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    Blood at the Root: A Novel of Suspense
    Blood at the Root: A Novel of Suspense
    Blood at the Root: A Novel of Suspense
    Audiobook9 hours

    Blood at the Root: A Novel of Suspense

    Written by Peter Robinson

    Narrated by James Langton

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    When the brutally beaten body of a young man is found in an alley, Eastvale's Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks and his colleague, Detective Constable Susan Gay, have no choice but to lock up the three Pakistani youths who seemingly started it all after an argument in a pub. But they're out in no time, and Banks is in big trouble with the chief for risking a racial incident with the arrest. Ordered to run the investigation from his desk and leave the legwork to others, Banks's hands are tied and his temper is flaring.

    When disturbing facts start emerging about the victim, Banks can't simply sit at his desk-and he soon alienates himself from both the investigation and his own department. While his twenty-year marriage crumbles around him, he tries to make sense of a gray world grown ever more black and sinister, as he follows a treacherous trail of hate, greed, and twisted philosophy that leads to the darkest pits of a man's inhumanity to man.

    Brilliant and exasperating by turns, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks inhabits a Yorkshire landscape colored in shades of gray where good and evil seldom conform to their comfortingly ordinary colors of black and white.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 16, 2011
    ISBN9781400182671
    Blood at the Root: A Novel of Suspense
    Author

    Peter Robinson

    Peter Robinson's DCI Banks became a major ITV1 drama starring Stephen Tompkinson as Inspector Banks and Andrea Lowe as DI Annie Cabbot. Peter's standalone novel Before the Poison won the IMBA's 2013 Dilys Award as well as the 2012 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel by the Crime Writers of Canada. This was Peter's sixth Arthur Ellis award. His critically acclaimed DCI Banks novels have won numerous awards in Britain, the United States, Canada and Europe, and are published in translation all over the world. In 2020 Peter was made a Grand Master by the Crime Writers of Canada. Peter grew up in Yorkshire, and divided his time between Richmond, UK, and Canada until his death in 2022.

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    Reviews for Blood at the Root

