I borrowed this on a recommendation from a friend. The mystery itself was interesting but the writing is weighted down with far too many pop culture and self-absorbed references to types of wine, play lists on the character's MP3 players, etc., etc. It was almost to the point of feeling like written product placements throughout. Compare to Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse, whose character is fleshed out with likes and dislikes but the reader isn't beaten over the head with them.

Acceptable for beach or single reading but not worth keeping on the shelf. ( )

I had never read anything by Peter Robinson before I snagged this ARC in the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program. I am pleased to say that I have found another author that I enjoy reading.

The story opens with a quadripalegic woman being murdered near Whitby. A young girl is also murdered in Eastvale. The murders don’t seem to have too much in common at first but as the lead detectives Annie Cabbot and Alan Banks begin investigating, their paths seem to keep crossing and going back to a case they worked together years before and it soon becomes evident that there are ties going back even further, almost twenty years.

This story grabbed my interest at the beginning and it kept it all the way through to the end. Some things that happened were not a surprise to me but I cared enough about the characters that it didn’t matter if I lost the element of surprise a little. I really enjoyed the side stories of what was happening in Annie and Alan’s lives and even though I didn’t know their whole history, I didn’t feel lost. I enjoyed this book a lot and will look for more by this author.(4/5) ( )

In the English countryside, a young woman named Hayley Daniels is found raped and strangled in the path behind a town pub.
In a neighboring town another body is found. This was a quadriplegic woman, found in her wheelchair with her throat cut.
D.I. Annie Cabbott has just spent the night with a stranger she met in a bar. The amount of alcohol she drank and the man's youth are indications of the termoil Annie is feeling.
Annie is placed in charge of the case of the quadriplegic and Det. Chief Inspector Alan Banks heads the investigation into Hayley's death.

Peter Robinson has written a powerful, character driven novel. The two investigations parallel each other and we learn much of the history of the two officers. Theif methodical, step by step investigations are stalled until Annie finds that her victim is Luch Payne, the wife of a mass murderer. Her husband was killed as the police were closing in on him and Lucy jumped from a windown and was paralized.
Annie feels that her killer might be a revenge killing from the family of one of her husband's victims.

The reader learns much more thant the steps leading to the capture of the killers. We see how dealing with victims of brutal crimes can effect the lives of experienced police officers. Do they need alcohol to numb the horrors that they've seen? Can someone have a personal relationship after dealing with man's inhumanity?

A well told story by Robinson who has won many literary awards including the Edgar and the Anthony.

Highly Recommended. ( )

Sunday morning brings with it the discovery of two murders, both women, one in a seedier part of the town of Eastvale, and the other in a wheelchair on a headland near Whitby.
DCI Alan Banks attends the Eastvale crime scene while his former colleague DI Annie Cabbot, on loan to Eastern Area, takes on the wheelchair murder.

The body of nineteen year old Hayley Daniels is discovered in the storeroom of a leather good shop in the Maze. CCTV shows Hayley entering the Maze on her own, so was her murderer waiting for her?

The body in the wheelchair, on the other hand, is that of a quadraplegic. Her murderer appears to have collected her from the care facility where she has been living, taken her to the headland, and slit her throat. Annie Cabbot's search for clues to the woman's background and identity unearths a connection to an old case that both she and Banks were involved in.

Annie is not handling her current situation at all well. She misses working with Banks and her search for personal reward is leading her down paths fraught with disaster. From the moment it is revealed that Banks and Cabbot are working apart, it is inevitable that their paths will cross. This does give THE FRIEND OF THE DEVIL a certain sense of predictability, although the nature of their relationship when they meet is problematic for both Banks and Cabbot. I enjoyed the expansion of the other characters including Detective Superintendent Catherine Gervaise, DS Kevin Templeton, and DC Winsome Jackman. Jackman in particular acts as a bridge between the investigations of Banks and Cabbot.

THE FRIEND OF THE DEVIL is the 17th Inspector Banks novel, and Robinson shows that he still has the capacity to surprise even while plumbing new depths in the Banks/Cabbot relationship. Annie Cabbot first appeared in 1999 IN A DRY SEASON, eight books before FRIEND OF THE DEVIL. Through her, Robinson has been exploring the parameters of successful detective partnerships. It is an issue which other authors like Ruth Rendell, Reginald Hill, and Colin Dexter avoided with their male duos. The relationship between Banks and Cabbot is not that of two equals: he after all is the "boss", and he is also quite a bit older than her. Robinson asks questions about whether the relationship between male and female detective duos needs to be emotional and whether it can ever be sexual. The changing landscape of the Banks/Cabbot relationship is part of what keeps fans coming back to this series. ( )

Friend of the Devil is another excellent novel by Peter Robinson. It keeps you interested the whole way through, and makes you care about and understand the characters. Some shocking crimes are revisited, but the story is excellent as usual. ( )