Favourite Discoveries 2013 (7)

Today's instalment of favourite discoveries of 2013 comes from reviewer Michelle Peckham who chooses a tv crime series based on Peter Robinson's popular Inspector Banks series.

Michelle Peckham's Favourite Discovery of 2013

My discovery of 2013 is DCI Banks, an ITV series (available on iTunes).

I'd read one or two of the crime novels featuring DCI Banks (by Peter Robinson), but had not watched the ITV series featuring this detective, until an American colleague of mine told me that he'd been watching it back in the USA. He said he'd really enjoyed it, particularly as it is set in Leeds, and he had had fun spotting places he recognised, places he'd seen when visiting me. On a dull rainy evening, I decided to download the TV series (series 1) from iTunes, and immediately became hooked. The stories run over two episodes, were well plotted, and entertaining to watch. Not quite the 'Montalbano' of the North, but with a nice flavour of Leeds and the surrounding countryside. Sadly, this is the only series on iTunes, but I am strongly tempted to buy the DVD for the follow-up series.

New Reviews: Akunin, Brophy, Craig, Ellis, Forshaw, Hannah, Harper, Mallo, Robinson

Win 3 Richard Nottingham mysteries by Chris Nickson (UK only) closes 29 February.

Here are this week's 9 new reviews:

Laura Root reviews the tenth (and final?) Erast Fandorin adventure from Boris Akunin, and translated by Andrew Bromfield: The Diamond Chariot;

Lynn Harvey reviews Kevin Brophy's The Berlin Crossing which is heavier on the love story than the spy story apparently;

Terry Halligan reviews the second in the John Carlyle series from James Craig: Never Apologise, Never Explain;

Lizzie Hayes reviews the newest Wesley Peterson/Neil Watson mystery from Kate Ellis: The Cadaver Game;

Maxine Clarke reviews Barry Forshaw's guide to Scandinavian crime fiction: Death in a Cold Climate;

Susan White reviews Sophie Hannah's Kind of Cruel the seventh to feature her detectives Waterhouse and Zailer;

Amanda Gillies reviews Tom Harper's Secrets of the Dead, calling it "another excellent book";

I review Ernesto Mallo's follow-up to the CWA International Dagger Shortlisted Needle in a Haystack: Sweet Money, tr. Katherine Silver set in 1980s Buenos Aires

and Mark Bailey wants more standalones from Peter Robinson after reading Before the Poison.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here and new titles by Kate Ellis, Claire McGowan, Peter Robinson and Robert Wilson have been added to these pages this week.

New Reviews: Alec, Black, Brett, Corbin, Edwards, Lackberg, La Plante, Miller, Robinson

Here are this week's reviews:

Amanda Gillies reviews W Alec's Son of Perdition, which she highly recommends;

Equally recommended, this time by Terry Halligan, is Deadlock by Sean Black which is out in paperback;

I review the audio book of the second in this laugh out loud series written and read by Simon Brett: Blotto, Twinks and the Dead Dowager Duchess - think Wodehouse meets Christie;

Sarah Hilary was less enthralled with Julie Corbin's Where the Truth Lies but says it may appeal to "those who like their crime a shade lighter than dark";

Maxine Clarke reviews Martin Edwards's new book in the Lake District series The Hanging Wood which reaches the high standard of the earlier books;

Lynn Harvey reviews the US edition of Camilla Lackberg's The Preacher, tr. Steven T Murray;

Geoff Jones review the new "Anna Travis" from Lynda La Plante: Blood Line which he enjoyed but cautions readers to read the previous one, Blind Fury, first;

Laura Root reviews the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger short-listed Kiss Me Quick by Danny Miller

and Susan White reviews the paperback release of Bad Boy by Peter Robinson.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

TV Cover for Aftermath

Spotted yesterday in Waterstone's: Peter Robinson's Aftermath has been reissued with Stephen Tompkinson as Banks on the cover. No news yet of the transmission date of this ITV series.

