The sixth installment of Robinson's Inspector Banks series.

When two polite, well-dressed social workers appear at Brenda Scupham's humble home claiming to be investigating reports of child abuse, she makes every effort to be cooperative. She even complies when Mr. Brown and Miss Peterson say they must take her seven-year-old daughter, Gemma, away for overnight tests. It is only when they fail to return Gemma the following afternoon that Brenda realizes something has gone terribly, unthinkably wrong.
As days go by with no sign of the little girl, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks and Detective Superintendent Gristhorpe begin to lose hope of finding her alive.
At the same time, Banks is investigating a particularly grisly, cold-blooded murder at the site of an abandoned mine. Gradually the leads in the two cases converge, guiding Gristhorpe and Banks to one of the most truly terrifying villains they will ever meet.

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.

"His best work yet . . . You really won't put this one down until the final paragraph." -- The Globe and Mail