So sad to say goodbye! I have read and enjoyed so many of Peter Robinson’s books. This one is no exception.

The story unfolds in two periods in time, present day and 1980. The past investigation relates to a serial murderer and the death of Alice. Modern day is the discovery of a skeleton on a local building site.

Took my time to savor and enjoy his last story. Thank you very much to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I love this series, and am so sorry to see it end. Robinson's last work is a worthy addition to his Inspector Banks books. Two narrative threads take the reader back to the time of the Yorkshire Ripper in 1979-80, and also to the discovery of a skeleton in the present. One of the central mysteries is how on earth the two threads are connected. This book features Robinson's trademark intelligence, careful set up, and slow burn storytelling.

DCI Banks is one of the premiere characters of the British police procedural and Robinson is a master of his art. This book was everything I wanted and needed from a DCI Banks; twisty, suspenseful, well paced, and characters you love.

The plot of Robinson's last( the author died in 2022) DCI Banks title alternates between events of 1980 and those of 2019.
The 1980 story features university student Nick Hartley whose former girlfriend is brutally murdered. Nick still carries a torch for Alice and is devastated at her death. He suspects the killer is her new romantic partner who disappeared immediately after the murder. The police conduct a less than thorough investigation, dismissing clues and not following obvious leads.
In the 2019 thread an archeologists discovers a human skeleton in a shallow grave on the edge of an unused field. Forensics indicate that the skeleton was buried within the past five years.
Banks's team is called in to identify the skeleton. With little evidence to help them, they successfully id the skeleton as belonging to a known criminal and declare that he was murdered.
The two timelines begin to merge into a fascinating police procedural that unfortunately didn't keep me guessing because the dead man's identity and the killer becomes clear early on.
I wanted to give this posthumous publication 5 stars but felt the 1980s part, while providing necessary background, moved slowly and the killer's identity became obvious at the beginning of the 2019 chapters.
DCI Banks will be missed.

I received a digital copy of this book in return for an honest review by Netgalley
I’m 1980 Nick Hartley came back to his residence and found that one of his flat mates had been killed. Flash forward 20 years and a body is found by an archeologist.
This is the 28th installment of the Inspector Banks series and Peter Robinsons last book. Little did know when becoming approved to read this book I was reading the last one - bitter sweet I am going to back track and read the others. Thank you !!!

Peter Robinson is a marvel. Robinson's books with protagonist Detective Superintendent Banks at the helm wrap around a fast-moving plot and include the detectives at the police station whom we have grown to like and admire as their lives develop and they help to solve two mysteries, one old and one new, both eventually discovered to be connected. How a skeleton discovered in present day and a look at a 30-year-old mystery are related is slowly revealed in the skillful twists of plot that Robinson is so deft at presenting.

Anyone who has read a book written by Robinson is completely taken in by Banks' character: his ability to solve complex crimes, the way in which he relates to the police on his team, and his care for his two adult children and others in his life. Banks is a full character whom Robinson presents comprehensively; what he reads, what he drinks, what he eats, and most of all, the music he listens to which is fully presented and woven through the book. With each Robinson book, I have learned more about various kinds of music, and the depth to which Banks cannot live without this music is striking. I find myself eagerly waiting for Robinson's next book just to see how Banks is going to approach his latest professional challenge and who will help him. I highly and enthusiastically recommend any book by Peter Robinson.

Thanks to William Morrow and Net Gallery for giving me the opportunity to read this book which was so hard to put down.

I was able to read this book as an ARC from Netgalley. I very much enjoyed this thriller. I like the way Peter Robinson writes, and this book didn't disappoint. This novel moves between 1980 with a protagonist named Nick Hartley, and 2019 with DI Banks and his squad. Both timelines have a murder- in 1980, it is the murder of Nick's ex-girlfriend Alice Poole, and in 2019, it is a skeleton dug in a field. I was kept guessing as to how the two storylines would converge. I think Robinson did a fantastic job weaving together multiple intricate stories and brought them together into a satisfying climax and resolution. I was truly guessing until the end.

