Standing in the Shadows: The last novel in the number one bestselling Alan Banks crime series

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Robinson’s artistry lies in his dexterous placement of clues, whispered secrets lying dormant or boldly paraded in plain sight. The seamless choreography of police procedure, rendered with an authenticity that underscores the writer’s mastery, unveils a police force willing to bend the rules in the pursuit of justice. Such is the precision of Robinson’s depiction that one could be forgiven for assuming he himself once walked a beat. “Final enigma” MICHAEL CONNELLY calls Peter Robinson "an author with amazing empathy, a snare-trap ear for dialogue, and a clear eye for the telling detail." Robinson is an author with amazing empathy, a snare-trap ear for dialogue, and a clear eye for the telling detail.”— Michael Connelly on Many Rivers to Cross

A body is found buried where one shouldn't be, found by anthropology team working the area for Roman finds. This is just one of the investigations running as the death of a young woman is bundled into the work load. O]ne of the finest police procedural writers around... [ Standing in the Shadows] is as narratively rich and surprising as Robinson's best work' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW Eventually the two cases intersect and the outcome was a surprise to me ... I thought I had it figured out!Engrossing... Those who enjoy methodical police procedurals that build to a logical, satisfying conclusion will be amply rewarded.”— Publishers Weekly on Careless Love Eventually, the two story lines converge. The solution to the mystery, while not completely unexpected, still managed to surprise me in many of its details. This is a fast-paced police procedural that held my interest to the end. Readers will love getting a fascinating primer in both modern forensics and archaeological techniques.... As usual, Banks’ steadfast, multifaceted character holds his team and the story itself together....The ending, in which the two narratives join, is a stunner." — Booklist on Standing in the Shadows

As always, Robinson’s writing is smooth, and he has crafted a plot that is intricate, has great depth, and a mystery that is well constructed and atmospheric. The narrative alternates between the two time-lines that seem totally unrelated, but over time meld into one. Standing in the Shadows is textbook Robinson, expertly conceived and suspenseful from start to finish.... One of the best mystery/thriller series in the business." — Book Reporter on Standing in the Shadows If Gillespie didn’t exactly retire under a cloud, there were rumors clinging to him from early in his career when he was privy to an undercover operation where police infiltrated radical student organizations. Armed with this knowledge, Banks senses there may be a connection between the moribund inquiry into Alice Poole’s death, and the body found in Gillespie’s field.Not only are his mysteries always well plotted but Banks, as a lover of music, was never shy of sharing his choices with the reader. I will miss that. This mystery includes two separate time frames, years apart but of course there is a connection, though I wasn't smarmy enough to figure out exactly how. Peter Robinson’s superior plotting skills, strong social conscience, palpable sense of place, and, not least, voracious love of music put him in the pantheon of contemporary British crime writers... a lovely way to remember Banks and his creator, who leaves behind a legacy of novels that explore the thorniest regions of the heart, mind, and soul.”— Air Mail on Standing in the Shadows

In 1990 he published a stand-alone novel, Caedmon’s Song, a psychological thriller in which two young women in different parts of England find their paths crossing in an alarming way. The police do a stellar job of identifying the corpse. They discover that the dead man was a fit 50/60-something with a penchant for high-end threads. He was buried in a Tom Ford suit (think Daniel Craig in his first Bond films) and bespoke leather shoes. They release a sketch to the media, but no one steps up to identify the missing man. Robinson had completed another Banks novel before he died. Standing in the Shadows is due to be published next year. He was born in Castleford, West Yorkshire, to Clifford Robinson, a rent collector, and Miriam (nee Jarvis), a cleaner, and grew up in Armley, a working-class suburb of Leeds (also home to fellow writers Alan Bennett and Barbara Taylor Bradford). It is not too much of a stretch to assume that aspects of Inspector Banks’s adolescence in the 1960s, as described in Close to Home (2003), the 14th novel in the series, mirrored Robinson’s own.Late November 2019. An dig near Scotch Corner unearths a skeleton that turns out to be far more recent than the Roman remains the archaeologist is looking for. Detective Superintendent Alan Banks and his team are called in and, as an investigation into the find begins, the past and the present meet with devastating consequences. Standing in the Shadows is the twenty-eighth and final installment in the late Peter Robinson's long-running Inspector Banks series. Reading this novel is bittersweet, like the affectionate and protracted goodbye of a very dear friend. The late Peter Robinson penned another brilliant entry into the Inspector Banks series in his latest, and last, book in the series.