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VII Peter Robinson, Past Reason Hated (1992) (or 1991?)
Another Inspector Banks novel, and a female officer, DC Susan Gay is introduced. There's a red herring here (so far in the series), in that it's about the murder of a lesbian and Susan isn't as far as I know... gay. There's a comment when she meets the surviving lover though.
This one didn't quite ring true, but maybe I need to make allowances for the passage of time - I would have thought Banks would take lesbianism in his stride more, especially as he used to police around Soho and thus must have encountered a range of sexualities. He's usually presented as more cultured and right on than this - although he's not quite homophobic here, just awkward. Of course, I'm not saying his views reflect the views of the author, and may be we're meant to wince. But Pascoe and Dalziel's reactions to an outing in an early Hill novels is dealt with more deftly.
Anyway, Caroline Hartley is found murdered by her lover, with a record still playing on the turntable, and Banks and his colleagues spend Christmas tracking down suspects - her estranged husband and his new lover, her brother and father, and her fellow members of cast in Twelfth Night. Both Banks and Gay seem to get over familiar with suspects here, and we are twice reminded who Jenny the psychologist is. I guessed the identity of the killer early on, and confirmed it way before the reveal.
The title is from Shakespeare's Sonnet CXXIX - which is quoted in the novel.
Another Inspector Banks novel, and a female officer, DC Susan Gay is introduced. There's a red herring here (so far in the series), in that it's about the murder of a lesbian and Susan isn't as far as I know... gay. There's a comment when she meets the surviving lover though.
This one didn't quite ring true, but maybe I need to make allowances for the passage of time - I would have thought Banks would take lesbianism in his stride more, especially as he used to police around Soho and thus must have encountered a range of sexualities. He's usually presented as more cultured and right on than this - although he's not quite homophobic here, just awkward. Of course, I'm not saying his views reflect the views of the author, and may be we're meant to wince. But Pascoe and Dalziel's reactions to an outing in an early Hill novels is dealt with more deftly.
Anyway, Caroline Hartley is found murdered by her lover, with a record still playing on the turntable, and Banks and his colleagues spend Christmas tracking down suspects - her estranged husband and his new lover, her brother and father, and her fellow members of cast in Twelfth Night. Both Banks and Gay seem to get over familiar with suspects here, and we are twice reminded who Jenny the psychologist is. I guessed the identity of the killer early on, and confirmed it way before the reveal.
The title is from Shakespeare's Sonnet CXXIX - which is quoted in the novel.
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