Before the poison

If it's late August, then it's time for a new novel from Peter Robinson. Whilst I find this 'writing to timetable' slightly disturbing, I am not complaining. This year's offering is called 'Before the poison', and unusually is not about Robinson's serial character, DCI Alan Banks. Instead, it's about a composer (Chris something) who writes film soundtracks who has moved back from California to his native Yorkshire. But leaving the characterisation aside, this book might be considered a Banks story without Banks. I'll try to write about the book without giving away any spoilers.

The narrator finds himself owner of a large house, well off the beaten track. Slowly he discovers that the house has been virtually unoccupied for the last fifty years, and that the previous lady (Grace Fox) of the house was hung after being convicted of poisoning her husband, even though the husband was originally thought to have died as the result of a heart attack.  The composer becomes intrigued by this story and starts chasing facts; he meets one source in a local pub, but for other sources, he has to travel to Paris and Cape Town.

Chris's search for the truth (or at least, his search for an understanding) is woven alongside his new life in the Yorkshire village, where he is befriended by his estate agent, a 40+ old lady with marital problems. Whilst this material has clearly been added to flesh out his characterisation, I'm not sure that it contributes that much to the story (compare this with similar pieces of DCI Banks' life when he's not chasing murderers).

In common with a few of the recent Banks novels, some of the action takes place in the present and some in the past. The past is represented first by the story of Grace Fox's trial taken from a book about famous murder trials (the book is bought by the composer in a second hand bookshop after he becomes curious) and secondly by extracts from Fox's private journal (the provenance of which only becomes clear towards the end of the story). Thus the trial material views what happens only from a distance, and of course only presents what happened at the trial - Grace Fox was not called to the witness stand to defend herself.

Again, in common with a few of the recent Banks novels, the first half is not particularly focused: Robinson lays down the groundwork diligently but it doesn't seem to go anywhere. The book takes off only when the extracts from Fox's private journal begin to appear; these of course tell the tale from a different angle, although all of the entries presented deal with Fox's life during the Second World War. These entries cause Chris to better his understanding of what almost certainly happened regarding the death.

I can understand why this book had to be written without Banks: there is no connection between what happened then as to what is happening now (in the previous novels, there was always a strong connection between past and present) and so there is no room for invoking a police investigation - hence no Banks. The composer is free to come and go as he wishes, asking people for their memories but with no compulsion to answer. I suspect, though, that most people in real life would be less enthusiastic about finding a resolution - indeed, several characters ask the composer why he is so driven about the story.