The unique thing about all of Peter Robinson's Alan Banks mysteries is that while they don't end with a bang - the ends are always extremely satisfying. All in all, it makes one long for Alan's koi pond and musical conservatory. This particular book in the series ties up some loose ends like Ray's death, but unfortunately Annie really played no part in this one. And she was definitely missed by the reader. Although the supporting cast of Winsom et al is interesting, I think Alan's interplay with Annie is usually the best part of Robinson's series.

You can always count on Peter Robinson’s novels to be thoughtful and entertaining. What was surprising was that this is a dual timeline novel. One of the stories takes place in the time of the Yorkshire Ripper and when undercover police officers try to infiltrate terrorist organizations such as the Irish Republican Army. The other story takes place in the present time, with the discovery of a skeleton that turns out to be a relatively ‘new’ find. And so the investigation begins. You can count on the Alan Banks books to be complex and well thought out. You really can’t figure out ‘whodunit’ and that’s what we want in a police procedural. It is very sad that this is the last Alan Banks novel. Rest in Peace Mr. Robinson.

Standing in the Shadows is the 28th installment of the DCI Alan Banks mystery series. Although Standing in the Shadows is part of a series, it also functions well as a stand alone novel. Peter Robinson creates murder mysteries with complex and well-developed plots. Many of his books have been filmed as part of a televised series, DCI Banks, which ran for 5 series. Having watched all 5 seasons, I am well-versed in the DCI Banks crime solving series.

In Standing in the Shadows, there are multiple narrators, divided over two dual timelines. The narrator in an earlier timeline is Nick, who tells the story of a murder that has never been formally solved and that haunts him. In the later timeline, the narrators are several police detectives, including DCI Alan Banks, who slowly and carefully work to undo a complex plot that is decades old. The characters in Standing in the Shadows are compelling and the plot complex enough to hold the readers' attention.

I do want to thank the author and publisher, HarperCollins, for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review. The comments above are my own opinion. Thank you also to NetGalley for suggesting this novel and making it available to request.

DCI Banks of the Yorkshire town of Eastvale has a new case that’s different from the usual. A skeleton has been found, and from the condition of the skull, it’s clear this was a case of murder. But whodunnit—and when? Just identifying the victim takes a lot longer than the usual case, much of the work carried out by Banks’s team, the familiar characters Winsome Jackson and Gerry Masterson, as well as a new member of the team, William “Willkie” Collins.

Chapters about the investigation alternate with a flashback story from 1980 at Leeds University, when student Nick Hartley’s former girlfriend, Alice Poole, is found strangled. Nick is briefly a suspect, but soon eliminated. What Nick can’t figure out is why the police seem to become uninterested in solving the murder.

Robinson masterfully plots his two stories so that the reader is fully engaged in each, gradually understanding how the storylines are connected. This is a very satisfying police procedural, and it turns out to be the last in this 35-year series, due to the death of Peter Robinson last year. I’ve been reading this series since the beginning and it’s sad to think there will be no more DCI Banks books. In addition to being excellent police procedurals, I have always enjoyed the descriptions of Banks’s tastes in music, libations, and food.

"The 28th twisting installment in the DCI Alan Banks mystery series that Stephen King calls "the best now on the market."

In November 1980, Nick Hartley returns home from a university lecture to find his house crawling with police. His ex-girlfriend, Alice Poole, has been found murdered, and her new boyfriend Mark Woodcroft is missing. Nick is the prime suspect. The case quickly goes cold, but Nick cannot let it go. He embarks on a career in investigative journalism, determined to find Alice's murderer - but his obsession leads him down a dangerous path.

Decades later, in November 2019, an archaeologist unearths a skeleton that turns out to be far more contemporary than the Roman remains she is seeking. Detective Superintendent Alan Banks and his team are called in to investigate, but there is little to be gleaned from the remains themselves. Left with few clues, Banks and his team must rely on their wits to hunt down a killer.

As the two cases unfurl, the investigations twist and turn to an explosive conclusion."

Please don't say this is the last DCI Banks book, I can't handle that along with Peter Robinson dying.

