Friend of the devil

What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.

What this book is about

The seventeenth Inspector Banks mystery runs two investigations in parallel: Detective Superintendent Banks investigates the murder of a young woman found on a cliff path near Whitby, while Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot handles the discovery of a dead woman in a wheelchair—a recent parolee with a dark history. Robinson's dual-narrative structure is confident and the Yorkshire setting richly atmospheric. The novel examines how the past casts long shadows and how institutional failures ripple through lives across decades, with Robinson's characteristic insight into character and place.