โ Scribed by Robinson, Peter
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The hero of Robinson's novels (Wednesday's Child, etc.), Yorkshire Chief
Inspector Alan Banks, appears in three of this collection's 13 stories,
and one of the 13, "Innocence," won the Canadian Crime Writers Award
for best short story. That tale displays well Robinson's gift for
turning a familiar plot inside-out as strange circumstances overwhelm
his characters. A man waits outside a school to meet a teacher friend,
draws the suspicion of parents and finds himself charged with the murder
of a schoolgirl. What happens after his trial is shocking but, in
Robinson's hands, perfectly believable. There's a similar twist in the
title story, wherein an out-of-town visitor ventures nervously into an
urban park often described as unsafe at night. There's danger, all
right, but not what the reader expects. In "Fan Mail," a mystery
novelist agrees to advise a Walter Mitty-like husband on innovative ways
to murder his wife; an old secret leads to a perverse result. The plots
of the stories are mostly solid and the characters are always vivid.
U.S. readers may particularly enjoy Robinson's take on his fellow
Canadians coping with Florida and southern California.
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From the New York Times bestselling author of Sleeping in the Ground comes this brilliantly nuanced short story collection of twenty stories--most never before published in the US, and one of them an Edgar winner--which also features three Inspector Banks tales. Peter Robinson pens thrilling tales
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