Boring, sexist drivel for a plot. Such tired cliches of men and women. Ham-handed for sure. There are many well written mystery novels out there with characters that are complex and challenging and interesting so I see no reason to waste my time with the tiresome Inspector Banks. It's a pity because I love a good English village police procedural, and one that deals with real issues too - but this book was not good.

Interesting to see Robinson's first in this popular series. Written in the mid-80s, the views of women (Bank's wife, and a female "profiler") are more than a little ham-handed, but overall a good title. Robinson was really in the forefront of British police procedural writers bringing more realism into the genre in the U.K.

Would you call Banks hard-boiled? or just realistic? He's too ordinary and flawed to be one of my fictional detective heroes, but I like the trouble he gets into. I had to check, actually, that this book was about Banks, because I get him confused with Rebus and Skinner; similar mix of sex, violence, politics, police, and current events.