Friend of the Devil | 
| Author: Peter Robinson
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  37 reviews
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
ISBN: 077107543X
EAN: 9780771075438
ASIN: 077107543X
Publication Date: August 26, 2008 (In 31 Days)
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Amazon.com
Amazon Significant Seven, February 2008: Fans of Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels, and anyone who enjoyed In the Woods as much as we did, will love Peter Robinson's smart and absorbing Friend of the Devil. Be sure to set aside some time to dig in--you'll be tempted to devour it in one sitting, but this gripping and finely plotted mystery deserves to be savored. If this is your first introduction to the intrepid Inspector Alan Banks, count yourself lucky--Robinson has been crafting these award-winning police procedurals for more than two decades now, so there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy what Stephen King has called "the best series of British novels since the novels of Patrick O'Brian." --Daphne Durham
Product Description
On a cliff edge overlooking the North Sea, a quadriplegic woman in a wheelchair stares unseeingly at the waves. She had been murdered. And, miles away, in a storeroom in the Maze, a medieval warren of yards and alleys at the heart of Eastvale, Yorkshire, a young woman lies sprawled on a heap of leather scraps. She too has been murdered. Their bodies are discovered at about the same time that DI Annie Cabbot, on secondment to the Eastern Area force, wakes with a severe hangover in the bed of a young man she barely recognizes. From these three strands, Peter Robinson weaves his latest complex and compelling story.
While DCI Alan Banks tries to figure out how anyone was able to murder Hayley Daniels, when the closed-circuit cameras trained on the entrances to the Maze show that no one preceded or followed her into its shadows, Cabbot learns two things that make her blood run cold: the real intentions of her one-night stand and the true identity of the quadriplegic woman. A ghost from the past is back to haunt both her and Banks.
Peter Robinson’s Inspector Banks novels are among the best detective fiction in the world, and their multi-layered stories continue to surprise, engross, thrill, and delight readers. Friend of the Devil is a superb showcase of how deftly he balances horror with humour, police procedures with the nuances of all-too-human emotions, and endings with the promise of new starts. Once again, Robinson transcends the usual limits of the genre in this dazzling novel about the obsessive power of vengeance.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
 I can name that tune in...... July 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Peter Robinson writes easy going British police procedurals that are generally quite well done. Alas author Robinson seems to be losing it in some regards. I recoiled in horror when I was informed that main series character Chief Inspector Banks has purchased an ipod. Robinson has this strange literary gimmick of telling the reader what music is playing when we ride along in Bank's car, when we stop to have lunch with him in a pub, when we are riding in an elevator, when he is at a party, and when he is about to go to bed. And now that Banks has an ipod we can constantly be informed as to what notes are flooding the Inspector's brain. It's bad enough that I usually don't like a single bit of the music that seems to entrance Mr. Banks, but when the musical program information intrudes constantly you want nothing more than to grab his ipod and smash it against a wall.
Well enough of that. Here's my other problem with this particular novel. It is a continuation of a novel that Robinson wrote about seven years ago. While bits and pieces of the original book's plot are scattered throughout this book, there is no thorough exposition of the original book's plot. I did read the source book (Aftermath), but sometimes couldn't remember enough parts of it to make Friend of the Devil a completely understandable read. One of the characters in the book Aftermath seems to be on a killing spree, and Banks and his on again off again girl friend Inspector Cabbot are trying to find the killer.
Many of Robinson's novels, like this one, could be done as a play, because much of what goes on in the books are interrogations. We are forever, with or without music, sitting down and interviewing suspects or witnesses. In this book Robinson brings in two male-female relationships that just go nowhere. Chekov once said "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there." This book starts out with Annie Cabbot having a one night stand with someone much younger than her. The aftermath of that encounter gets stranger and stranger, and you wonder where this is going to lead. Well it turns out to be a "pistol" that shouldn't have been hung on the wall.
I've always liked Robinson's easy going crime novels, but this one wasn't much fun. The reader really should be better informed about the story in Aftermath that preceded this book. The music problem? It sounds trivial, but it's not especially when you consider that the author also seems obligated to tell you exactly how each character is dressed, and to describe in detail the decor of each house he walks into. Even books have to be discussed. I was surprised when I found out that Annie Cabbot is reading the same book that I am: Tony Judt's modern history book "Post War." Does that spike your interest? I didn't think so, but that's about exciting as this book gets.