There is a lot of history here as this is the 28th novel featuring DCI Banks. Unfortunately, I have not read any of those and as such missed out on many of the side plots that have built through they years.
I did really enjoy the stories themselves, set decades apart and the way they were interwoven. I would like to read Mr Robinson's older works and see if thats what he did in those books as well.
Thanks to NetGalley and there publisher for the ARC!

Inspector Banks is back in his 28th (and probably final) adventure, “Standing in the Shadows”, by Peter Robinson, who passed away suddenly last October after a short illness. This excellent story shows once more why he will be sorely missed.

Get ready for two mysteries, set almost 30 years apart. We start with an archaeologist in 2019 finding a skull while looking for old Roman ruins. This skeleton unfortunately is not that old, which means a potential murder. Banks is called in along with his regulars (minus Annie, who’s still dealing with the death of her father).

Flashback to 1980 with student Nicholas Hartley, who learns of the death of one of his housemates, who happens to be his ex-girlfriend. She went off to her new boyfriend’s house, only to turn up dead in a park and her new boyfriend nowhere to be seen. With the Yorkshire Ripper still loose in the region, could this be another of his victims? The police take a huge interest in Nicholas at first, only to drop the case rather quickly. It seems like only Nicholas is interested in finding justice for his love.

We flip back and forth between the two cases, with Banks making steady progress in identifying the victim and tracking down what happened all those years ago. And poor Nicholas trying to solve his own murder mystery, the death of his ex. Of course, the two intersect in the present day with justice following its course. A fine ending to a superb series. Banks and crew will be missed.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from William Morrow via NetGalley. Thank you!

Peter Robinson, recently passed away (October 2022) was the much-lauded crime writer who created the. Inspector Alan Banks detective series set in Yorkshire, England. This turned out to be his last novel before he died.

Inspector Banks is known for not only his taste in fine Scotch, but his love of all kinds of music, most of it quite obscure to the non-music-aficionado, and about which he rhapsodizes extensively.

In this installment, Banks and his team (minus Annie who is off dealing with her late father’s estate) are investigating the discovery of a skeleton dug up in the course of an archeological dig near the Scotch Corner. (This is the name for the junction of the A1 and A66 roads in North Yorkshire. The Romans built the first roads to meet at this point and a number of Roman relics have been unearthed in the area.). The skeleton, however, is far from ancient, and the skull has been bashed in, clearly signifying a murder took place.

In alternate chapters mostly set almost 40 years earlier, we meet Nick Hartley, a student whose ex-girlfriend Alice Poole has just been found murdered in a nearby park. This is during the same time (in real life) that a serial killer dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper was prowling the area, and many fear Alice fell prey to him.

Back in 2019, Banks’ team go through a slow, meticulous process to identify the skeleton from the few bits and bobs preserved along with him, and eventually zero in on a suspect. At the same time, we gradually see how Nick’s story gets connected to the one in the present. Along the way, of course, we are exposed to a great many names of musical groups and their songs.

Evaluation: Not bad. Not boring. But not as good as his previous novels in this series.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, HarperCollins, for letting me read and review an advanced copy of this book, Standing in the Shadows, by Peter Robinson.

What does a murdered young girl in 1980 and a skeleton found on an archeological dig in 2019 have in common? DCI Banks and his team of detectives must find the connection, but only after arduous hours of investigation in order to discover a possible link. This book tells the two stories, alternating between the two events. One part is told by a student who once loved the young woman, while the narrative of the police investigation describes the slow, but tedious, effort to discover the identify of the skeletal remains. Eventually, you know that the two mysteries will be ultimately linked.

I have really liked the DCI Banks stories, and the resulting television series, so this book took me on another journey with very familiar characters. It is interesting how methodical police work, even though fictional, can be suspenseful and surprising at the same time. This is a well thought out storyline, as it takes the reader through many twists and turns as the police try to dig out the truth in their investigation.

In 1980, against the backdrop of the Yorkshire Ripper investigation, university student Nick Hartley returns to his rooms to find the building swarming with police. Within moments he is being questioned by detectives regarding another resident, Nick’s ex-girlfriend, Alice Poole. He soon learns that Alice has been found dead, her body left in a local park. No arrest is ever made, but over the years that follow, Nick continues his own investigation.

