Aftermath: A Novel of Suspense [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Peter Robinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2001

A chilling new novel in the award-winning Inspector Banks series. Number 35 The Hill is an ordinary house in an ordinary street, owned by an apparently ordinary young couple. But it is about to become infamous...For when police constables Janet Taylor and Dennis Morrisey are sent to the house following a report of a domestic disturbance, they stumble upon a truly horrific scene. A scene which leaves one dead and one fighting for her life and career. Inspector Alan Banks, currently Acting Superintendent, has been leading the hunt for the Chameleon, a serial killer who has so far abducted five young women in the Yorkshire area. Banks is immediately called to The Hill - where, it seems, the Chameleon's identity has finally and gruesomely been revealed. But the capture of the serial killer is only the beginning of a shocking investigation that will test everyone to the absolute limit...

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Penzler Pick, October 2001: The mystery novels of Peter Robinson (Aftermath is his 12th) are of increasing power and intensified intelligence. It's a dirty little secret of the crime-fiction genre that many of its writers simply spin their wheels, repeating over and over those old tricks which always have worked for them. They coast on past successes and repeat the formula hoping, if not assuming, that their fans won't notice.

Writers like Robinson, however, actually seem to grow in front of our eyes, delivering books of greater complexity each time. His previous two books, Cold Is the Grave and In a Dry Season, were novels of character and novels of crime, equally, and now Aftermath is here to reward his fans and new readers alike.

Like recent books by fellow English writers Reginald Hill, Val McDermid, and Stephen Booth, Aftermath centers upon a grim case in which attractive young girls have disappeared, victims of a cunning psychotic killer whose identity is well concealed behind a façade of respectability. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks of the Yorkshire Police is in charge of the case, but he's also got unavoidable personal distractions. His separated wife, Sandra, is pregnant by her lover, Sean, and wanting the divorce he's been dragging his heels over.

There is nothing cozy about the kind of English mysteries written by Peter Robinson, even if they do take place where picturesque rural villages make up the landscape. He's not afraid of gore or deviance, of violence, or of any of the baser emotions, and it's a raw old world behind the hedgerows and cottage walls. If Aftermath is your first taste of his tough-tender sensibility, it won't be surprising if you soon are hooked on the work of one of today's most accomplished practitioners of detective fiction. --Otto Penzler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Dark, darker, darkest endless shades of ebony seem to envelop Acting Det. Superintendent Alan Banks in this grim, compelling, character-driven mystery (after 2000's Cold Is the Grave). As the head of the North Yorkshire half of a two-county joint task force, Banks is helping look into the disappearances of five young girls. As the title implies, the answer comes early on in an explosive scene where the girls' grisly fate is discovered. But Banks is left with the aftermath: a cop facing possible charges for excessive force, a woman who may be a victim or may be guilty of monstrous crimes, an "extra" body and one that isn't where it ought to be. Banks also faces plenty of personal challenges as his wife, Sandra, still pressing for divorce, finds a new way to shock him, while sometime girlfriend and colleague, Annie Cabbot, seeks to change their relationship. Robinson's never tackled darker themes: child abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, torture and murder. And while he never indulges in needlessly graphic descriptions, it is still horrific stuff. Introspective, thoughtful and plagued by uncertainties, Banks battles to maintain focus as the investigation plods on. As always, the author scrupulously details the police work, from the forensics to the efforts of a consultant psychologist (i.e., a profiler), who delves into a past case that may be related. A proven master of the British police procedural, Robinson should find a large audience for this gripping, psychologically astute tale. Agent, Dominick Abel. (Oct. 9)Forecast: Stronger than Cold Is the Grave, which won the Anthony and the Ellis awards, this novel stands to rack up even bigger sales, fueled by a five-city author tour and 25-city national radio campaign.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1St Edition edition (September 30, 2001)
• ISBN-10: 0380978326
• ASIN: B0000AA9JU
• Product Dimensions: 14.2 x 9.6 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,829,772 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter Robinson's award-winning novels have been named a Best-Book-of-the-Year by Publishers Weekly, a Notable Book by the New York Times, and a Page-Turner-of-the-Week by People magazine. Robinson was born and raised in Yorkshire but has lived in North America for over twenty-five years. He now divides his time between North America and the U.K.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Here's to you Mr. Robinson!, October 20, 2001

By 

D. Kaplan "sleuth029" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aftermath: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

"Aftermath" is the most recent entry in the British police procedural featuring Superintendent Alan Banks. For those of you who have followed this series, you are in for quite a surprise.

