Playing With Fire, Peter Robinson
Summary:
In the early hours of the morning, a man reports a fire on two old canal boats. One of the firefighters notices the use of accelerant at the scene and calls the police, but by the time Inspector Banks arrives, the fire brigade have put out the flames and only the smoldering wreckage remains. A body has been found on each barge, and all the evidence points towards a deliberate arson attack.
One of the victims is Tina, a young girl with a drug addiction and a terrible past who had been living with her boyfriend Mark. The other is Tom, an artist who had been living alone. Now, with little evidence to go on and a number of possible suspects, including Tina’s boyfriend, the local ‘lock-keeper’ who reported the fire, and Tina’s own father, Banks must begin to delve into the lives of the victims, and to discover who could have wanted them out of the way forever…summary from https://www.harpercollins.com/9780061835452/playing-with-fire/
Group Review:
10 thumbs up
2 thumbs down
Quite a few of our readers had familiararity with DCI Banks, whether from reading the series or watching the tv show, or both. However, there were a few first time readers, which led to one of the first of many positive comments: you can pick up anywhere in the series and not feel lost.
As we are frequently reading books from a series, our group struggles with whether we should always read the first in series (which puts all on an equal plane for back story, but can often not be the best example of the series), OR a later book where the writing might be more developed but a reader might feel hampered by not knowing about the main characters lives before that particular entry.
Playing With Fire is towards the beginning of the series, but enough in it to have the Banks/Annie relationship impact the plot. But the writing is so good, no one felt left out. Everyone was able to pick up on the tension of the two, despite not having read the entries dealing with their romance and breakup.
Also mentioned and appreciated:
- Great sense of place, and really liked how place was incorporated into the story (boats, canals)
- Genuinely good mystery that tied together at the end
- Good attention to detail, particularly noted were the autopsies, the landscape and the characters. In fact, one reader said that the characters were so interesting she forgot about the mystery!
Banks comes across as both sympathetic and damaged; a character with flaws who one roots for none-the-less. And specific mention was made of Mark, the homeless young man, and how sensitively and accurately Robinson portrays homelessness. Two of us wanted to take Mark home with us…!
There were two readers who felt that the start was slow and just didn’t grab them, thus the two thumbs down.