The twenty-seventh installment of the #1 bestselling Inspector Banks series by "the grand master of the genre" ( Literary Review), Peter Robinson. Their conversation is desultory—Zelda is by turns disingenuous, sulky, and brittle. She finally spills the beans. Banks can’t understand why she held out on him. Zelda blames it on growing up in the Soviet system: police are not to be trusted. She senses Banks is not convinced. Her next comment proves prophetic: “I’ll miss this place.” A few days after their lunch, she disappears—not voluntarily, she’s been kidnapped. Read our review of Many Rivers to Cross by Peter Robinson

Peter Robinson is a Canadian mystery writer. His books have won awards and have been translated into 20 languages. He's been called the master of the police procedural — and with the latest Inspector Banks novel Not Dark Yet, he's up to book number 27 in the popular series. A wealthy Yorkshire property developer and his butler are found murdered on the developer's estate. The developer, Connor Blaydon, had his belly ripped open and had been left to die in his own swimming pool. Subsequent investigation reveals a video recording made in Blaydon's house showing a woman being raped; it is not known whether this has any connection to the murders. The recording is of poor quality, and the police are unable to identify the rapist or his victim. The primary police investigators are Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot and Detective Constable Geraldine Masterson, known as Gerry. Alan Banks is a brilliantly crafted character and I cannot wait to spend time reading more of the book in the series, so keep an eye out, there is sure to be more of Peter Robinson’s books featured on the blog in the future. The case takes a horrific turn when a review of the video files determines that a rape took place. Banks is tasked with finding Connor’s killer, as well as identifying the rape victim, who might have been motivated to murder him herself. He does not realize that an assailant is much closer to him and his team than they can possibly suspect. There are a number of twists and turns in the investigation, one of which intersects with Banks’ past and a longstanding nemesis of his. I had felt that the previous two books in this series were not as good as previous volumes. They both had cliffhanger endings, leaving too much unresolved. I had concluded my review of Many Rivers to Cross here on Goodreads as follows:

The story is a strong one. Banks is investigating the death of a property developer and his “butler”. During the investigation, Banks discovers that the man was secretly filming the wild parties he held, including cameras in the bedrooms. And what shows on one of the tapes is a brutal rape. Not Dark Yet is the 27th Inspector Banks mystery. But it’s the first that I’ve read. And therein lies the problem. How have I never read a Peter Robinson book before? I have no idea how I have managed to miss out on this series. Not Dark Yet is the 27th Alan Banks book and only the first one I have ever read. Since I loved this character, I have some catching up to do.

Robinson is an author with amazing empathy, a snare-trap ear for dialogue, and a clear eye for the telling detail."--Michael Connelly Robinson’s continued ability to reveal a mystery and a solution where you least expect it should make fans hopeful that this series will carry on for a while." Meanwhile, Ray Cabbot’s friend Zelda is still hunting for the men who abducted her from a Moldovan children’s home and enslaved her. It soon becomes clear that Zelda’s search and what happened at Blaydon’s could be linked. Zelda is fearful, not only of her former captors, but also the authorities who might discover her French passport isn’t valid.

I think that Not Dark Yet is considerably better. I suspect that a reader not familiar with the earlier books might find this one confusing, but for readers who have read the earlier books, there should not be a problem. The various investigations blur into one another as everything comes to a head. The storylines are disjointed, particularly after Banks is forced to take medical leave. Banks is under intense pressure from internal investigators to spill the goods on Zelda. They clearly don’t believe a word of his story hence his superior protecting Banks by forcing him to stand down temporarily. Does that stop his investigations? Hardly. Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for the free ARC.) Not Dark Yet is definitely a dark police procedural that tests the boundaries of what a detective can do when an investigation comes close to harming someone he cares for. Alan Banks, in his 27th appearance, finds himself in the midst of leading simultaneous investigations into murder, rape, and a missing person - with one common thread linking them all together. Banks and his team have business to attend to as well - there's been a double murder at a luxury home. The Albanian mafia may have been responsible - and a series of covertly filmed videos that add another layer to the case. The 27th book in the number one best-selling Alan Banks crime series - by the master of the police procedural.

I cannot believe that I have not come across this author before. I loved his writing and the characters were amazing. It’s not often that one of the main characters is called Zelda – of course, I loved that even if it was a little weird reading about someone with my name. Especially when she is very different to me.Sadly, at least to my mind, the trend continues here. As the book opens, a wealthy property developer named Connor Blaydon is found brutally murdered at his mansion, along with one of his associates. The investigation falls to DC Annie Cabbot and DC Gerry Masterson. Technically, they are working under the direction of Banks, but after an initial visit to the crime scene, he basically hands off the investigation to his subordinates and takes little or no part in the further developments. Zelda plays a very prominent role in all of these books. She had been brought up in an orphanage in Moldova following her parents' death. She left the orphanage when she was seventeen; she was immediately kidnapped and kept as a sex slave for the next ten years. She had finally freed herself by killing her captor. She had eventually made her way to England, begun working as an artist, and met Banks' friend Ray Cabbot, also an artist, and the father of Banks' colleague Annie Cabbot. Despite Ray being significantly older, he and Zelda had joined in a relationship. It had been noted that Zelda was a "super-recognizer," a person with a remarkable ability to recognize faces, whether in person or from a reproduction. Because of this, Zelda became a consultant to a British government office. The gruesome double-murder at an Eastvale property developer’s luxury home should be an open-and-shut case for Superintendent Alan 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 murder. When Banks and his team find a cache of spy-cam videos hidden in the house, the investigation pivots to another violent crime that could cast the murders in an entirely different light. Meanwhile, Zelda is already uncertain of her future in the UK, as immigration want to see her documents, and she’s having trouble proving her right to remain.What with that, the authorities circling and the fear of arrest, she decides to go to Moldova to hunt the men who abducted, raped and enslaved her after she grew up in an orphanage there. She’s unclear what she will do if she finds them. She’s playing with fire and placing herself in greater peril, of course. No. Well, yes, but . . . we’re trying to make a case against Leka Gashi and the Albanians for Blaydon’s murder. Trouble is, we don’t even know where they are.”

There is so much attention given in the earlier books in this arc to Zelda's ability as a super-recognizer that it seems odd and disappointing to me that this plays no part in solving the problems in Not Dark Yet. As mentioned, this was my first encounter with Peter Robinson and I have already added the other twenty-six books in the series to my TBR. I enjoyed the writing and loved the characters. The regular reference to music had me reaching for my Spotify account to hear what the fuss was about. I cannot wait to spend more time with Alan Banks.

Instead of discovering Connor’s murderer, however, the grainy and blurred footage reveals another crime: a brutal rape. If they can discover the woman’s identity, it could lead to more than justice for the victim; it could change everything the police think they know about Connor and why anyone would want him dead. The case of the murder of a bent property developer and his factotum a week earlier is proving frustrating, although he has a chief suspect in his sights. The victim’s business partner appears to be a member of the Albanian mafia and fled the UK straight after the vicious killing. DI Annie Cabot and DC Gerry Masterson, on Banks’team, discover a video recording of a suspected rape while searching the murder scene. It was seemingly filmed at a booze and cocaine-fuelled party attended by hordes of young women a few weeks earlier.