Winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel, Cold Is the Grave—the eleventh installment—is the darkest and grittiest mystery yet in the bestselling Inspector Banks series.
In recent years, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks's career has been stalled—and in fact, very nearly destroyed—by the petty animosities of his senior officer Chief Constable Jeremiah "Jimmy" Riddle. But when nude pictures of Riddle's runaway teenage daughter show up on a pornographic website, he turns to Banks for help.

Banks finds Emily Riddle in London, living in luxury with a dangerous gangster. At first refusing to go home, the girl later turns up at Banks's hotel, bruised and frightened, asking for his help. Soon she is back with her family in Yorkshire, and Banks's work appears to be done.

Months later, a cold and savage murder at an Eastvale nightclub shakes Banks to his core. The grim discoveries of the unfolding investigation draw him in a direction he dearly does not wish to go: into the past and private world of his most powerful nemesis, Chief Constable Riddle.

Peter Robinson's profile page

PETER ROBINSON was a beloved crime novelist whose work spanned thirty-five years. His final novel, Standing In the Shadows, is the twenty-eighth installment in the Inspector Banks series. His critically acclaimed books have won numerous awards in Britain, the United States, and Europe, and are published in translation all over the world. He also wrote two collections of short stories, and three stand-alone novels, including the #1 bestseller Before the Poison, winner of the Arthur Ellis Award, Sweden's Golden Crowbar Award, and the Dilys Award given by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. In 2020, Robinson was presented with the Grand Master Award by the Crime Writers of Canada. Several Inspector Banks novels have been adapted for television by ITV and have appeared on PBS. Peter, who grew up in the United Kingdom, lived with his wife, Sheila Halladay, in Toronto, Ontario, and Richmond, Yorkshire. Visit www.inspectorbanks.com.

Praise for Peter Robinson
"One of the grand masters of the genre." —Literary Review
"If there were an Order-of-Canada-style process for naming detective thriller writers to Ian Rankin- or Michael Connelly-like status, I would nominate Peter Robinson." —Globe and Mail
"The Inspector Banks novels are among the best detective fiction in the world." —Edmonton Journal
"Robinson is not just a master storyteller, he's a literary magician." —Montreal Gazette
"Taut; clean writing and subtle psychology. And watch for those twists—they'll get you every time." —Ian Rankin