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Title: Playing with Fire : A Novel of Suspense by Peter Robinson ISBN: 0-06-019877-X Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 20 January, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Engrossing page-turner
Comment: Appropriately, PLAYING WITH FIRE starts out with a fire. On a cold winter morning on the dead-end branch of a Yorkshire canal, two barges burned. Two victims were found. The fire looks suspicious, but the question is who was the intended victim. One victim was a painter who felt his art was unappreciated and the other a young sexually abused girl who was hooked on drugs. Chief Inspector Alan Banks is summoned to investigate the crime. It is not long before another fire breaks out in a remote trailer. There seems to be a serial arsonist on the loose. Secrets and lies are uncovered as Banks and his partner D.I. Annie Cabot work toward discovering the truth.
This story was extremely fast moving and hard to put down. Peter Robinson has created a brilliant plot for PLAYING WITH FIRE. It was complex, but very straightforward. Robinson does not rely on misdirection to create suspense, but rather a slow build-up of facts that rush the reader through a roaring crescendo toward the climax. There are a few loose ends that do not deter from the overall enjoyment of this novel. hopefully, some of the points will be addressed in the next Banks installment. This is a first rate British police procedural and a must read for anyone who appreciates quality.
Rating: 5
Summary: Absorbing characters and an intriguing plot
Comment: Character, plot, pace and prose - those are what make Edgar-winner Robinson's Inspector Alan Banks novels so compulsively readable.
Certainly they are character driven: Alone again with his music and his Laphroaig, his wife remarried, his romance with colleague Annie Cabot over, Banks struggles with loneliness and a visceral antagonism toward Annie's new love interest. He's passionate, but not self-absorbed; instinctive but not reckless. And Annie: younger, a bit less certain of herself, leery of Banks' baggage, a bit defensive about her new romance, wavers between assertiveness and stubbornness and can't always tell the difference.
And then there's the plot. Fire is a fascinating, scary medium and yields great forensics. The story begins with two live-aboard barges set ablaze, a dead artist on one, a dead junkie on the other. Had the junkie's apparently grief-stricken boyfriend snapped? Had the failed artist crossed his unidentified visitors? Had the junkie's abusive stepfather shut her mouth for good? Then another suspicious blaze kills a lonely man in his isolated trailer on the other side of town and the questions multiply.
The pace mixes technical forensics, police procedure, and personal interaction in a suspenseful flow that relies on engagement rather than breakneck action. Shifts in point of view add further dimension. And the writing - atmospheric and nuanced - is as graceful as ever. Robinson ("Close to Home") has another winner.
Rating: 4
Summary: A grand scale thriller
Comment: Two derelict canal boats are destroyed by fire in the dark hours of the night. Firefighters find a body on each boat, squatters who had been living there illegally. Detective Inspector Alan Banks uncovers enough suspicious evidence to determine that the arson cases are also murder. The police catch a man fleeing from the scene, who turns out to be the boyfriend of a junkie named Tina who had escaped a horrible home life. She is one of the deceased.
The other boat held a reclusive artist, and as the police dig into his life they find that he may have been involved in some shady dealings. When another fire occurs a few days later, resulting in the death of another man, Banks is sure that the fires and deaths are connected. As he and his fellow officers sift through the clues, they find ties to the art community and the possibility of forgery. Can they find the identity of the arsonist before he kills again?
This is the first Inspector Banks book I have read by Peter Robinson, but now I am anxious to read the other books in this series. Obviously, it would be better to read the others first to get a background on the characters, but I did not feel reading this one first detracted from Playing With Fire at all. The reader gets a sense of the characters, especially Inspector Banks and detective Annie Cabot. Both are dedicated to their jobs and work diligently to find the perpetrator of the crimes before the killer harms others. There is an undercurrent of tension from a failed relationship between the two which makes their conversations intriguing.
I have long been a fan of British police procedurals, and Mr. Robinson compares very favorably to my favorite author Elizabeth George. The characters have long standing relationships, developed from novel to novel, and readers can form their own connection with the characters. The plot moves at a meandering pace, slowly doling out clues at the right intervals so that the reader can discover the identity of the culprit at the same time as the police. It is a definite page-turner, and the reader will be surprised at who the murderer turns out to be.
Mystery lovers will be delighted in this newest offering from Peter Robinson. Playing With Fire has all of the intense and suspenseful elements necessary for a grand scale thriller.
-Melissa Parcel
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Title: A Question of Blood: An Inspector Rebus Novel by Ian Rankin ISBN: 0316095648 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: February, 2004 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Now May You Weep: A Novel by Deborah Crombie ISBN: 0060525231 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 07 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The Murder Room by P.D. JAMES ISBN: 1400041414 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 18 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: The Babes in the Wood: A Chief Inspector Wexford Mystery by RUTH RENDELL ISBN: 140004930X Publisher: Crown Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: A Place of Hiding by ELIZABETH GEORGE ISBN: 0553801309 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 29 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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