Peter Robinson has done what very few authors of a series have been able to accomplish. He has taken a very popular series of books that were on the cozy side and with each succeeding book made the stories deeper and more meaningful and the characters richer and more complex. With this book, he has passed over from the rather mild British police procedural into the realm of Val McDermid land. In a brutally graphic manner, Mr. Robinson tells his story about a serial rapist and murderer while exploring child abuse, sexual exploitation, espousal abuse and the very dark side of the human psyche.

Along the way, Mr. Robinson adds more layers to the straight forward Alan Banks we met in the earlier books. We have come to discover that this is a complicated man who is in conflict about his broken marriage and the demands of his job. Mr. Robinson has paid the same attention to each character in this book, creating a rich and multi-dimensional cast of players.

One can only applaud him for taking this series in a totally new direction. I imagine it is not that easy for an author to fiddle with a wildly popular series. Mr. Robinson took that chance and we, the readers, are the beneficiaries of his willingness to explore new vistas.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another stunning novel by the inimitable Peter Robinson., October 20, 2001

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aftermath: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

I have run out of superlatives to describe Peter Robinson, who is arguably one of the finest writers of British police procedurals, on par with P. D. James and Ruth Rendell at their best. I have read ten out of the eleven Inspector Banks novels that Robinson has written over the years, and I have enjoyed most of them immensely.

In Robinson's latest novel, "Aftermath," Alan Banks is Acting Detective Superintendent in Yorkshire, substituting for his ailing boss. Banks is depressed and on the verge of career burnout. He smokes and drinks too much, he gets too little sleep, and he is overwhelmed by the demands of his job. In addition, his love affair with Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot is not going well. Banks is still grieving over his separation from Sandra, his wife of twenty years, and he has little time or energy to invest in social relationships.

Banks's life soon goes from bad to worse. He is caught up in the case of the Chameleon killer, a man who abducts and murders teenaged girls. The case appears to be solved when two detective constables respond to a call about a domestic disturbance. The constables open the door, only to find a house of horrors, and they discover the identity of the man who appears to be the Chameleon killer.

Those of us who know Peter Robinson quickly realize that the case is just beginning. Who is Terence Payne, the biology teacher who apparently abducted, raped and murdered the young girls? What role, if any, did Terence's wife, Lucy, play in her husband's heinous crimes? Was Lucy a victim of spousal abuse herself, too frightened to tell the police what her husband was up to, or is she hiding something about her own shadowy past?

As usual, Robinson creates a large cast of fascinating and believable characters, such as Maggie Forrest, a domestic abuse survivor who champions the cause of Lucy Payne, and Police Constable Janet Taylor, who stands accused of using excessive force while subduing Terence Payne.

Robinson brilliantly explores the theme that police officers who invest themselves in their jobs pay a huge emotional and physical price. He also studies the ways in which people handle personal crises and traumas, and the devastating effects of violence on people's lives.

With brilliant psychological insight, an unerring ear for dialogue, clever plotting and compassion for the human condition, Robinson has written a breathtaking novel of suspense. I recommend "Aftermath" unreservedly.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Realistic, but entertaining., March 20, 2002

By 

bill runyon (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aftermath: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

Robinson does a fabulous job of combining some of the realistic
details of violent crime, and police work, along with making
the story an entertaining read.
There is a fine line between the technical details of crime and
police work, on the one hand, and the entertaining, readable
story-telling on the other, but this author knows exactly how
to handle this line, and "Aftermath" is a masterpiece of combining the 2 facets of crime-writing.
This book contains a few necessary "dirty" details, but no more
than is required for this story. Anyone who complains about too
much detail of blood, vicious and depraved motives, and twisted
personalities have no concept of what is present in genuine
crime and the shocks real police officers encounter.
The author touches on, and explores a bit, the very complex
questions of the level of responsibility of a woman involved in
a bloody crime along with her male partner. The fact that he
doesn't present some veneer-thin explanation, that might be
easy to understand, shows his understanding of the difficulty
of explaining and categorizing some of these relationships.
Robinson has said this novel wasn't based on the infamous Bernardo-Homolka case in Ontario, but there are some very
parallel facts present, and we should give credit for some
inspiration from a very real, and more horrific, case than his
work here could convey.

Here is a work that is thought-provoking, realistic and quite
entertaining. Most highly recommended.