In 2019, at an archeological dig outside of Eastvale in the North of England, a skeleton is found. Unfortunately, evidence points to it’s burial being in the recent, rather than ancient past. A body in an abandoned field probably means murder, so Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks and his team are called in to investigate. Without clues, and unable to identify the deceased, Banks may end up without a solution to this murder.

This is Robinson’s 28th book in the DCI Banks series. I’ve read every one with great enjoyment and was devastated upon hearing of the author’s death late last year. It is to believe that this will be the last book in the series, making it a bitter sweet read.

As always, Robinson’s writing is smooth, and he has crafted a plot that is intricate, has great depth, and a mystery that is well constructed and atmospheric. The narrative alternates between the two time-lines that seem totally unrelated, but over time meld into one.

Robinson also does a good job of balancing the investigation with character development, giving the reader a sense of who the characters are, how they fit into the plot, and their motivations. I will say that readers new to Robinson may find the pacing of the book to be slow at times, as Robinson takes the time to build world and characters within the narrative. I’ve always enjoyed his style and love to sit with Banks as he listens to music, sees a piece of art, or reads a book of verse.

Robinson’s engaging writing style and well-constructed mysteries will be greatly missed. No matter if you’re new to his work, or a long-standing fan, you will find that this is a novel with great appeal. Highly recommend!

I received a free copy of, Standing in the Shadows, by Peter Robinson, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This is the 28th in the DCI Alan Banks series. In 1980 Nick is accused of murdering his ex girlfriend. In 2019 bones are found, is there a link? Wow DCI Banks still has it after 28 books, he is a brilliant detective.

Detective Banks and his team are back trying to identify the remains of a body found on an archeological site. With very little to go on Banks and his detectives must determine who the missing person is, why they were left in that location, and if it ties to the police?

When a body is found on a farm with no identification, Banks and is team soon find that the farm belongs to a former police officer. Even more surprising, no one initially seems to be searching or anyone who matches the description that was given.

At the same time we are given the back story of Alice Poole through the eyes of her former boyfriend who was murdered 30 years or so previously. He has never given up looking for her killer and it tracks his progress in the past and the present toward finding justice for the girl he never forgot. Who was her mysterious boyfriend that disappeared without a trace? Did he have something to do with her murder, and if so, did he act alone?

Does the murder of the past have anything to do with the unidentified body? If so, how do they tie together, and how did the body arrive on the property of a former officer?

I really enjoyed the musical history that was interwoven . Real events from the time help establish a timeline of everything that was going on that influenced the characters and perhaps a motive for the murder. There was a missed opportunity to flesh out members of Banks’ team more, but hopefully that will come about in future books. As always, the description of the countryside and small town living plays a part in adding to the backdrop and feel of the novel. I look forward to seeing how the junior detectives come into their own in other investigations.

I was provided an advanced copy for review by NetGalley and the publisher

It's a bit bittersweet to read this book, knowing it's most likely the last entry. But it's a strong one. The greatest mystery driving much of the story: what is the connection between the first-person entries from 1980 about a university student's murder and the discovery in 2019 of the skeleton of someone who died much more recently, found by archeologists in a farm field where a new highway is going in. The two story lines, one related by the murdered student's former boyfriend during the fraught era when the Yorkshire Ripper was at work and the other a third person account of the current investigation, seem to have nothing in common. But surely they must, and by the end of the novel we know how they are parts of the same story.

I enjoyed this novel quite a lot. The investigation is satisfyingly and realistically complex (whose skeleton is it? when did he die? basic questions that are difficult to answer as the case gets underway). The past murder has its own questions, but they're being asked by a young man who can't get any information from the cops. There's the moody setting of a community living in fear as a vicious serial killer goes undetected for years, the political involvement of a leftist activist at a time when the IRA was setting off bombs the Bader Meinhoff gang was seeking revolution through violence, and ultimately a government inquiry into police misconduct by Special Branch undercover units during the period. And then there's an occasional subtle nod toward contemporary politics in the UK, with even an old Tory friend of Banks's disgusted with BJ's antics. It all comes together in the end, when one of the characters says "Let me start at the beginning..." Too bad it's actually the end.