Saturday, March 07, 2009

Piece of My Heart

by Peter Robinson.
Robinson is a British crime writer who's main character is Inspector Banks. This is the first Banks novel I've read.
Two murders - one in 1969, one in the present day (roundabout 2005). There is seemingly no connection between the two, until Banks works it all out towards the end of the book.
The first murder was of a young woman at a rock festival in Yorkshire. She was killed while, wait for it..... Led Zeppelin were playing. Well, any book that mentions the mighty Zep on the first page just has to be read. The band's name pops up regularly as the story progresses but, really, they have nothing to do with the plot. Lots of other names pop up too, all actual musicians/bands (except for the fictitious band which the story revolves around) - it's almost as if Robinson is trying to prove his musical credibility by name-dropping at every available opportunity.
The second murder is of a 30ish man, also somewhere in Yorkshire.

The story flits back and forth between 1969 and 2005 as two sets of detectives try to solve their respective crimes. Banks appears only in the 2005 sections. Initially, there's no rhyme or reason to this double story. It's almost as if Robinson has written two seperate murder mysteries and spliced them together at random. Slowly, however, the links between the two cases begin to emerge and eventually all loose ends are neatly tied off.
An easy read.

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