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Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series is a long-running, highly successful set of crime novels based in and around the fictional Yorkshire town of Eastvale. Beginning with the publication of Gallows View in 1987, the series would go on to comprise more than 2 dozen books, a handful of short stories, and a television adaptation.
Robinson has stated that the fictional setting for the Inspector Banks books, Eastvale, was loosely based on North Yorkshire towns like Ripon and Richmond:
Eastvale is modelled on North Yorkshire towns such as Ripon and Richmond, with cobbled maket squares, rather than the kind with one main high street, like Northallerton or Thirsk. I had to make it much larger than those towns, of course, otherwise who would believe there could be that many murders? I’ve probably killed the population of the Yorkshire Dales three times over as it is!
Inspector Banks Book 1 | Gallows View (1987)
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Inspector Banks Book 2 | A dedicated man (1988)
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Inspector Banks Book 3 | A Necessary End (1989)
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Inspector Banks Book 4 | The Hanging Valley (1989)
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Inspector Banks Book 5 | Past Reason Hated (1991)
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Inspector Banks Book 6 | wednesday's child (1992)
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Inspector Banks Book 7 | Dry bones That dream (US: Final account) (1994)
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Inspector Banks Book 8 | Innocent Graves (1996)
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Inspector Banks Book 9 | Dead right (US: Blood at the Root) (1997)
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Inspector Banks Book 10 | In A Dry Season (1999)
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Inspector Banks Book 11 | Cold is the Grave (2000)
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Inspector Banks Book 12 | Aftermath (2001)
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Inspector Banks Book 13 | The Summer that Never Was (US: Close to Home) (2003)
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Inspector Banks Book 14 | Playing with Fire (2004)
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Inspector Banks Book 15 | Strange Affair (2005)
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Inspector Banks Book 16 | Piece of My Heart (2006)
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Inspector Banks Book 17 | Friend of the Devil (2007)
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Inspector Banks Book 18 | All the Colours of Darkness (2008)
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Inspector Banks Book 19 | Bad Boy (2010)
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Inspector Banks Book 20 | Watching the Dark (2012)
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Inspector Banks Book 21 | Children of the Revolution (2013)
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Inspector Banks Book 22 | Abbatoir Blues (US: In the Dark Places) (2014)
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Inspector Banks Book 23 | When the Music's Over (2016)
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Inspector Banks Book 24 | Sleeping in the Ground (2017)
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Inspector Banks Book 25 | Careless Love (2018)
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Inspector Banks Book 26 | Many Rivers to Cross (2019)
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Inspector Banks Book 27 | Not Dark Yet (2021)
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Inspector Banks Book 28 | Standing in the Shadows (2023)
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In addition to the main series, author Peter Robinson created a few other works within the same world.
Short Story Collections
This collection of Robinson's short stories includes several about Inspector Banks, along with some unrelated stories he published in magazines and anthologies.
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This later collection of short stories also includes several about Inspector Banks.
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Related Novel: Caedmon's Song
Though this is Robinson's first novel NOT to feature Inspector Banks, it's not entirely unrelated. The subject of the novel is revisited in the Inspector Banks novel Friend of the Devil, where the story is brought together with the story from Aftermath, an earlier Banks novel.
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The DCI Banks book series was adapted for television back in 2010, going on to air for 6 years and 5 seasons. Stephen Tompkinson (Ballykissangel, Trollied) starred as Inspector Alan Banks, while Andrea Lowe (Sherwood) played Annie Cabbot and Caroline Catz (Doc Martin, Murder in Suburbia) played Helen Morton.
Watch it: BritBox (US) | BritBox (UK)
Sadly, Inspector Banks author Peter Robinson died on 4 October 2022 after a short illness. A 28th book, Standing in the Shadows, was available for pre-order at the time of his passing. A good man by all accounts, he and his work will be greatly missed.
Given the timetables of most publishing houses, there's no reason to suggest that one won't be released – but it's unlikely we'll be seeing any further volumes unless Robinson had others in the queue or a plan in place for handing off the series (like MC Beaton did with her Agatha Raisin series and Hamish Macbeth series).
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