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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
A murder and historical suspicious death; no graphic violence
Language
Some
Some strong language
Sexual Content
Barely any
Some adult content in the backstory
Substance Use
Barely any
Social drinking in Yorkshire pubs
Emotional Intensity
Some
The way small communities protect their histories by not examining them; the specific claustrophobia of a place where everyone knows what everyone did
What this book is about
A hiker discovers a body in a remote valley in the Yorkshire Dales — a man who has been there for several months. Banks's investigation leads to the village of Swainshead and a local family with secrets that stretch back years, including a previous suspicious death that was never fully explained. Peter Robinson's fourth Inspector Banks novel is his most specifically atmospheric to that point — the Dales are rendered with the attention of a writer who loves the landscape — and the mystery's resolution turns on the specific weight of small-community memory.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
fourth of the Banks series
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