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The Summer That Never Was
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Brief Description
The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I'm wrong - Stephen King When a body is found, Banks must confront his past. A skeleton has been unearthed. Soon the body is identified, and the horrific discovery...
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See moreAlan Banks must return home and face the greatest fear of his childhood. The Summer That Never Was is Peter Robinson’s thirteenth novel in the Inspector Banks series, which inspired the major British ITV drama DCI Banks.
Alan Banks must return home and face the greatest fear of his childhood. The Summer That Never Was is Peter Robinson's thirteenth novel in the Inspector Banks series, which inspired the major British ITV drama DCI Banks. Now in B Format.
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Description
The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I'm wrong - Stephen King
When a body is found, Banks must confront his past.
A skeleton has been unearthed. Soon the body is identified, and the horrific discovery hits the headlines.
Fourteen-year-old Graham Marshall went missing during his paper round in 1965. The police found no trace of him. His disappearance left his family shattered and his best friend, Alan Banks, full of guilt.
That friend has now become Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, and he is determined to bring justice for Graham. But he soon realises that in this case the boundaries between victim and perpetrator, between law-guardian and law-breaker, are becoming increasingly blurred...
In The Summer That Never Was, Alan Banks must return home and face the greatest fear of his childhood. If you enjoyed it, then you'll love the next instalment in the Banks series - which became the major British ITV drama DCI Banks - Playing With Fire.
Critical acclaim for the Inspector Banks series:
A powerfully moving work - Ian Rankin
Top-notch police procedure - Jeffery Deaver
A wonderful novel - Michael Connelly
An addictive crime-novel series - The New York Times
A guaranteed page-turner - Daily Mirror
Demonstrates how the crime novel, when done right, can reach parts that other books can't... A considerable achievement - The Guardian
One of the most authentic and atmospheric of crime series - Independent
The master of police procedural - The Mail on Sunday
Near, perhaps even at, the top of the British crime writers' league - The Times
Banks is genuinely human, rather than a hard man - The Observer
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781035058440
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 28 August 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Pan Books
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 32.0mm
Width: 130.0mm
Height: 200.0mm
Weight: 356g
Pages: 528
About the Author
Peter Robinson is author of twenty-four books in the number one bestselling DCI Banks series, as well as two collections of short stories and three standalone novels, including the number one bestseller Before the Poison. Peter's critically acclaimed crime novels have won numerous awards in Britain, the United States, Canada and Europe, and are published in translation all over the world. Peter's DCI Banks novels were adapted into a major ITV1 drama by Left Bank Pictures. Stephen Tompkinson (Wild at Heart, Ballykissangel) played Inspector Banks and Andrea Lowe (The Bill, Murphy's Law) played DI Annie Cabbot. Peter's standalone novel Before the Poison won the IMBA's 2013 Dilys Award as well as the 2012 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel by the Crime Writers of Canada. This was Peter's sixth Arthur Ellis award. Peter Robinson grew up in Yorkshire, and lived between Richmond and Canada. He died in October 2022.
Also by Peter Robinson
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Aftermath
The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I'm wrong - Stephen King A house of horror. A despicable serial killer. Banks's darkest case. When a concerned neighbour calls the police to number 35, The Hill after a domestic disturbance, the two constables are led to a truly horrific scene. They...Paperback$2800Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
A Necessary End
The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I'm wrong - Stephen King A Necessary End is the third novel in Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series, following on from A Dedicated Man. Peace destroyed. Lives in ruin. Banks must race to find the killer. Everyday life in Eastvale is shattered when...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Dry Bones That Dream
The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I'm wrong – Stephen King Dry Bones That Dream is the seventh novel in Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series, following on from Wednesday's Child. A CONTRACT KILLING. A SECRET PAST. BANKS IS PUSHED TO HIS LIMIT. 2.47 a.m. Chief Inspector Alan Banks sees...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
In A Dry Season
The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I'm wrong' - Stephen King A lost village. Past crimes. Present evil. During a blistering summer, drought has depleted Thornfield Reservoir, uncovering the remains of a small village called Hobb's End - hidden from view for over forty years. For a curious young...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Playing With Fire
Playing With Fire is the fourteenth novel in Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series, following on from The Summer That Never Was. In the early hours of a cold January morning, two narrowboats catch fire on a dead-end stretch of the Eastvale canal. When signs of accelerant are found at the scene, DCI Banks and DI Annie Cabbot are summoned. But...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Strange Affair
Move over Ian Rankin - there's a new gunslinger in town looking to take over your role as top British police procedural author... Independent on Sunday Following on from Playing With Fire, Strange Affair is the fifteenth novel in Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series, which inspired the major British ITV drama DCI Banks. When Alan Banks receives a disturbing message...Paperback$3099Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Watching the Dark
Detective Inspector Bill Reid is killed by a crossbow in the tranquil grounds of a police rehabilitation centre, and compromising photos are found in his room. DCI Banks, brought in to investigate, is assailed on all sides. By Joanna Passero, the Professional Standards inspector who insists on shadowing the investigation in case of police corruption. By his own conviction that...PaperbackSold Out -
When the Music's Over
Two young girls. Two unspeakable crimes. Fifty years separate them - their pain connects them. When the body of a 15-year-old is found in a remote countryside lane, beaten and broken, DI Annie Cabbot is brought in to investigate how the child could possibly have fallen victim to such brutality. Newly promoted Detective Superintendent Alan Banks is faced with a...PaperbackSold Out -
Bad Boy
Banks isn't back, and that's the problem. If DCI Alan Banks had been in his office when his old neighbour came calling, perhaps it would have turned out differently. Perhaps an innocent man would still be alive. And perhaps Banks's daughter wouldn't be on the run with a wanted man. But Banks is on holiday, blissfully unaware of the terrible...PaperbackSold Out -
Before the Poison
Through years of success in Hollywood composing music for Oscar-winning films, Chris Lowndes always imagined he would come full circle, home to Yorkshire with his beloved wife Laura. Now he's back in the Yorkshire Dales, but Laura is dead, and Chris needs to make a new life for himself. The isolated house he buys sight unseen should give him the...PaperbackSold Out -
Children of the Revolution
Ex-college lecturer Gavin Miller is found dead, his distorted body strewn across a disused railway track near his home. There's no sign of a struggle and no suspicious evidence—except for a large package of cash tucked inside the man's pocket. But when DCI Banks delves into Miller's past, he uncovers a troubled existence and a reputation tarnished by accusations of...PaperbackSold Out -
Friend of the Devil
When Karen Drew is found sitting in her wheelchair staring out to sea with her throat cut one chilly morning, DI Annie Cabbot, on loan to Eastern Area, gets lumbered with the case. Back in Eastvale, that same Sunday morning, 19-year-old Hayley Daniels is found raped and strangled in the Maze, a tangle of narrow alleys behind Eastvale's market square,...PaperbackSold Out
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