Cold is the Grave - Peter Robinson

To readers of Robinson's other crime and suspense novels, the figure of the music-loving Yorkshire Detective Inspector Alan Banks is well known. In this book he surfaces again in a plot of murder, family secrets and sibling rivalry. The long-standing enmity between himself and Chief Inspector Riddle is still present, so it is a surprise to Banks when he is sought out by a desperate Riddle who begs Banks to find his 16-year-old daughter, Emily. The wayward teenager disappeared to London six months ago and nude pictures of her have since appeared on the internet. Ever fearful of losing his reputation, Riddle sends Banks on a private mission to bring her home. Banks soon finds Emily living with her dubious older boyfriend Barry Clough, and mixed up in a world of prostitution, pornography, drugs and gangland money. After a bad episode with Clough she asks Banks to take her back to her family. All seems well. But she is later discovered dead at a party, poisoned by cocaine cut with strychnine, and Banks suspects murder. Not only that; as he investigates he finds the Chief Inspector's past holds murky secrets which result in blackmail and suicide. In the midst of all this Banks's private life is collapsing: his wife Sandra, with whom he desired a reconciliation, wants to marry her boyfriend. And his relationship with Detective Sergeant Annie Cabbot is awkward after their previous affair. This is definitely one to be recommended, with a highly readable turn of plot and an impressive depth of character.