Book 5 of 2018: When the Music’s Over

When the Music’s Over, by Peter Robinson

My mum bought this book on our trip to Taiwan back in June of last year and she’s only just put it down! I know my mum’s too busy for reading, but I thought, ‘that book must’ve been awful if it took her that long to read it!’

WRONG!

When the Music’s Over, by Peter Robinson is the 23rd novel in the DCI Banks series in which Banks has recently been promoted and somewhat enjoying his new power – getting one of the youngsters to drive him home after a few too many beers, overseeing multiple investigations… Unfortunately none of them are pretty, as to be expected from a crime novel, but these really make your stomach churn. The question is, will he ever solve them?

Throughout the book I couldn’t help but see Stephen Tompkinson’s face and hear his voice every time DCI Banks was mentioned in the novel, he plays DCI Banks in the UK TV Series, but I must admit they cast him perfectly. Would I have felt the same if I’d read the book first? I don’t know.

Honestly, it took me about 100(ish) pages to really get into the book, you have to go through the backstory, the nitty gritty details so that the remainder of the novel makes sense, but it’s worth it. I noted on page 246 that I was hooked! Before I knew it, it was 1am…

This book works perfectly well as a stand-alone novel, but personally, I might hunt down the very first one in the series and see how I enjoy it.

Have you read any of Peter Robinson’s books? Let me know!