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    223 ratings13 reviews

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    • 5/5
      All the banks books are great. This one has several twists and a surprise ending.
    • 4/5
      A young man is found beaten to death outside of a bar after getting into an altercation with three young men of Pakistani heritage. It turns out that the victim was a member of a Neo-Nazi group dedicated to making Britain great again. The group has published rants against immigrants, Jews and homosexuals. Although this book was published in 1998, it is still timely today. It's sad how stories dealing with bigotry never seem dated. Inspector Alan Banks is in charge of investigating the case, which is not as straightforward as it first appears and the list of suspects grows. I liked Banks and I liked this book. It is not necessary to have read any of the other books in this series, although I am sure that I missed some of the nuances of Banks' relationships. That doesn't bother me since I don't read police procedurals to learn about the personal lives of the detectives. I learned just enough about Banks here, and not too much. I intend to read more of this series. Some aspects of the police work seem quaint today. For example, this was before cell phones and the police station did not have Internet access so a police officer had to go home to check out the website of the hate group.I listened to the audiobook and the narrator, James Langton, was very good.
    • 4/5
      In this book #9 of the Inspector Banks series we find Alan Banks' having marital problems, a suspension from work to deal with along with a racial crime to solve. Robinson's characters are richly complicated, and his plots are quite intricate. I enjoyed this one very much but the ending was a little weak. I will be looking forward to the next one though as I am very interested in what Peter Robinson has in store for Inspector Banks' personal life. If you like good, modern British police procedural you will enjoy this book.
    • 4/5
      Inspector Banks investigates a murder that has ties to a group advocating native British supremacy. On the surface it appears a group of Pakistani youth committed the crime, but Banks is not convinced. The novel also takes Banks to Amsterdam, and he returns to a suspension. Still he finds a way to keep working "behind the scenes" on the case. Banks' marital troubles also surface a lot in the story although they are not essential to the mystery. I wish the author had just kept Banks' private life out of the series. This side story weakened the plot. James Langton's audio narration was excellent as always.
    • 5/5
      I read the Banks novels in chronological order but, somehow conspired to miss this early outing. It is, as one would expect, a cracking read. Mr Robinson makes us care for the lives of the DCI and his team. The best thing about this series is that they are not packed with sensational action unyet, they keep the reader glued from page one to the final full stop.I can't say too much about the storyline (I will want to read it again at some future date). I shall simply say that it concerns racial disharmony - something that has as much, if not more relevance now than it did in 1997. when it was written.
    • 4/5
      I read this out of order in the series, so many of the the events in Inspector Banks' life are old news, such as the collapse of his marriage. The details of a seemingly racially motivated murder lead to tension in Eastvale on the part of Pakistani citizens. Banks is definitely on the wrong side of his superior in the police department when he doesn't agree with the arrest of the confessed murderer. His intransigence leads to his suspension so he pursues the case as a private citizen. Good police procedural.
    • 4/5
      A couple of years ago William Morrow reissued the Inspector Banks novels by British writer Peter Robinson in new paperback editions, giving those of us who missed them the first time around a second chance. I took that chance with “Blood at the Root,” first published in 1997, and I am delighted I did.The inspector prefers music, especially opera, to solving crimes, and there are references to his passion for music every few pages. Even so Banks is an excellent detective, so excellent, in fact, that it nearly costs him his job.The case seems open and shut. Twice in fact. A young man, who it turns out was a racist and would-be Nazi, is found beaten to death in an alley. He had had words with young men with darker skin at a pub earlier that night, so they seem likely suspects. Evidence is lacking, however, and holding them causes political repercussions. So the investigation continues.Acting on a tip, Banks goes to Amsterdam for a weekend, right after his wife has left him, and he gets information relating to the case from an undercover cop. Upon his return he learns the murder has been solved after a young man has confessed and, what's more, Banks is suspended for dereliction of duty by leaving the country. Not trusting his boss to keep quiet about the undercover man and still not having all the evidence he needs, Banks stays mum and continues investigating on his own.There's not a dull paragraph in the book, yet it seems incomplete. Questions remain after the final page, such as, will Banks get his job (and his wife) back? Apparently so, for Robinson continues to write Inspector Banks novels.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this perhaps not so much for the detective aspect - a neo-Nazi is murdered, but for the seemless and unobtrusive writing. Inspector Banks has to solve the crime whilst suffering marriage difficulties and contending with a superior officer who dislikes him. Flawed but sympathetic and believable character.
    • 4/5
      An outspoken neo-Nazi man is murdered, but when Inspector Banks starts investigating, it seems other motives could be behind the violent homicide. Another good installment in a consistently good series. This one has a solid mystery but also quite a lot of personal information about the characters (there's a big change in Banks' life) and I enjoyed both parts very much.
    • 4/5
      Detective Alan Banks investigates the death of a young Racist not is all as it appears but Banks unravels the mystery. His personel life isnt to good his wife wants a break from him and it looks like they might split up plus he gets suspended from the Police. Easy toread enjoyable book.
    • 3/5
      "Dead Right" is the ninth installment of the Inspector Banks series by Peter Robinson, and not one of the best in the series. The body of Jason Fox, a white supremacist, is found lying in an alleway behind a pub. Witnesses that saw him exchanging harsh words with three Pakistani men quickly bring the investigation round to focus on race crime. But Inspector Banks, needless to say, is not convinced. He releases the young Pakistanis from custody, bringing upon him the wrath of his superiors. He digs into Jason's ties in the Albion League, the white power group he worked for, and his family. The plot this time is quite thin. It is obvious from the start that there is more to the crime than meets the eye, but the going is slow. Robinson is still a master of crime fiction, but "Dead Right" is below his usual standards.
    • 3/5
      My favorite so far. The personal stuff balanced by good conflict with authority. The myth of the courageous detective.
    • 4/5
      I love DCI Banks. He's such an ordinary and likeable guy, with human foibles. This book puts him in the middle of what turns out to look like a racist war in his neighbourhood, but when he starts to investigate the victim he finds a lot of dirt. The victim is found beaten to death in an alley behind a popular nightclub, but this doesn't look like an ordinary bar fight to Alan. As he digs deeper he uncovers white supremacists, racial tensions, drug kingpins and a whole lot of trouble. And Banks has to do all this while his 20 year marriage looks to be falling apart. Robinson's characters are richly complicated, and his plots are quite intricate. This one was not a real murder mystery in the true sense of the word, but it certainly shines a light on the underworld in northern England. I can't wait for the next one.