Inspector Banks Solves Yorkshire's Darkest Crimes
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- Gallows View, the first Inspector Banks novel, was published by Viking Canada in 1987.
- Peter Robinson won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel three times — for Past Reason Hated (1993), In a Dry Season (1999), and Cold Is the Grave (2000).
- The series ran for 27 books between 1987 and 2016, ending with Careless Love (2018 in the US).
- ITV's DCI Banks adaptation ran for six seasons from 2010 to 2016, starring Stephen Tompkinson.
- Robinson set the novels in Eastvale, a fictional North Yorkshire town modelled on Richmond in the Yorkshire Dales.
- Peter Robinson died in October 2022 at the age of 72.
Gallows View — Peter Robinson
Banks's first case: voyeurism escalates to murder in a Yorkshire town that doesn't yet trust its new DCI.
This is where Robinson introduces the formula that carries the next 26 books — Banks as the outsider cop who refuses to shortcut the work. A peeping tom case turns lethal when an elderly woman is murdered mid-burglary, and Banks has to navigate small-town hierarchies, a press-hungry superintendent, and witnesses who'd rather he stayed in London. The 1987 debut is lean, procedural, and surprisingly uninterested in shock value — Robinson trusts the moors and theMethodism to do the atmospheric lifting. If you're new to the series, this is the entry point. Explore our current copy of Gallows View. Browse more Crime books at Patina.
Wednesday's Child — Peter Robinson
A seven-year-old vanishes from a council estate, and the mother's story unravels under Banks's questioning.
By book six (1992), Robinson has Banks established enough to complicate him — the marriage is fraying, his son is sullen, and the case involves a religious cult that makes everyone in Eastvale nervous. Wednesday's Child is grimmer than the debut: the child-abduction premise forces Robinson to write trauma without sensationalising it, and Banks's frustration at the bureaucratic delays feels earned. The Yorkshire setting does double duty here — isolated farmhouses and windswept moorland become plausible hiding places, not Gothic set dressing. This one won Robinson his second Arthur Ellis nomination. Explore our current copy of Wednesday's Child. Browse more Crime books at Patina.
Past Reason Hated — Peter Robinson
A woman murdered two days before Christmas, classical music on the stereo, and a crime scene that feels staged for maximum cruelty.
This 1991 entry is the one that won Robinson his first Arthur Ellis Award, and it's easy to see why — the victim is a lesbian in a small Yorkshire town in the early 1990s, and Robinson handles the homophobia without turning the book into a lecture. Banks has to untangle a love quadrangle involving theatre people, an ex-husband, and a jealous director, all while his own home life is collapsing. The Christmas-adjacent timing adds a layer of bleakness that Robinson doesn't overplay. Past Reason Hated is tighter and meaner than the books that came before it. Explore our current copy of Past Reason Hated. Browse more Crime books at Patina.
Strange Affair — Peter Robinson
Banks's brother vanishes, his car turns up abandoned, and someone tries to kill DI Annie Cabbot — this is the one where Robinson breaks the format.
Published in 2005 as book 15, Strange Affair moves Banks out of Eastvale and into London, where his estranged brother Roy is mixed up in something involving stolen art, Russian gangsters, and a lot of evasive answers. Robinson spends half the book in Banks's head as he realises how little he knows about his own family, and the other half on Annie Cabbot's parallel investigation in Yorkshire. The two cases converge in ways that feel messy and unresolved — which is the point. This is Robinson reminding you that procedurals don't always wrap cleanly. Explore our current copy of Strange Affair. Browse more Crime books at Patina.
Friend of the Devil — Peter Robinson
Two bodies in two counties, both deaths grotesque, and Banks doesn't believe the connections are coincidence.
Book 17 (2007) gives Robinson an excuse to split Banks and Cabbot across separate investigations — one body burned beyond recognition in a boat, another stabbed in a remote cottage — and then slowly reveal that the crimes overlap in ways nobody predicted. Friend of the Devil is Robinson in full command of his structure: the Yorkshire settings are familiar enough that he can foreground character work (Banks's relationship with a new woman, Annie's resentment at being sidelined), and the dual-timeline plotting never feels gimmicky. As of May 2026, this one's a standout in the later run of the series. Explore our current copy of Friend of the Devil. Browse more Crime books at Patina.
Peter Robinson didn't reinvent British crime fiction — he just wrote 27 novels proving that methodical police work, Yorkshire weather, and a protagonist who listens to Schubert can carry a series for three decades. If you want procedurals that trust the reader to follow the legwork, Banks is your DCI. Shop all Crime books at Patina Paperbacks →
Where should I start with the Inspector Banks series?
Start with Gallows View (1987) — it's the first book, it introduces Banks as the new DCI in Eastvale, and Robinson hasn't yet accumulated the recurring-character baggage that weighs down later entries. You can jump in mid-series if you want (Past Reason Hated and In a Dry Season are often cited as standouts), but the early books are lean enough that starting at the beginning isn't a slog. Patina's current copy of Gallows View ships Australia-wide from Sydney.
Is the ITV adaptation faithful to the books?
Not especially. ITV's DCI Banks (2010–2016) recast Banks as Stephen Tompkinson, moved the setting around, and cherry-picked plots from across the series rather than adapting them in order. The show leaned harder into the Yorkshire-noir atmosphere than Robinson's books do, and it condensed or cut several recurring characters. If you loved the show, the books will feel slower and more interior; if you're a book purist, the show will feel like a decent but loose interpretation.
Where can I buy secondhand Inspector Banks novels in Australia?
Patina Paperbacks stocks rotating preloved copies of Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series, including early entries like Gallows View and mid-series standouts like Friend of the Devil and Strange Affair. We're Sydney-based, ship Australia-wide, and offer free shipping on orders over $29. Browse Patina's full Crime collection for current availability.
What other British crime series are similar to Inspector Banks?
If you like Robinson's Yorkshire procedurals, try Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe novels (also Yorkshire, also methodical, more darkly comic), Ann Cleeves's Vera Stanhope series (Northumberland moors, similarly dogged detective), or Ian Rankin's Rebus books (Edinburgh setting, more urban grit but the same commitment to legwork over theatrics). All three lean into regional atmosphere the way Robinson does.
Did Peter Robinson finish the Inspector Banks series before he died?
Yes — Robinson published Careless Love, the 27th Banks novel, in 2018 (US release). He died in October 2022, so the series is complete. There's no unfinished manuscript or planned 28th book, which means you can read the whole run without worrying about cliffhangers or abrupt stops.