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In a Dry Season (Inspector Banks Novels) Paperback – July 3, 2000

by Peter Robinson (Author)

4.4 6,623 ratings

Book 10 of 28: Inspector Banks

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New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Peter Robinson delivers an unforgettable, compelling thriller of a lost village and the deadly secrets that are unearthed upon its discovery—secrets that include murder.

In the blistering, dry summer, the waters of Thornfield Reservoir have been depleted, revealing the ruins of the small Yorkshire village that lay at its bottom—ruins that house the unidentified bones of a murdered young woman. Detective Chief Inspector Banks faces a daunting challenge: he must unmask a sadistic killer who has escaped detection for half a century. For the dark secrets of Hobb's End continue to haunt the dedicated policeman, even though the town that bred them has died and its former residents have been scattered to far places—or even to their graves.

Demonstrating once again why Peter Robinson is a master of suspense, In a Dry Season is a powerful, insightful, and searing novel of past crimes and present evil.

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From the Back Cover

In the blistering, dry summer, the waters of Thornfield Reservior have been depleted, revealing the ruins of the small Yorkshire village that lay at its bottom, bringing with it the unidentified bones of a brutally murdered young woman. Detective Chief Inspector Banks faces a daunting challenge: he must unmask a killer who has escaped detection for half a century. Because the dark secret of Hobb's End continue to haunt the dedicated policeman even though the town that bred then has died—and long after its former residents have been scattered to far places . . . or themselves to the grave.

From an acknowledged master writing at the peak of his storytelling powers comes a powerful, insightful, evocative, and searingly suspenseful novel of past crimes and present evil.

About the Author

One of the world’s most popular and acclaimed writers, Peter Robinson is the bestselling, award-winning author of the Inspector Banks series; he has also written two short-story collections and three standalone novels, which combined have sold more than ten million copies around the world. Among his many honors and prizes are the Edgar Award, the CWA (UK) Dagger in the Library Award, and Sweden’s Martin Beck Award.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ AVON Books (July 3, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 480 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0380794772
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0380794775
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.19 x 1.2 x 6.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,246,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #17,920 in Traditional Detective Mysteries (Books)
- #31,111 in Police Procedurals (Books)

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4.4 6,623 ratings

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Peter Robinson

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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.

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Karen B

One of the best in the series

Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2013

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This is a fabulous novel that really stretches both the crime genre and the reader's knowledge of the wonderful central character, Alan Banks. It is my favourite Inspector Banks novel to date (though I haven't read them in order and thoroughly enjoyed gaining so much of Banks' back story and discovering elements of his private life). This novel opens when a village that has lain beneath a reservoir for decades, Hobbs End, is exposed after a particularly dry season. Keen to explore the rotting ruins, a teenager stumbles upon some human bones. Banks, who has been assigned a desk job after falling into disfavor with his miserable and despicable boss, Jimmy Riddle, is sent to deal with what's ostensibly a boring cold case. Also assigned is the young and feisty Annie Cabbot, another square peg in a constabulary round hole. Sparks fly when Banks and Cabbot meet and they start to learn the secrets the water has kept hidden for so long. suddenly, the cut and dry case from World War II becomes very interesting indeed.

Segueing between the present and the village Hobbs End pre its immersion, during World War II and the Americans presence at a nearby air base, and modern times and the investigation led by Banks, this is a terrific tale with rich and interesting characters in whom you invest. As the contemporary murder investigation unfolds, so too the older story unfurls from a kind of innocence and a desperate desire to start again to tragedy. Replete with marvellous historical details, from food, war rules and conditions, fashions, social and religious mores and cultural attitudes (and or course, the music - this is a Robinson story after all) the novel also explores Banks' growing feelings for Annie, trying to deal with his divorce from Sandra, living alone again and the unexpected change in direction of his son, Brian.

As the novel builds towards the climax, the two main threads collide with surprising and very satisfying results. If you enjoy the Banks' books, good crime novels or just a great read, then this is a book you'll find hard to put down.

3 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Robinson does it yet again

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2017

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I'm reading through Robinson's DCI Banks novels in chronological order, and, as I progress, the fine series seems to be getting better and better. I appreciate the strong delineation of character and the wonderful depictions of the settings. Also enjoyable, without being distracting, are the cultural and historical references. I'm breezing through the books, which is attributed not to any lightness of the writing, but to the compelling nature of the stories. Now on to Cold is the Grave.

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Suncoast

Top marks for this acclaimed British police procedural series

Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2012

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Friends had been suggesting for some time that I should read Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks books. I am so glad I did as it introduced me to one of the best British police procedural series around.

Both Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks and Detective Sergeant Annie Cabbot have run foul of the Yorkshire Police administration and have been posted to police career Siberia by politically sensitive and seemingly inept Chief Constable Jerimiah (Jimmy) Riddle. (Isn't it interesting how many Police Chiefs in detective novels have strange names and are made out to be both politically sensitive and inept.)

As further punishment Riddle assigns DCI Banks and DS Cabbot to work a cold case that the Yorkshire police department considers to be insouluble and somewhat of a joke. A skeleton has been found buried in the ruins of a long abandoned village - Hobbs End - that have emerged at the bottom of a remote reservoir after a long drought.

Through detailed police work Banks and Cabbot quickly discover the identity of the skeleton, and that she was murdered and subsequently stabbed several times around the end of World War II. The story cleverly intermixes the current police investigation with the story of Hobbs End community during the war, from the days of the blitz to the impact of American servicemen from a nearby bomber base on the village.

Banks and Cabbot do a brilliant job in tracking down the story behind the murder by talking to a small number of people who lived in the village who are still alive and finding key information in old and dusty records in England and the US.

Peter Robinson shows great skills in describing the developing relationship between the leading police players and everything about the people of Hobbs End, especially the impact of the US servicemen on the village when most local youth are serving overseas. His love for the Yorkshire Dales shines through brightly and his description of England during the war is accurate and atmospheric.

I enjoyed this well written and deceptively clever detective novel and will certainly be reading more Peter Robinson books in the future.

3 people found this helpful

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Rin Citron

The best of the Banks series

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2014

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The best in the Inspector Banks mystery series (at least as far as I've read in it), this book represents a whole new level of literary invention for Peter Robinson. Banks' nemesis, Chief Constable Riddle, decides to punish him for past transgressions by assigning him a murder investigation that appears impossible to solve -- bones of an apparently murdered woman are discovered in a village that was flooded 50 years before, only now accessible due to a drought. Robinson weaves the storyline from prior to the flooding -- during WWII -- with the plot of the modern-day investigation, and while at first this double-plotline may be a bit disconcerting, he does such a good job developing the characters in both periods, and clearly has done his research into the realities of life in relatively rural England during the war, that the book becomes completely engrossing. This is the most literate of the books in this series that I have read, and it represents a real turning point in Robinson's writing. The early books in the series were pretty typical English detective mysteries -- procedurals with the backdrop of the protagonist's personal life as an on-going thread. Here Robinson breaks that structure open in a new and very engaging way. Well worth a read.

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Simon

First class writing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2024

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I think the interview scene in Chapter 14 is the best piece of police procedural writing I've come across in years. Authentic, tense and compelling. Other authors should take note: this is how it's done.

Cliente Amazon

The best Banks I've read so far

Reviewed in Italy on February 17, 2021

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Having read and enjoyed a fair number of the Banks novels, I can safely say that this is the best so far. A page turner that's difficult to put down!

W. Charles Morgan

Excellent read

Reviewed in Canada on July 21, 2019

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I love the plot