 A Friend Indeed June 28, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Peter Robinson does it again. This latest offering in his series featuring Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks grabs the reader from the first page and doesn't let go until the end.
fabulous June 1, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
this one was up to par,,. but I am sorry I got it from Amazon. they mutilated my copy with poor packing. Book was fantastic but I wish I had bought mine elsewhere
 "Friend of the Devil" May 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Please note: If you are thinking about buying this novel, and have not yet read Robinson's "Aftermath," definitely consider reading "Aftermath" first.
There is unquestionably a time in every novel series when the characters become too predictable, the plot is insufficiently compelling, and the familiar effects are just too thin to keep the whole enterprise going. "Careless in Red" by Elizabeth George represents one recent example of this phenomenon, and sad to say, "Friend of the Devil" seems to be another.
In this episode of the Alan Banks series, his one-time lover Annie Cabbot is investigating a more than usually senseless murder: who would want to kill a completely paralyzed woman who seemingly is a threat to no one? Unsurprisingly the rationale is more complicated than it might at first seem, and eventually ties in (in an overly deliberate complication) with the case that Banks is investigating: the rape and murder of a young woman in Eastvale. Banks's case is a pretty standard whodunnit. (The complication that connects it with Cabbot's case strains belief entirely.)
It eventually becomes clear that the two cases are involved with the one that Banks dealt with in "Aftermath." In fact, reading "Aftermath" after "Friend" would be a much less interesting experience than it might otherwise have been.
I have to say that after all this time, I am beginning to feel I don't care who Banks is sleeping with any more, and I am certainly tired of his ambivalent relationship to Annie. It's all become rather meaningless. His love of music, which seemed so strong and so organic to his character in the earlier novels, seems just a recitation of artists and album titles now. Though I'm sure that many people in Banks and Cabbot's line of work have a love/hate relationship with alcohol, I can't help wishing the two of them would just go and get into treatment already.
All that being said, Robinson is still capable of a telling observation, both of character and of setting, and still capable of the canny trick--there is an excellent one in the section which unites the two ongoing cases. But I don't think I will be reading another one of the Banks books.
In the early going of the novel, Banks thinks about why it is that at his age, he is beginning to read more non-fiction than fiction--it has more to tell him about life. Unhappily, "Friend of the Devil" is one more reason to believe that that is true.
Eminently readable, not flawless May 9, 2008
As with most of Robinson's other books, this one held my interest almost from cover to cover, and I was very tempted to award it 4 stars. However, there are a few flaws that detracted from my reading enjoyment. First of all, I would wholeheartedly agree with those who indicated that too much of the book was dedicated to DI Cabbot's personal issues. Not that she isn't an interesting character, and her interaction with Banks, both on a personal and professional level, adds to the story. The problem here is one of balance: of the two cases that develop early on, she has by far the more interesting and challenging one. I would even say that, compared with her case, the one Banks has to solve is almost mundane, little more than a plot device to allow for a crossing point between the two investigations. Moreover, the star of Banks's case is, once again, DC Winsome Jackman; perhaps as a misplaced concession to political correctness, this police officer is developing into a character who can simply do no wrong. (I can already hear the accusations of racism, and since I can't defend myself, I'll simply ignore them). Anyway, I found this lack of balance to be both annoying and unrealistic, not to mention that, with so much of the printable space dedicated to Cabbot and Jackman, the book turns into a bit of a disappointment for the aficionados of Banks and his own existential woes (woes which I find acceptable, as long as they are in small doses.)
Moving on from the characters to the plot, this book shares with most of Robinson's novels many of the same traits, some of which I don't particularly care for. Specifically, rather than feeding the reader little clues here and there, so some of them can at least develop a hunch as to the culprit's identity, this author prefers to leave everything up in the air until the final pages when all is revealed. The few hints he gives away are rarely useful and he occasionally sprinkles details that seem to be thrown in with the specific intent of being exploited at a later time, but then, disappointingly, aren't. (E.g.: the picture of Kevin Templeton's missing sister). Lastly, for the plot to work as written, it must rely on the investigators conveniently glossing over, or missing altogether information that should be reasonably easy to obtain.
Having described mostly what I didn't like about the book, I think it's time to re-assure the person who's teetering on the brink of buying it that it is well worth the read, whether or not he or she is a Banks fan. In spite of a few stagnation points, the story does move along, the style is generally good, and the oveall plot is interesting. I also must give Robinson credit for being able to do quite a decent job with sequels. And on that score, I really hope that in the future we'll see a return of Phil Keane as well as Jenny Fuller. And maybe, instead of DI Cabbot, DC Jackman can be loaned indefinitely to another police station, or, better yet promoted and transferred permanently.
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