New Reviews: Bale, Camilleri, Cross, La Plante, Moffat, Nesser, Robinson

Two competitions for August and one is open internationally:
Win one of three sets of Lockdown and Deadlock by Sean Black (Worldwide)
Win one of five copies of Inspector Cataldo's Criminal Summer by Luigi Guicciardi, tr Iain Halliday (UK & Europe)

Here are this week's reviews, including an extra one this week:

Paul Blackburn reviews Tom Bale's second Sussex based thriller Terror's Reach;

I review The Wings of the Sphinx by Andrea Camilleri, tr. Stephen Sartarelli the latest in the loveable Montalbano series;

Craig Sisterson reviews Captured by Neil Cross which is now out in paperback;

Terry Halligan reviews the newest Anna Travis book from Lynda La Plante: Blind Fury;

Amanda Gillies reviews G J Moffat's follow-up to Daisychain - Fallout, set in Glasgow;

Maxine Clarke reviews the fifth Inspector Van Veeteren novel, The Inspector and Silence by Hakan Nesser, tr. Laurie Thompson

and Norman Price is pleased to get re-acquainted with Alan Banks in Peter Robinson's Bad Boy, which came out last week.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and (a recently expanded list of) forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

Trailer - Bad Boy

Bad Boy, the latest in the Inspector Banks series by Peter Robinson will be out in the UK on 5 August and a couple of weeks later in the US.

Synopsis: When Juliet Doyle discovers a gun in her daughter’s bedroom, she turns to old friend DCI Alan Banks for advice. But Banks is taking a much-needed holiday, and it's left to DI Annie Cabbot to deal with the removal of the firearm. No one can foresee the operation's disastrous consequences, or that the Doyles will not be the only family affected.

Banks's daughter Tracy has fallen for the wrong boy. Her flatmate’s boyfriend is good-looking, ambitious, and surrounded by an intoxicating air of mystery. He's also very dangerous. When Tracy warns him that the police might be on his tail, he persuades her to go on the run with him, and flattered by his attention, she agrees. Before she knows it, a deadly chase across the country is set in motion.

And on his return, completely unsuspecting of Tracy's perilous situation, Banks is plunged into his most terrifying, personal case yet.

The trailer below shows Peter Robinson speaking about Bad Boy and the Yorkshire Dales setting of his series:

Stephen Tompkinson is Inspector Banks

I'm afraid I'm a bit late with this casting news but according to an article in the Daily Mirror, Stephen Tompkinson (recently seen in Wild at Heart) is to play Inspector Banks in the adaptation of Peter Robinson's Aftermath:

Actor Stephen Tompkinson's boyhood dream of playing a detective like Columbo has come true.

The Ballykissangel star is slipping into a mac to play Chief Inspector Alan Banks in Aftermath - a TV adaptation of Peter Robinson's gritty novels. Stephen, 44, said: "There is probably room for a new detective on ITV now that Morse has gone and Frost is going. I've always wanted to play a detective. I adored Columbo so I will have to wear a mac in tribute to him."

The character is a divorced dad-of-two who investigates murders in a Yorkshire market town.

New Reviews: Braddon, Brownley, Cooper, Peace, Robinson, Staalesen

Two competitions are currently running:

i)Win Beautiful Dead: Arizona by Eden Maguire (UK only)
ii)Win Sheer Folly by Carola Dunn (UK/Europe only)

Details on how to enter can be found on the Competition page

Here are the new reviews that have been added to the website today:

Terry Halligan reviews another in Atlantic Books Classic Crime series: Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon;

Michelle Peckham reviews A Picture of Guilt by James Brownley which is the first in the Alison Glasby, journalist, series;

Maxine Clarke reviews the first of N J (Natasha) Cooper's Karen Taylor series, No Escape which is set on the Isle of Wight;

Amanda Gillies reviews David Peace's 1974, the first part of the Red Riding Quartet, which is now available in hardback from Quercus;

Geoff Jones reviews Peter Robinson's latest short story collection, The Price of Love

and Maxine also reviews the new Varg Veum from Arcadia: The Consorts of Death by Gunnar Staalesen, tr. Don Bartlett.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.

Inspectors Zen and Banks on the TV

From The Guardian

The production company behind drama Wallander hopes to replicate the success of the Swedish detective by launching two new television detectives on BBC1 and ITV1.

Left Bank Pictures, run by The Queen producer Andy Harries, has had scripts commissioned for three Aurelio Zen mysteries, written by the late Michael Dibdin, for BBC1 and one Inspector Banks drama, written by Peter Robinson, for ITV1.

The Zen mysteries are set in Italy and feature a middle-aged detective who in the early novels lives with his mother in a Rome apartment.

Ratking is being adapted by Peter Berry, Vendetta by Simon Burke and Dead Lagoon by Patrick Harbinson.

Robinson's 2002 novel Aftermath – one of 16 Inspector Banks mysteries – is being adapted by Robert Murphy for transmission next year.

The film will feature detective chief inspector Alan Banks, who lives in the Yorkshire town of Eastvale. Divorced with two children, he works from the local police station overlooking the town's busy market square.

It is hoped the two detective mysteries could become long-running franchises.