The Inspector Banks novel In a Dry Season was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and won an Anthony Award. Cold Is the Grave won the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award. It takes the aging, solitary inspector from his cozy Yorkshire cottage into the dark underworld of London. The assignment is a favor asked by Banks' boss and greatest enemy: Chief Constable Riddle.Banks is to locate Emily, Riddle's teenaged daughter, who has run away to London. When he finds her, Banks forges an odd friendship with the wild rebellious girl. He is horrified, then, when she dies from strychnine-laced cocaine a few weeks later. As the troubled Inspector tries to find the killer in London's trendy club scene, he is nagged by a persistent suspicion that both Riddle and his wife may be withholding crucial information.
Cold Is the Grave paints a disturbing picture of people ensnared by webs of alienation, manipulation, and hidden agendas. Narrator Ron Keith perfectly captures the darkness of this world as well as Banks' yearning for meaning and connection.
