Dead Right

Description

320 pages
$29.99
ISBN 0-670-87645-3
DDC C813'.54

Year

1997

Contributor

Reviewed by Albert Stray

Albert Stray is manager of the Port Credit Public Library.

Review

Peter Robinson’s ninth novel featuring Detective Chief Inspector Alan
Banks is set in the familiar North Yorkshire town of Eastvale. A power
struggle within a racist organization known as the Albion League leads
to the death of member James Fox and to grisly justice for the
league’s founder, Mr. H(eroin). Banks takes a side trip to Amsterdam,
where he receives new information about the case. (Unfortunately for
Banks, this trip coincides with his wife’s decision to leave their
marriage.) Banks returns to Eastvale, only to discover that his
assistant has apparently solved the murder by extracting a confession
from the victim’s business partner. Banks finds himself suspended and
ready to call it quits. However, an old romantic interest from Past
Reason Hated (1991) intervenes and spurs Banks to revisit the case.

The attraction of today’s youth to the racist groups is explored with
the same sensitivity Robinson accords the disintegration of Banks’s
marriage. There are appearances by such familiar police characters as
Dirty Dick Burgess, Susan Gay, and Jimmy Riddle. In the end, though
racial harmony is restored in Eastvale, Robinson leaves a number of
loose ends. Is Banks’s career over? Is his marriage really finished?
Will Susan Gay reveal her true feelings to Banks? Grist for a tenth
Inspector Banks mystery.

Citation

Robinson, Peter., “Dead Right,” Canadian Book Review Annual Online, accessed February 7, 2025, https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/2890.