in the Maze in the same way as the woman in the wheelchair, Banks and Cabbot find themselves working together to find the same killer. By the end, it appears that the devil’s best friend is the human proclivity to obsess and seek vengeance.

This book will please Robinson’s legion of fans and make fans of readers new to his work. Only the book’s length could prevent one from reading it straight through to the end in one go.

 

Reviewer: Jeff George

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart

DETAILS

Price: $34.99

Page Count: 400 pp

Format: Cloth

ISBN: 978-0-7710-7610-7

Released: Sept.

Issue Date: 2007-9

Categories: Fiction: Novels

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