Thursday, August 19, 2010

Bad Boy-Peter Robinson

Bad Boy
Peter Robinson
Morrow, Aug 24 2010, $25.99
ISBN: 9780061362958

Tracy Banks believes her friend Erin Doyle is dating a nasty person Jaff McCready. Erin’s mom would agree with that assessment as she finds an illegal gun amongst Erin’s possession. She reports this to the Eastvale police.

A charmer, Jaff persuades Tracy to flee the country with him and though she should know better she agrees to go with him. Jaff and Tracy hide in the Yorkshire house of her father Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks while is in the States. Meanwhile Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot leads the investigation into Jaff’s whereabouts. Tracy opens up Jaff’s suitcase to find it filled drugs, money and a gun. His allure ends for her so he turns ugly holding her hostage even as her dad returns from overseas to find his daughter in danger.

This is an excellent entry in the long running Banks police procedural series even with the lead playing at best a tertiary role (being overseas) in the first half of the novel. Even with the hero away, the story line is fast-paced throughout and when he returns the DCI conflicts between being the father of a hostage and the cop working a hostage situation arises. With an underlying theme of how the British feel about guns (and the gun laws) accentuated by the actions of Erin’s mom, Peter Robinson affirms what his fans already know that you can bank on him for a powerful tale.

Harriet Klausner

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