I just reviewed Gallows View which was the first Inspector Banks novel. This one, Friend of the Devil, is the no. 17! I haven't read many inbetween, but I will. It wasn't a problem reading no. 17, so I am pretty sure they can all be read independently, although I think I like better to read them in the way they were published. Characters usually develop through such a long series, so...In Friend of the Devil there are two cases running side by side. One of the cases is in Eastvale, Inspector Banks' town in Yorkshire, and the other case is from another town in the area, where one of Bank's detectives is running it.
A young girl has been found raped and murdered in Eastvale in a shop placed in an area called The Labyrinth. The Labyrinth has all those narrow streets and nooks and crannies and Banks soon has his share of witnesses and suspects as the crime was comitted on a Saturday night when everyone were out having a good time.
The other case is lead by slightly frustrated detective Annie Cabbot, and her case seems difficult from the beginning. A young woman in a wheelchair has had her throat slit and has been pushed over a cliff top. When Annie begins her enquiries at the home for disabled where the young woman lived, everything turns blind. No one seems to know anything about anything and it seems like the young, dead handicapped woman had no life prior to coming to the home. Annie is frustrated, not only because of the case but because she has a messy privat life. A private life which may or may not involve Inspector Banks.
Friend of the Devil has good descriptions of characters and places and I definitely look forward to read more Inspector Banks novels.
2 comments:
If you need to, check Peter's web site for the order of the books:
http://www.inspectorbanks.com
Hi Kirk, thanks a lot for the link :-)
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