Strange Affair

Cover Type: Softcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Jacket Condition: None Issued
Publisher: Macmillan
Publisher Place: London
Publisher Year: 2005
Edition: First Edition

Description: 356 pages. Book is in Very good condition throughout.

Publishers Description: Without a doubt, the family and friends of fictional sleuths are two of the most endangered species on the planet. Crime novelists seem to have no qualms about sacrificing the people nearest and dearest to their protagonists, if doing so will advance plot development or bestow emotional depth upon their series stars. Peter Robinson continues this ruthless tradition in Strange Affair, his tension-packed 15th novel featuring headstrong British Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks. Still on the mend after the blazing finale of 2004s Playing with Fire, temporarily sworn off whiskey but back to smoking, Banks is interrupted in the midst of brooding over his life and failed relationships by a message from his estranged younger brother, Roy, who says he needs the DCIs help in "a matter of life and death." Concerned, especially since Roy boasts a history of dubious business dealings, Banks leaves Yorkshire for his siblings home in London, only to find that residence unlocked, Roys computer missing, and his cell phone left behind. After learning that Roy was last seen stepping into a car with an unidentified man, and receiving on Roys mobile what appears to be a photo of his only brother slumped over in a chair, the cop fears that a kidnapping has occurred.Meanwhile, back in Eastvale, Bankss colleague and ex-lover, Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot, probes the shooting death of Jennifer Clewes, a 27-year-old family planning center administrator from London whos been found in her car, with the address of Bankss once-ruined (and recently broken into) cottage tucked into her jeans pocket. As Annie seeks to identify Clewess attacker and determine whether this crime fits a pattern of roadway assaults, shes anxious also to discover what connection Banks may have to the case. But the DCI is frustratingly nowhere to be found.Like 2003s Close to Home, Strange Affair adds some welcome bricks to Bankss back story, this time forcing him to reappraise a brother whom he had long resented and distrusted. Simultaneously, Robinsons latest police procedural delivers artfully contrived, intersecting story lines charged with rumors of international arms dealing, hints of misdeeds at a womens clinic, secondary players so shady they might be invisible after sundown, and insights into just how far Bankss career has distanced him from folks less steeped in the ugly side of mankind. An immensely satisfying mystery, filled with professional risks and personal regrets, this is truly an Affair to remember. --J. Kingston Pierce

ISBN: 9780333989357