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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
A lot
Serial murder; a woman's captivity and survival; the investigation of a crime scene that contains evidence of sustained atrocity
Language
Some
Some strong language
Sexual Content
Some
The captivity situation involves sexual violence that is discussed but not depicted in detail
Substance Use
Barely any
Social drinking
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The specific psychological damage of surviving what should not have been survived; the limits of what an investigation can do for someone trying to recover from that
What this book is about
In Eastvale, a neighbor's complaint leads police to a house where a woman has been held captive — and to a hidden basement containing evidence of serial murder. Banks and DS Annie Cabbot investigate the killings and also the survivor's traumatic account of what happened to her. Peter Robinson's twelfth Inspector Banks novel is his darkest — the subject matter is a house of serial murder, handled with restraint but not avoidance — and the one that most fully develops Annie Cabbot as a character with her own psychology and her own limits.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
serial murder and captivity are central subjects
the darkest of the Banks novels to this point
twelfth of the Banks series
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