It would be only a slight exaggeration to say that Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks of the North Yorkshire Police is as well known in the UK in this day and age as London private detective Sherlock Holmes was a century ago. Less so in the US with its plethora of shamuses. But crime thriller fans the world over rate him as one of the best.
Children Of The Revolution By Peter Robinson Hodder 388pp Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops, 625 baht
Brit Peter Robinson has penned 30 novels featuring his literary creation and there is also a popular TV series. Fictional shamuses and gumshoes are one of a kind in being intrepid perpetrator hunters, yet differing personalities. More than a few are physical, breaking bones of those they are up against.
Even the great Holmes had a knock-down drag out fight with his nemesis (Dr Moriarty won). Banks has been struck from behind, not knowing what hit him. His distinction is that he's a decent cop. He'll stretch the truth in his reports when he feels that the motive is justifiable. What is right is his prime concern.
The author has his characters discuss this at length in Children Of The Revolution. "An attractive co-ed at Essex University is sought after by many a male. Victoria's upper class parents expect her to wed one of their own. Yet she gives her heart and the rest of her to a dynamic young communist. Pregnant, how can she keep it a secret?
The plot conveniently has her married sister unable to conceive, Victoria hands over baby Oliver without the authorities catching on. Brother-in-law Laiton sends him to the best schools. At 30, Oliver is headed for high government positions.
Victoria ties the knot with one of her high rank, has children of her own, plays Oliver's affectionate aunt. Then the phone-call that changes all their lives. A blackmailer has found out their secret and demands money. Laiton delivers it and during the meeting the man dies.
Was it an accident or murder? DCI Banks is assigned the case, which is expanded when there is an attempt on Victoria's life. Learning the secret in his investigation, Banks has a moral dilemma: how to bring about justice or support who may well be a future prime minister.
Aficionados of Alan Banks often find themselves thinking about right and wrong. They may not agree with Robinson's resolutions to the question. Nevertheless, they can't dispute that there is more than one way of considering it.
Silenced By Kristina Ohlsson Simon & Schuster 470pp Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops 350 baht
Swedish sleuths
With a firm background in her country's government affairs, security and anti-terrorism, Kristina Ohlsson has taken to penning crime thrillers. The subject of Silenced is human trafficking. Though she writes well, as it is only her second novel, she, like many budding authors, can't resist overloading the plots.
I write plots plural, because the literary form of works of fiction have a major and a minor plot with a connection. More than a few times, as here, it's difficult to tell which is which. Curiously, its 470 pages have chapters — unnumbered, with no headings. The reasons for these omissions escapes me.
What this reviewer takes to be the minor plot is the competition between two sisters — Karolina and Johanna — for their father's affection. Their both being after the same man doesn't make things any easier. As the man has a drug habit, money is always short. Only by illegal activities does the flow of cash keep coming.
Smuggling refugees into Sweden seems harmless enough and several people join the enterprise, not the least a prominent religious figure. Not just any refugees but those able and willing to pay handsomely to live in Sweden. After the payment of bribes to officials, the rest is gravy.
Ohlsson overplays her hand by having the group switch to smuggling in criminals and having them engage in breaking and entering, with aggravated assault. More loot, along with bodies. Some of the group want out, not having the stomach for violence. But can they leave knowing what they know?
Alex Recht of Stockholm's CID and investigative analyst Fredrika Bergman are on the cases. As well as those of murder, with Thai drug connections. One of the sisters is raped, unreported. Which one? Where are the illegals housed, before being settled in the country?
Using clever interrogation, people in the group confess. The two sisters are also in on it and have developed a mutual vitriolic hatred for one another, so it is inevitable that one will kill the other. The author builds suspense as to which. The private lives of the sleuths are explored. Alex is married and a father.
Frodrika is single and has a (married) lover. Not Alex.
Silenced ought to have been 100 pages shorter. Too much is made of car rides and room-by-room descriptions of hours in one city or another. Alex and Fredrika are interesting characters and I look forward to reading how they solve future cases.
