Peter Robinson, A Dedicated Man
Viking, 1988
Hidden depths
"I am an outsider though... I always will be."
(Chief Inspector Banks)
In Chief Inspector Banks's second case, a body is found half buried under a drystone wall in the village of Helmthorpe in Swainsdale. Called in to investigate, Banks and his team identify the victim as Harry Steadman, a local historian. Trouble is, Steadman was a popular and well-liked individual in the close-knit community. Who could possibl want him dead?
Banks suspects that teenager Sally Lumb, cavorting with her boyfriend in the lonely dales on the night of the murder, knows more than she lets on. Sally, on her part, believes she has a clearer insight into the case than he does. Fascinated at first by Banks, her admiration gives way to scorn when she finds that he gave up his exciting, adventurous metropolitan life and career in London to move up north to boring Yorkshire: "Lord, he could have been working for Scotland Yard!" (p.166).
If Steadman's local friends are to be believed, he was a kindly, cheerful, thoughtful friendly man, if slightly obsessed with his work, who never harmed a soul in his life. No one for the life of them could imagine he could have any enemies, much less someone who would want him dead. Yet he is very much dead, and the Banks suspects the murderer is closer to home than anyone would care to admit, and the motive lies in the past, when the lives of some of the dead man's close friends first started to intertwine.
Weaving his way in and out of a complex web of relationships, treading on toes and egos with unerring regularity, Banks plods towards the solution, but the murderer remains outside his grasp as alibis fall into place and motives fade into the mist. And when Sally Lumb disappears with whatever knowledge she was keeping close to her chest, he hopes she has just off to the bright lights of the city.
RATING: 7/10