Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Audible sample Sample
Innocent Graves: The 8th novel in the number one bestselling Inspector Alan Banks crime series (The Inspector Banks series, 8) Paperback – 14 Nov. 2002
Review
About the Author
Peter Robinson is author of twenty-four books in the Number One Bestselling DCI Banks series as well as two collections of short stories and three standalone novels, including the Number One bestseller Before The Poison. Peter's critically acclaimed crime novels have won numerous awards in Britain, the United States, Canada and Europe, and are published in translation all over the world.
Peter's DCI Banks was a major ITV1 drama by Left Bank productions. Stephen Tompkinson (Wild at Heart, Ballykissangel) plays Inspector Banks, and Andrea Lowe (The Bill, Murphy's Law) plays DI Annie Cabbot.
Peter's standalone novel Before the Poison won the IMBA's 2013 Dilys Award as well as the 2012 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel by the Crime Writers of Canada. This was Peter's sixth Arthur Ellis award.
Peter Robinson grew up in Yorkshire, and lived between Richmond and Canada. He died in October 2022.
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPan Books
- Publication date14 Nov. 2002
- Reading age18 years and up
- Dimensions11.1 x 2.8 x 17.8 cm
- ISBN-100330482181
- ISBN-13978-0330482189
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Product details
- Publisher : Pan Books; 3rd edition (14 Nov. 2002)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0330482181
- ISBN-13 : 978-0330482189
- Reading age : 18 years and up
- Dimensions : 11.1 x 2.8 x 17.8 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 677,551 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 17,410 in Police Procedurals (Books)
- 76,290 in Thrillers (Books)
- 82,211 in Mysteries (Books)
- Customer reviews:
About the author
Peter Robinson's DCI Banks became a major ITV1 drama starring Stephen Tompkinson as Inspector Banks and Andrea Lowe as DI Annie Cabbot.
Peter's standalone novel BEFORE THE POISON won the IMBA's 2013 Dilys Award as well as the 2012 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel by the Crime Writers of Canada. This was Peter's sixth Arthur Ellis award. His critically acclaimed DCI Banks novels have won numerous awards in Britain, the United States, Canada and Europe, and are published in translation all over the world. In 2020 Peter was made a Grand Master by the Crime Writers of Canada. Peter grew up in Yorkshire, and divided his time between Richmond, UK, and Canada until his death in 2022.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings, help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from United Kingdom
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
It marks a new departure in Robinson's style. The preceding novels tend to focus on Banks himself, whereas his viewpoint is one of many in this novel. For the first time, we see a significant part of the action through the eyes of a suspect - Owen Pierce, who is suspected of the murder of a teenage girl. This means we get very little of Banks's family life, and I for one consider this a bonus. When reading a detective novel, I can't muster up much interest in the detectives' relationships, marital problems etc. Not that Robinson overdoes it in his other books, but the passages involving Banks's wife and kids are the ones that I have found least gripping, as a rule.
The other significant departure is that we see Banks and some of his team as rather more brutal than before. They are convinced that they have the right man for the murder, and go well beyond what should be acceptable police procedure to prove it. When they find that Pierce has an edition of Playboy, a dirty video and a copy of Lady Chatterley (!), they treat him as a pervert. In interview they bully him and twist his words until he becomes so confused he starts to contradict himself, to their great delight. This part made for uncomfortable reading, as did Pierce's treatment at the hands of the police while in custody. What Robinson does here is move his police characters away from likeable, dependable, upright types with civilised tastes towards single-minded, inflexible people who don't mind making the evidence fit the suspect rather than, as it should be, the reverse. I lost some respect for the characters due to this but this was clearly intentional - it is an honest portrayal of how many police officers actually behave. Not surprisingly, I was rooting for Owen at the trial - how that turns out is, of couse, for you to read for yourselves.
With Innocent Graves, Robinson has moved ever closer towards realism which is what makes the book so gripping. Better still, he succeeds at this without resorting to the sort of macho posturing so prevalent in many detective novels and cop shows.
I strongly recommend this and find it sad that to date it has so few Amazon reviews in comparison to some of the garbage that clogs up the bestseller lists. Enjoy!
Inspector Banks is an empathetic character, even though, at times, he can be unpleasantly aggressive to the suspects he interviews. Despite the annoying bias his boss shows, in sucking up to rich influential locals, Banks is determined to find the murderer by methodical, thorough police work. The unusual feature of this novel is that we also see the case from the viewpoint of the man they arrest. Without knowing whether he is guilty or innocent we witness the way his life falls apart and he is forced to wait in a sordid, claustrophobic police cell for several months before going to court.
The book introduces a variety of characters who might have had a motive to kill Deborah but circumstantial evidence make it difficult for the police and the reader to select the culprit. I had my suspicions, but the denouement was well constructed. Towards the end I could not put the book down until all was revealed.
Starting in the gloomy setting of a church graveyard at night the Vicars wife who is drunk stumbles upon a shocking discovery. Hidden behind one of the graves is the body of young Deborah Harrison. All the classic signs of a sex crime are present, the cloths have been interfered with and young Deborah has been left in a way that does nothing to protect her dignity.
After a little digging Deborah is discovered to be the daughter of a rich industrialist and the new Chief Inspector Jimmy Riddle is demanding that the team find the killer and find him quickly.
Soon Alan has to put all worries about his failing marriage behind him and do whatever he can to find out who killed the young girl. An early break in the case leads to the questioning of a local teacher.
Owen Pierce was seen alone on a bridge overlooking the church yard just before the killings, he also was in the area drinking before the attack. And Owen is also hiding things from the police. Soon with the lies adding up and DNA evidence adding up Owen is charged with the murder of the girl and the case would appear to be solved.
However despite the backslapping going on Banks can't shake a feeling that something is not right. With so many suspects and questions unanswered have they got the right man?
This is where the book in my opinion shows its true genius. In another departure from the normal Robinson begins to split the chapters between both the police and their investigation and Owen and his side of the story. It is truly wonderful the way Robinson takes the most basic evidence and shows that it can be twisted to make a monster appear innocent or the innocent a monster. The decision and delivery of the splitting the chapters sets this book apart from most truly in my eyes it lifts this book into the category of special one off novel.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If you are a fan of the crime genre and Peter Robinson and you have not yet read it do yourself a favour and buy this wonderful book.
Deborah Harrison is just 16 yo and is found strangled in a graveyard. The investigation becomes gets complicated and troubling as it progresses - not least because her father is a powerful financier.....
If you liked previous books in the series, you'll enjoy this one too 😁👌😁
Deborah Harrison is just 16 yo and is found strangled in a graveyard. The investigation becomes gets complicated and troubling as it progresses - not least because her father is a powerful financier.....
If you liked previous books in the series, you'll enjoy this one too 😁👌😁