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| The Summer That Never Was | 
| Author: Peter Robinson
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Category: Book
Buy Used: $8.69
New (1) from $38.18
Avg. Customer Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 2043875
Media: Paperback
Pages: 400
ISBN: 0333907442
EAN: 9780333907443
ASIN: 0333907442
Publication Date: January 3, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Title page removed. 4A18--
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Amazon.com Review
Having already shown, in 1999's In a Dry Season, that he can plumb historical homicide for gripping modern drama, Peter Robinson goes further in Close to Home, telling parallel stories about teenage boys lost in a grownup world, decades apart. The first is Graham Marshall, a childhood pal of Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, who vanished mysteriously in 1965, the supposed victim of a pedophile. Hearing that Graham's bones have finally been unearthed, Banks quits his vacation in Greece and heads to his hometown of Petersborough, England, hoping to assist the investigation--and, perhaps, assuage his guilt over his friends fate. Meanwhile, Banks's colleague and ex-lover, Annie Cabbot, is busy probing the recent disappearance of 15-year-old Luke Armitage, the sensitive, brainy son of a rock star who committed suicide during Luke's infancy. After Cabbot catches hell for interrupting what may or may not have been a legitimate ransom payment for Luke's return, she seeks Banks's advice, drawing these two plot lines neatly together. As this intense and intricately crafted puzzler develops, blending fiction with a bit of fact (the Kray brothers, who ran a criminal ring in London's East End during the mid-20th century, play off-camera roles here), Robinson explores Banks's troubled relationship with his parents, especially his working-class father, who "had never approved of his choice of career." He also raises doubts about a famed copper whod originally tackled the Marshall case, involves Banks romantically with a damaged detective whose investigative diligence threatens her safety, and shows Cabbot as someone better and stronger than merely Banks's protege. Working with themes of lost youth and the dark secrets hidden in small towns, Robinson delivers in this 13th Banks novel a police procedural of remarkable human depth. --J. Kingston Pierce
Product Description
Detective Inspector Alan Banks has never forgiven himself for having possibly caused the disappearance and presumed death of his best friend back in the summer of 1965, a pivotal time when both boys stood on the precipice of manhood. When the tragic bones are shockingly unearthed and identified near Banks's childhood home more than 35 years later, the imagined skeleton in the detective's closet becomes all too real. Plummeted back into a past he thought he'd left behind, Banks is drawn into an investigation that hits dangerously close to home.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
 The summer that never was? July 23, 2008
"I dunno." "Dunno what you mean." "What are you saying?" "Whatja think?" "That's one theory." "It's possible." I'd like to count how many times the author used these phrases in this rather dreary book. If you trim the occurrences, say, by half, you could probably cut 100 pages off this very lengthy story. The characters sit around, drinking tea and eating digestive biscuits while asking and answering the same questions over and over. The story, slow and meandering to begin with, bogs down even more during these pages-long exchanges of one-liners.
The audio version of this book was FOURTEEN disks long. Plus, Ron Keith's reading was silly. All the women sounded like Mrs. Doubtfire, always sounding slightly amused regardless of the situation, and all the men growled like Monty Python characters. It grew more irritating as the book wore on.
Eventually, what it came down to was resolution of both "mysteries" revealed in yet more lengthy dialogue. In the end, there was no suspense; nothing was revealed that couldn't have been surmised long before the resolutions, which, unrealistically, occurred simultaneously. I was hoping for so much more from this author.
 Two Teenage Boys, Murdered a Generation Apart June 2, 2008
Inspector Banks is in Greece on holiday, relaxing for the first time in years. It's too good to last. The bodies of two teenage boys have been found, one is in Inspector Banks's precinct, and one is his boyhood friend's skeleton in his hometown. His old neighborhood case involve him with an antagonistic inspector who sends him packing, and professionally and romantically with a new detective, Michelle Hart. The other case has him teamed up with his former girlfriend Annie Cabbot. Robinson is good at getting inside the minds of his female detectives.
