FRIEND OF THE DEVIL
Peter Robinson
William Morrow
Thriller
ISBN: 9780060544379

• Read an Excerpt

With FRIEND OF THE DEVIL, Peter Robinson brings us the 17th book in 20 years featuring Chief Inspector Alan Banks. Fans of Robinson’s series will be quite pleased with this effort, and those unfamiliar with Banks and his team will find an easy transition into this well-worked novel.

The premise of FRIEND OF THE DEVIL revolves around two terrible slayings that happen within the same week on chilly March days in the Eastvale district. Banks is investigating the rape and murder of a popular female college student whose body is found in the Maze, an area of intersecting alleyways in Eastvale. Simultaneously, Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot is working on the savage murder of a quadriplegic woman who is found in her wheelchair atop a cliff with her throat slashed from ear to ear.

As both Banks and Cabbot get further along in their investigations, clues and witnesses begin to overlap in a way that may somehow tie the two crimes together. Most specifically, the title of the book refers to an infamous figure from a previous Robinson novel, AFTERMATH. Here, the “friend of the devil” is Lucy Payne --- so named because she was an accomplice to her husband, Terrence Payne, in a case covered in AFTERMATH that involved a number of heinous crimes committed against victims lured to their “House of Payne” lair. These wrongdoings are compared to the real-life Moors Murders that were well-publicized in London when Lord Longford defended Myra Hindley, who was accused of being an accomplice to her partner who committed similar atrocities.

It turns out that the victim Cabbot is investigating, Karen Drew, may have been none other than Lucy Payne herself. Has she been killed by a vengeful family member of one of her victims, or was this an isolated incident? Readers will be riveted as these two investigations spiral further and further into dark areas Banks and Cabbot may not want to go.

Robinson’s writing style is quite engaging and easy for anyone to dive right into. Yes, it would help somewhat to have read his previous Inspector Banks novels, but not being familiar with them won’t keep readers from thoroughly enjoying FRIEND OF THE DEVIL. To give out more plot elements would reveal too much. Suffice it to say, in the words of author Stephen King, “The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are, simply put, the best series on the market.” I would definitely put them in the company of all the top mystery writers working today. FRIEND OF THE DEVIL will satisfy anyone who savors a well-written, character-driven police procedural.

    --- Reviewed by Ray Palen

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.

© Copyright 1996-2009, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.

Back to top.