In a Dry Season (original 1999; udgave 2000)

Quite good. ( )

In this early novel, DCI Banks is in "career Siberia", an unspoken discipline for past infractions. Chief Constable Riddle gives him what appears to be a dead-end case as a further sign of ill-will. A skeleton has been found in a village that has been flooded to form a reservoir for the past fifty years and is now dried up. His sidekick is DS Annie Cabbot, who because of her past record with the police, is regarded as another kind of punishment for Banks. The story is told in alternating parts: the modern investigation and the account of one of the principal characters of the crime scene. It was an interesting look back at Yorkshire in wartime and the modern understanding of the times. ( )

The village of Hobb's End was abandoned and flooded to make way for a reservoir. With the drought in Yorkshire, the water levels have receded, and a body has been discovered in the outbuilding of one of the houses. Alan Banks is assigned to the case, as is one of the local detective sergeants, Annie Cabbot. The case takes them through the Second World War, present-day secrets, and a personal relationship.

While the Second World War story was interesting, as such stories often are, I found the story of Banks and Cabbot hooking up to be inappropriate, primarily because they are working on a case together. If they were on different forces and did not work together regularly, it would be less weird, although the difference in rank does introduce a power dynamic that could be problematic.

I very nearly didn't finish this book because the personal subplot was making me cringe so much, and also it was over 500 pages in my edition, which felt excessive. This is one I won't be holding onto. ( )

Great combo of anthropology, police procedural detective story, murder mystery, great characters, forensic science and how a cold case can always be resurrected. I continue to enjoy the Inspector Banks series. ( )

One of the better suspense mysteries I've read in a long time. ( )