The Summer That Never Was

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