Careless Love by Peter Robinson

DCI Banks series. Hachette, 2018. ISBN 9781444786989
(Age: senior/adult) Themes: Crime, Yorkshire Robinson's latest DCI Banks Novel, Careless Love is the 25th in the series. The Yorkshire setting will be familiar to those who have read the books and seen the TV adaptations. This new novel involves the discovery of three bodies, two in Banks' area and one in the neighbouring jurisdiction. There are problems about each of the deaths and the scenes of the crimes. There is a definite lack of anything to identify the bodies, no mobile phones, wallets, purses, credit cards or keys. They are all well dressed, as if on a swanky night out, not for a hike on the moors, while one appears to have committed suicide.
The novel eventually reaches the point many readers probably guessed at quite early in the narrative, that sex is the contributing factor not drugs. It is now just the detail that needs expanding and explaining to keep the audience attentive and reading.
Fans of DCI Banks will find the read satisfying, with the constant references to his music knowledge and choices attempting to make him more human and adding to the characteristics fans already know about the man, but all it did for me was to make the reading easier by skipping all those music citations. The most interesting addition is Annie's father's partner Zelda, an eastern European woman much younger than Ray. She has had a number of very nasty experiences with sex traffickers and now, because of her photographic memory recall works in London on occasions for one of the government surveillance agencies. It is her piece of information that directs Banks and Annie down a path towards an old adversary, one who will stop at nothing. He has already tried to kill Banks, so fans will eagerly follow the storyline to see how Banks extricates himself.
It is an easy read, but its satisfaction level may not please everyone. A click on https:// www.inspectorbanks.com/ will tell you all you need to know about Banks and the other 24 novels detailing his investigations.
Mark Knight