Not safe after dark - Peter Robinson
Peter Robinson’s Inspector Banks series has been one of my favourites for some time. This is his first apparent attempt at putting together a book of short stories, all mysteries of one type or another, but not all involving the now famous inspector.
In fact, out of the 20 items, there are three Inspector Banks stories and one novella with him as the central character. The remaining stories are not all set in the now, or even the here and now.
I was intrigued by his changes between tales of the present (in several different parts of the world), two stories about wartime Britain, even one set in 18th-century Vienna. All the pieces are well told, and all involve some crime, actual or perceived. Most of them have a twist - which is what the short story is all about (at least the author thinks so).
The author expresses some trepidation in the introduction, fearing that the stories won’t work, this being his first outing in short story fiction. He needn’t have worried - they work very well.
Despite being a Yorkshireman by birth, Peter Robinson now lives in Canada, and the Canadian influence can be seem in a number of the pieces. Never having been to that part of the world, I can only assume that his descriptive writing there is as good as it has always been in describing his native country.
Pan Books edition, 2005. This and other editions available through AbeBooks.co.uk or Alibris.co.uk