‘The best mystery-procedural series on the market. Try one and tell me I’m wrong’ STEPHEN KING

Late November, 1980. Student Nick Hartley returns from a lecture to find his house full of police officers. As he discovers that his ex-girlfriend has been found murdered in a nearby park, and her new boyfriend is missing, he realises two things in quick succession: he is undoubtedly a suspect as he has no convincing alibi, and he has own suspicions as to what might have happened . . .

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.

‘The master of the police procedural’ MAIL ON SUNDAY

‘The best mystery-procedural series on the market. Try one and tell me I’m wrong’ STEPHEN KING
‘”[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

Late November, 1980. Student Nick Hartley returns from a lecture to find his house full of police officers. As he discovers that his ex-girlfriend has been found murdered in a nearby park, and her new boyfriend is missing, he realises two things in quick succession: he is undoubtedly a suspect as he has no convincing alibi, and he has own suspicions as to what might have happened . . .

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.

‘The master of the police procedural’ MAIL ON SUNDAY
‘Robinson delivers an impeccably structured, engagingly spun performance… Robinson was a master of the police procedural and his thoughtful, nuanced work will endure’ IRISH TIMES

The gruesome double murder at an Eastvale property developer’s luxury home should be an open and shut case for Superintendent Banks and his team of detectives. There’s a clear link to the notoriously vicious Albanian mafia, men who left the country suspiciously soon after the death. Then they find a cache of spy-cam videos hidden in the house – and Annie and Gerry’s investigation pivots to the rape of a young girl that could cast the murders in an entirely different light.

Banks’s friend Zelda, increasingly uncertain of her future in Britain’s hostile environment, thinks she will be safer in Moldova hunting the men who abducted, raped and enslaved her than she is Yorkshire or London. Her search takes her back to the orphanage where it all began – but by stirring up the murky waters of the past, Zelda is putting herself in greater danger than any she’s seen before.

And as the threat escalates, so does the danger for Banks and those who love Zelda . . .

‘The master of the police procedural’ Mail on Sunday
‘The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I’m wrong’ Stephen King

The gruesome double murder at an Eastvale property developer’s luxury home should be an open and shut case for Superintendent Banks and his team of detectives. There’s a clear link to the notoriously vicious Albanian mafia, men who left the country suspiciously soon after the death. Then they find a cache of spy-cam videos hidden in the house – and Annie and Gerry’s investigation pivots to the rape of a young girl that could cast the murders in an entirely different light.

Banks’s friend Zelda, increasingly uncertain of her future in Britain’s hostile environment, thinks she will be safer in Moldova hunting the men who abducted, raped and enslaved her than she is Yorkshire or London. Her search takes her back to the orphanage where it all began – but by stirring up the murky waters of the past, Zelda is putting herself in greater danger than any she’s seen before.

And as the threat escalates, so does the danger for Banks and those who love Zelda . . .

‘The master of the police procedural’ Mail on Sunday
‘The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I’m wrong’ Stephen King

‘The master of the police procedural’ Mail on Sunday
‘The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I’m wrong’ Stephen King

***

A skinny young boy is found dead – his body carelessly stuffed into wheelie bin.

Detective Superintendent Alan Banks and his team are called to investigate. Who is the boy, and where did he come from? Was he discarded as rubbish, or left as a warning to someone? He looks Middle Eastern, but no one on the East Side Estate has seen him before.

As the local press seize upon an illegal immigrant angle, and the national media the story of another stabbing, the police are called to investigate a less newsworthy death: a middle-aged heroin addict found dead of an overdose in another estate, scheduled for redevelopment.

Banks finds the threads of each case seem to be connected to the other, and to the dark side of organised crime in Eastvale. Does another thread link to his friend Zelda, who is facing her own dark side?

The truth may be more complex – or much simpler – than it seems . . .