Although DCI Banks makes some appearances and is indeed featured on the cover, this whodunit largely stars Annie Cabot and his female staff snowed under with a weird case full of red herrings. Could it be a World War II mystery as human blood is found in a disused hangar, a racial crime as a mixed-race boy disappears, a small matter of theft as agricultural machinery goes missing or something far more sinister as dismembered human body parts turn up among sheep carcasses? All very intriguing.
Abattoir Blues The 22nd DCI Banks Mystery Synopsis
BANKS IS BACK - AND THE HUNT IS ON. When two boys vanish under mysterious circumstances, the local community is filled with unease. Then a bloodstain is discovered in a disused World War Two hangar nearby, and a caravan belonging to one of the youths is burned to the ground. Things quickly become much more sinister. Assigned to the case, DCI Banks and his team are baffled by the mystery laid out before them. But when a motor accident throws up a gruesome discovery, the investigation spins into a higher gear - in another direction. As Banks and his team struggle desperately to find the missing boy who holds the key to the puzzle, they find themselves in a race against time where it's their turn to become the prey ...
'[Peter Robinson deserves a place] near, perhaps even at the top of, the British crime writers league' -- The Times
'It's neither the setting nor even the characters that makes Robinson's work so satisfying, but the plotting of Swiss-watch precision' -- Independent
'Classic Robinson: labyrinthine plot merged with deft characterisation' -- Observer'
Author
About Peter Robinson
Peter Robinson grew up in Yorkshire, and now divides his time between Richmond and Canada. There are twenty-two books in the bestselling DCI Banks series – the critically acclaimed crime novels have won numerous awards in Britain, the United States, Canada and Europe, and are published in translation all over the world.
Peter Robinson's DCI Banks is now a major ITV1 drama by Left Bank productions. Stephen Tompkinson (Wild at Heart, Ballykissangel) plays Inspector Banks, and Andrea Lowe (The Bill, Murphy's Law) plays DI Annie Cabbot. Peter's recent standalone novel BEFORE THE POISON won the IMBA's 2013 Dilys Award as well as the 2012 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel by the Crime Writers of Canada. This was Peter's sixth Arthur Ellis award.