Peter Robinson, one of the best British procedural writers extant in this his thirteenth outing, gets readers enmeshed in a number of incidents, suspects, and red herrings as he tells dual stories in alternating chapters. We dare not give up the chase in our reading anymore than Banks will; Robinson's tales are hypnotic and spellbinding. He gets you hooked and keeps you hooked.
Readers are tiring of Banks's constant references to bands and music in general as well as his angst over his long-departed wife. Get over it, Inspector, and get on with your police work!
When Robinson gets close to unraveling his cases, watch out because he is known to take some shortcuts and close out some cases in ways that don't always sound quite credible and integral to his stories. Everything remains five stars until the two cases are wrapped up a little too conveniently and with stretches in believability. We wish his endings would be more evolutionary to the narrative, and less facile.
He does a beautiful job of describing the countryside with its hoof and mouth plague, the many witnesses and suspects, the interrogations, the pubs, the insights into the police operations, the false turns and confrontations.
These are two complicated stories with tentacles reaching everywhere--you're going to want to keep reading because this storyteller is gifted.
Clawed Back from the Dead
Nine Lives Too Many
The Daemon in Our Dreams
The Rice Queen Spy
I listened to the CD version November 5, 2007
Close to Home is one of the best mystery/police stories that I have "experienced." (I won't say "read" since I listened to it while driving.) This is not a genre that I usually enjoy but I did enjoy Close to Home and plan to read or listen to more of Peter Robinson's books.
The production of the CD version that I listened to was excellent. The book is entertaining and helps make a tedious five-hour drive endurable--actually several five-hour drives, since there are fourteen CDs in the set.
I cannot give this book five stars because, for me, there were some flaws: some parts of the plot are implausible and seemed to play no role, e.g. the ridiculous and violent attempts to discourage the investigation of the Marshall murder; Robinson can be unimaginative and trite in his descriptions of characters' reactions and emotions, e.g. he overuses "shiver"; the constant musical references bored me, it was overdone.
Having gotten these carps off my chest, I can say that Robinson is an intelligent writer, he evokes life and character convincingly, and I like the leisurely pace of his plot development. I do not know if I would have read this book sitting in my armchair at home, but it was ideal for easing the boredom of highway driving.
Some of the Best Crime Writing Around May 11, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Peter Robinson grew up in Yorkshire, and is the author of a number of previous novels featuring Inspector Banks. He is the winner of numerous awards in the United States, Britain and Canada, and in 2002 he won the CWA Dagger in the Library. As I also come from Leeds the background to his stories is something that I have experienced first hand and because of this I have a special affection for his books. However they would be first class crime fiction wherever they were based.
A skeleton has been unearthed, it is not the skeleton of a full grown adult and mystery surrounds the find when the news hit the papers. Graham Marshall, a fourteen year old boy went missing while doing his paper round in 1965. The police never found any trace of him or his killer.
Graham's disappearance left his family devastated and his best friend, Alan Banks full of guilt. That friend from so long ago, Alan Banks has new become a Chief Inspector in the police and he is determined, not only to get himself assigned to the case but to get justice for his old friend. However he soon realises that in this case the boundary between the victim and the perpetrator and law-guardian and law-breaker, is becoming more and twisted and unclear.
Formula Robinson But Still Gripping January 23, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
After you've read several Robinson books you deduce pretty soon who the murderer is -- or, more accurately, who it isn't. Robinson is a journeyman writer and he does a very good job of laying out a fine story before you. His characters are always well-developed and interesting, his settings are always well-described, and he weaves in enough philosophy, poetry, and culture to add lustre to the book but not weigh it down. But, as the plot unfolds, the formula kicks in and there are few surprises. Which is okay -- one does not read English police procedurals for slam-bang excitement and surprises. I really like Robinson's book and Alan Banks is becoming one of my favorite characters. So, as long as Robinson keeps writin' 'em, I'll keep readin' 'em.
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