ALL THE COLORS OF DARKNESS
Peter Robinson
William Morrow
Mystery
ISBN: 9780061362934
One of the high points of any year for me is the arrival of a new Peter Robinson book. Chief Detective Inspector Alan Banks, Robinson’s creation, has become synonymous with the subgenera of the British police procedural novel in much the same way that Ed McBain’s Steve Carella has become synonymous with the American version of that work. Robinson takes chances with Banks, a character who is not entirely likable, not because of some flawed moral compass but simply because at times he is a little hard to take.
A bachelor in spite of himself, it is somewhat easy to see why he is unlucky in love; his off-track record includes Annie Cabbot, a detective supervisor who is under his immediate supervision. The end of that particular relationship has resulted in a somewhat prickly state of affairs between Banks and Cabbot, one that continues in ALL THE COLORS OF DARKNESS, Robinson’s latest novel.
The story begins, rather symbolically, with the discovery of a body hanging from a tree in a park. The deceased, Mark Hardcastle, is the set and costume designer for a local amateur theater company. At first it appears to be a suicide. The subsequent discovery of the horribly bludgeoned body of Hardcastle’s lover, however, widens the scope of the investigation to the extent that Banks is called back from a holiday with his new girlfriend. Banks is initially peeved by the interruption but soon becomes obsessed with the case, particularly when it is revealed that the bludgeoned victim was, and still may be, in the clandestine foreign service. Everyone except Banks and, to some extent, Cabbot is quick to dispose of the case as a murder-suicide.
Indeed, Banks receives a late night visit from a mysterious stranger who advises him to let the case lie, an instruction echoed by his own superiors the next day. He is practically ordered to continue his interrupted holiday, but he cannot let go of his investigation, particularly when it appears that Hardcastle may have been manipulated into killing his lover. Banks is being warned from all sides --- including some unexpected ones --- and even a veiled threat against his new girlfriend is not enough to warn him off the trail.
There is an undercurrent in the air that leads to Othello, one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies. Othello was being staged by Hardcastle’s theater troupe. Did the underlying themes of jealousy and revenge motivate Hardcastle? Or was someone inspired to manipulate Hardcastle in the same manner in which the Bard’s Moor was so tragically ill-used? Perhaps Britain’s spy service is involved, given that Hardcastle’s lover was intertwined with them. Banks becomes obsessed with the truth, even when, alas, it does him ill and not well. As ALL THE COLORS OF DARKNESS proceeds to its dark conclusion, a rough if accidental justice is meted out, even as potential difficulties and mysteries lurk in Banks’s future.
Robinson, well into his second decade of masterful writing, treads ever more deeply into the dark psyche of humanity, though he does so without losing his sensitive touch and occasional droll humor. As is his wont, he leaves a couple of minor plot points dangling at the book’s conclusion that undoubtedly will be resolved or splintered in future volumes. Those familiar with his work, however, will not require such tantalizing bits as bait to keep reading.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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