Bad Boy: The 19th DCI Banks novel from The Master of the Police Procedural Paperback – 28 April 2011

Juliet Doyle - a former neighbour of DCI Alan Banks when he was still married - turns up one day asking to see him. Banks is on an extended holiday in the US and she sees DI Annie Cabbot instead. Juliet has found a gun in her daughter Erin's bedroom and wants to know what she should do about it. Annie follows correct procedure and sends in the armed response team to deal with it. Unfortunately following correct procedure leads to tragedy and a complex chain of events which involves not just Banks and Annie but his daughter Tracy as well.I enjoyed this very tense and eventful story with its many twists and turns. It is good to see Superintendent Catherine Gervaise in a more positive light and she really is growing on me. The book demonstrates very well that we never know what exactly will result directly from simple everyday actions and impulses.I have been reading this series back to back - which really is a test of well written series. So far - almost at the end of the current published volumes I have not got bored with them at all and I shall be sorry when I am up to date.

I've read all of Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks novels, except All the Colours of Darkness which I decided not to buy after reading reviews on Amazon which alerted me to the excess of musical references, an aspect of the author's writings that I've always found irritating, plus the less than plausible story-line. I see that other reviewers of Bad Boy were disappointed by the novel, whereas I enjoyed it. It's certainly not the same class of some of his earlier novels, such as In a Dry Season or The Summer That Never Was: An Inspector Banks Novel. I thought the story hung together well and was pacy enough to have me turning the pages wanting to find out what happened next. There weren't too many diversion into Banks extraneous personal problems, except of course those concerning his daughter, which are central to this story.By skipping the previous novel in the series I've obviously missed out on Banks failed relationship with Sophia and the transformation of his daughter Tracy from nice girl to aimless and rebellious drifter hanging out with drug dealers, which was a real surprise. I like the characters, DI Annie Cabbot and the laconic DS Winsome Jackman and am glad that Banks may be about to get back into a relationship with AnnieAs seems par for the course in most detective fiction, Banks has to be a bit of a maverick, bending police protocol, with over-bearing superiors out to get him; and have failed personal relationships. A welcome change in this book, from those in the past, is that there aren't repeated references to smoking that used to make me think that product placement was on the cards. As other reviewers have noted the author has reduced the number of musical references, which is very welcome.

fast delivery and the book was in excellent condition....thanks so much

Peter Robinson never fails to give a good read. Not too heavy on the police, forensic details making it a good read with a personal narrative running through.

Peter Robinson is an excellent writer of crime and whilst this may not be one of his best, it is enjoyable nevertheless. The plot to me does seem plausible but not moving in those circles could well be a notion of mine that's well out of the window! The more personal touch (daughter, holiday etc) was a nice change to the norm, as was the fact that Annie's role was more at the fore than usual. I agree with others in that the reduction of the ongoing lists of what's being listened to filling up the pages was reduced can only be a plus, as is the demise of spoilt brat Sophie. A good read and a book that I would recommend.

A decent book, smoothly written (better than Rankin or James!), but sadly spoiled by too much music product placement (more like a playlist than a work of fiction in places), and a charmless bad boy who calls girls "babe". Nobody in the real world sinks that low, or if they do, girls avoid them. We don't all live in a copy of The Sun newspaper. But this is fast becoming the modern way of selling books and popular culture, other writers are beginning to emulate this style, product-placing music, art, memes, anything in the public eye...or considered babe-licious by The Sun.The epilogue on this book is way too long, most likely padded out to get the page count over 400. The last 30 pages are a really dreary read.

This is one of the best D.C.I.Banks storys I have read and I have read quite a few of them , I'm looking forward to the next one ..

I got this from Amazon for my Kindle to take on holiday. It is an easier read than the previous one I read (Piece of My Heart) as it isn't constantly flitting back and forth in time. It follows a good line and the ending is a clever twist. I like Peter Robinson's style of writing and the realism of his people, and this is one of his better books. Also the transfer to an ereader is mostly very good whereas the transfer of Piece of My Heart was dreadful, with spelling mistakes and no spaces between the different time episodes, though the story was good.