Customer Reviews
Banks never lets you down - By: John, 23 Apr 2008 
I have read every one of the Inspector Banks novelsin order. I am now up to Aftermath & this proves that the series is going from strength to strength. The early novels were short but later they have become morein depth with character development.
The first chapter could easily be the last chapter of many a crime novel.
A neighbour reports a domesticin a neighbour's house. Two constables respond to this & stumble upon the home of the Chameleon a serial killer that Yorkshire police have been chasing for months. The killer Payne has knocked his wife Lucy unconscious. He attacks the constables & kills one but the other constable manages to knock him unconscious.
The remainder of the story is the aftermath for those involved.
Banks has to make sense of all the bodiesin the cellar. He investigates the past of Lucy to see if she was involved.
Annie Cabbot has to find out if the police constable used excessive forcein arresting Payne.
We see the effect this has on Cabbot & the constable.
Also the life of the neighbour who phonedin the domestic unravels.
As ever Robinson progresses the lives of the two main characters Banks & Cabbot. There is also a return for psychologist Jenny Fuller who lookedin the early novels that she would be a main character but does not featurein later novels.
As ever Robinson keeps the story flowing. His dialogue is realistic & there are the usual twists along the way. If you enjoy crime novels & have not read any of Inspector Banks I recommend that you do.
Taut, tense storytelling from a writer at the top of his game - By: one-eyed Jack, 14 Nov 2007 
Although I read a lot of crime fiction I have to admit that AFTERMATH has been my first experiment with anything written by Peter Robinson. The great news is that not only is it a fine novelin its genre but there are, at the time of writing, eighteen othersin the Robinson portfolio stretching back to 1987 & by all accounts the standard is high across the entire range. It's easy to understand why he has such a wide & enthusiastic following, because all the basic elements are there to enjoy: suspense, pace, mystery, interesting characters & a storyline that is credible yet extraordinary too; sadly such weird people as describedin this fictional tale clearly do existin real life.
The setting is Yorkshire & from the outset Robinson's long-term hero DI Alan Banks & his team have been pursuing a serial killer nicknamed the Chameleon - but who appears to have been caughtin the act. The title of the novel is quite apt because the remainder of the story is indeed a description of what happens over the next couple of weeks, which will include the unravelling of this mystery while the reader doubtlessly tries to second-guess the police procedurein order to figure out the trademark 'Robinson twist' at the end. I would have given this book 5 stars if I had been completely fooled, as I wanted to be, but the truth is that I found it rather easy to spot the red herring & from an early stage I knew the identity of the Chameleon, sooner than I would have expected a cop as smart as DI Banks to do. That aside I enjoyed this tale immensely & I will quickly stock up on most if not all of the Inspector Banks novels, as I can tell from just this one that Peter Robinson is an author worth investing time & money in.
A Really Tense Thriller - By: J. Chippindale, 03 Jun 2007 Peter Robinson grew upin Yorkshire, & is the author of a number of previous novels featuring Inspector Banks. He is the winner of numerous awardsin the United States, Britain & Canada, &in 2002 he won the CWA Daggerin the Library. As I also come from Leeds the background to his stories is something that I have experienced first hand & because of this I have a special affection for his books. However they would be first class crime fiction wherever they were based.
Two police constables are sent to an ordinary house, situatedin an ordinary street, nothing unusual about that, but it is about to become infamous. The police officers are sent to the house to investigate complaints of a domestic disturbance. What they stumble upon is truly horrific scene which leaves one of the officers dead & the other one fighting for her life & her career.
The identity of a serial killer, a person capable of blending into the background & slipping away without detection, called for want of a better word, the Chameleon has finally been revealed. But his capture is only the start of such a shocking investigation that it will even test the nerve of inspector Banks, a man hardened to the knowledge of what one human being can do to another.
A Really Tense Thriller - By: J. Chippindale, 03 Jun 2007 Peter Robinson grew upin Yorkshire, & is the author of a number of previous novels featuring Inspector Banks. He is the winner of numerous awardsin the United States, Britain & Canada, &in 2002 he won the CWA Daggerin the Library. As I also come from Leeds the background to his stories is something that I have experienced first hand & because of this I have a special affection for his books. However they would be first class crime fiction wherever they were based.
Two police constables are sent to an ordinary house, situatedin an ordinary street, nothing unusual about that, but it is about to become infamous. The police officers are sent to the house to investigate complaints of a domestic disturbance. What they stumble upon is truly horrific scene which leaves one of the officers dead & the other one fighting for her life & her career.
The identity of a serial killer, a person capable of blending into the background & slipping away without detection, called for want of a better word, the Chameleon has finally been revealed. But his capture is only the start of such a shocking investigation that it will even test the nerve of inspector Banks, a man hardened to the knowledge of what one human being can do to another.
Tedious - By: Mr. G. Mcmurtrie, 21 May 2007 
I've read one other by Peter Robinson & this was pretty much along the same lines. A very pedestrian approach to a rather sinister topic. Writtienin a style that makes you page turn but leaves you feeling flat at the end. Bit of a pointless time filling book. I'll not be reading anymore of his unless they are real cheap. Too similar to the other boring British crime authors, Rankin, Hayder & McDermid.
Seek something else.
