Gallows View: The first novel in the number one bestselling Inspector Banks series (The Inspector Banks series, 1)

Product Information

Hyacinthe Miller, the Chair of the CWC, announced, on 18 May, 2023, that starting in 2024, and for 5 years the, award would be renamed the Peter Robinson Award for Best Crime Novel, sponsored by Rakuten Kobo. The Inspector Banks series is a collection of mystery novels by Peter Robinson about Detective Superintendent Alan Banks. Many people are entangled in this crime – some whose lives are shattered by it, and some with unspeakable secrets in their pasts. The novel follows Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, a perceptive, curious and compassionate policeman recently moved to the Yorkshire Dales from London to escape the stress of city life.

This seems to be the end of a grisly case Banks has been working on for some time, but it turns out to be only the beginning. If you haven't encountered Chief Inspector Alan Banks before, prepare for a crash course in taut, clean writing and subtle psychology. The viewing figures were successful enough for three more adaptations to be commissioned– Playing With Fire, Friend Of The Devil, and Cold Is The Grave–under a series title DCI Banks showing as six one-hour episodes, which started airing on 16 September 2011. In this first Inspector Banks novel, a peeping tom is frightening the women of Eastvale; two young thugs are breaking into homes; and an old woman may or may not have been murdered. What makes Gallows View such an impressive debut novel is Robinson’s decision to balance his mystery with a vividly drawn set of characters….Anyone who loves a good mystery should curl up gratefully with a cuppa to enjoy this rich 10th installment of the acclaimed British police procedural series. If you haven’t encountered Chief Inspector Alan Banks before, prepare for a crash course in taut, clean writing and subtle psychology.

The novel follows the case to solve the murder of Caroline Hartly, whose body of is found one evening before Christmas by her lover, Veronica Shildon. DC Gay and Chief Inspector Alan Banks soon find plenty of suspects as they begin to delve into Caroline's past and the women's present life: Veronica's ex-husband, who is a well-known composer; a feminist poet; the cast and crew of a play Caroline was rehearsing; and Caroline's eccentric, reclusive brother, Gary Hartley. Readers will find this a fast-moving, gripping mystery story, with an authentic description of the village and its inhabitants.

The dead, Banks learns, are not the only victims, and the murderer may not be the only person to blame.