I'm a great fan of the Banks series, but can see that Robinson took some time to hit his stride from this shaky start. I'm not sure I would have remained a fan if this had been the first I'd read; shaky character development and reliance on titillating imagery aren't enough to shore up a thin plot. Not horrible by most standards, but not what I've come to expect from this talented storyteller. ( )

I have seen Peter Robinson's work recommended highly on LT and when looking at his list of novels was never that intrigued. But as I realized I had inadvertently picked up some of his later works at sales I decided that I should pick up the first Inspector Banks and at least give it a try.

I fell in love on page five as Banks declares to his wife Sandra 'For someone who appreciates artistic representations of the naked human form, you're a proper philistine when it comes to music, you know.'. I was hooked:)

This moves along nicely with several crimes of varying degrees intertwined among the characters. Robinson doesn't give too much of Banks away in this first installment, but enough to show what a fascinating character he must be. ( )

Gallows View is an okay introduction to the British mystery series featuring Inspector Alan Banks, who lives and works in Eastvale, Yorkshire. As the novel begins, the local police are trying to find a peeper who is frightening some of the town's women. As if that's not enough, an elderly woman living alone has been killed, and there are a series of unsolved break-ins. Banks, who has moved to Yorkshire to get away from the high-stress levels of police work and of life in general in London, takes the lead on all of these cases -- which may or may not be linked together.

As with most first novels in a mystery series, Banks' character isn't as well developed right away as it will hopefully be in the next ones. I expect this, though; it's very rare that a character comes fully fleshed out in a series opener. However, the crime plotting is solid, and the way Robinson writes his story leaves readers guessing until the end.

I can recommend Gallows View. If you like British mystery, or if you're looking for a solid police procedural (with some personal touches) and you haven't tried this series yet, it would be worth your while to do so. It's not on the cozy end of mystery novels, but it's not really hardcore either. Overall -- a good read, and I'll definitely be coming back to this author. ( )

This book reminded me a lot of Dorothy Simpson's Luke Thanet series. It had that same blend of the small English town with the police procedural feel (rather than a "cozy") and the author's writing style seemed very similar.

I enjoyed this first one. I won't rave about it—Banks is still a bit unfleshed and there's nothing particularly unique or suspenseful about the particular mystery here. On the other hand, a series gives ample time for the main character to be revealed and the book had a pleasant, "normal" feel to it...no extravagant situations or implausible inhabitants.

I'll hunt out the second one, A Dedicated Man. ( )

In this first Inspector Banks novel, he is newly moved to the Dales town of Eastvale and investigates a series of burglaries, the death of an old woman and a voyeur watching women undressing for bed. Was all right, I'll be looking out for the next book in the series. ( )