Part of Inspector Banks, book 22
First published 2014
DCI Banks faces an unusual assignment when his Homicide and Major Crimes unit gets pulled into investigating stolen tractors. The new police commissioner has made rural crime a priority, forcing Banks to handle cases normally beneath his pay grade. The investigation takes a darker turn when his team discovers what appears to be a crime scene inside an old hangar at a derelict World War II airfield. Two young men from the area have vanished without explanation. One lived in a caravan that someone torched during the night. The other's girlfriend receives a threatening visit from someone posing as a police officer. Banks and his team start connecting these scattered incidents when a freak hailstorm causes a car accident that reveals something horrific. The discovery accelerates their investigation into dangerous territory. The case becomes a desperate race against time as Banks realizes that even his own investigators have become targets.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: corrupt-authorities, race-against-time
Setting: World War II Airfield, Caravan
Period: World War II
384 pages · Hardcover · McClelland & Stewart
Content warnings: violence