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Summary
When a well-dressed couple, claiming to be social workers, appear at Brenda Scupham’s door, saying they must take her seven-year-old daughter, Gemma, into care after allegations of abuse, Brenda is confused and intimidated enough to hand the child over. But when the couple, Mr Brown and Miss Peterson, fail to bring Gemma home, Brenda realizes she has made a terrible mistake. As the days go by, Detective Chief Inspector Banks begins to lose hope of finding Gemma alive. Then a rambler finds a body in the ruins of an old lead mine, and the two cases begin to converge in a terrifying way, leading Banks to a showdown with one of the most chillingly evil criminals he has ever come up against. Nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America.
Press Reviews
“Robinson may be one of the most underrated writers of British mysteries today. His hero, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, is a thoughtful, intelligent, humane cop….In each successive book, Robinson shows real growth in the complexity of his characters, in his creative, thought-provoking plots, and in the philosophical battles Banks wages in dealing with crime both petty and vicious….Provocative, mesmerizing and memorable…” Booklist (* starred review)
“A model of the English police procedural, Robinson’s most recent Inspector Alan Banks mystery…delivers reliable, steady entertainment….Thoroughly credible characters… combine with a seamless plot.” Publishers Weekly
“All the elements of the conventional British whodunit…yet arranged in a fresh, unconventional manner….Chalk up another winner for Peter Robinson with this low-key yet gripping thriller, an example of the British detective story at its best.” The San Diego Tribune
“Wednesday’s Child is the sixth Alan Banks novel by Yorkshire-born Peter Robinson and it’s his best work yet. Robinson…has all the threads of his plot, setting and people in place and he plays them perfectly….The ending, even thought the reader is prepared, still comes as a shock. You really won’t put this one down until the final paragraph.” Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail
“With Wednesday’s Child, Peter Robinson shows himself to be one of the very best crime novelists, and much more in control of his material and disturbing in his vision than certain much lauded composers of ‘psychological’ crime fiction….This is a superb book, and disturbing.” Robin Skelton, Books In Canada
Peter Robinson 