A Necessary End: An Inspector Banks Mystery

by Peter Robinson

Paper Book, 1992

Status

Available

Call number

823.914

Publication

New York : New York : Scribner ; Maxwell Macmillan International, [1992]

Description

Fiction. Literature. Mystery. A peaceful demonstration in the normally quiet town of Eastvale ended with fifty arrests-and the brutal stabbing death of a young constable. But Chief Inspector Alan Banks fears there is worse violence in the offing. For CID superintendent Richard "Dirty Dick" Burgess has arrived from London to take charge of the investigation, fueled by professional outrage and volatile, long-simmering hatreds. Almost immediately, Burgess descends with vengeful fury upon the members of a sixties-style commune-while Banks sifts through the rich Yorkshire soil around him, turning over the earthy, unsettling secrets of seemingly placid local lives. Crossing "Dirty Dick" could cost the chief inspector his career. But the killing of a flawed Eastvale policeman is not the only murder that needs to be solved here. And if Banks doesn't unmask the true assassin, his superior's misguided obsession might well result in further bloodshed.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Heptonj

An excellent, excellent book. Chief Inspector Banks at his best so far. Politics, idealism, anti-establishment and fanaticism on both sides of the law make this an intriguing novel which keeps you guessing all the way through. The characters are easy to identify with and all have their own

interesting stories.
Alan Banks also makes an enemy of 'Dirty Dick' Burgess who is brought up from London to head the investigation of the murder of a policeman. His tactics leave something to be desired and anger the residents of the area including Chief Inspector Banks. This is definately one not to miss.

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LibraryThing member Romonko

The Inspector Banks series is a good one, and this third in the series is as good as the other two that I have read. In this book a police constable is killed in an anti-nuclear demonstration in Banks' town of Eastvale. Was the murder just a result of hot tempers in the heat of the moment, or was

there something more planned and more sinister here? Banks needs to find out, but before he can do much investigating an old acquaintance from the London PD is sent to help. Banks knows that Dirty Dick lives up to his name, and finds that he has to continue investigating on his own in order to get to the real reason behind the killing. Robinson is an excellent writer whose characters are real and three-dimensional. I love Inspector Banks, and can't wait to continue to read this series.

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LibraryThing member edwardsgt

This was first published in 1989 and thus seems terribly dated with Alan Banks and other characters smoking heavily everywhere and casually drinking and driving, no mobile phones, having to make all calls via land lines and few computers in use. Despite that, it does actually capture a different

time period and the mood of the times, even though it is a distant memory now. The plot concerns the death of a policeman during a local protest rally about nuclear power and as always Robinson's characters have depth to them and are believable. A clever plot twist when the killer is finally revealed, not at all what you expect.

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LibraryThing member debavp

Banks' temporary superior, DCI Burgess, has some of the funniest lines--you can just imagine laughing at him were you to run across him in reality. I didn't care for the "flirtation" with Jenny--not because he's marrier, but because it made him seem weak and downright indecisive. I thought the

"killer" was different characters at different times, although the reasoning was a lot clearer. Maybe if Banks had focused on the case a bit more he would have solved it sooner. There never was any doubt that Burgess would ever solve it, not in a million years.

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LibraryThing member ashergabbay

The third book in the Alan Banks series by Peter Robinson, “A Necessary End”, deals with the stabbing to death of a policeman during an anti-nuclear demonstration. Suspicion centres on the residents of a 60s-style commune in a nearby farm: the owner of the farm, Seth Cotton; his reclusive

girlfriend, Mara Delacey; and a young man with a violent history, Paul Boyd. The commune is also home to a whacky astrologer, Zoe, and a Marxist artist, Rick.

Helping Inspector Banks in this case is an old acquaintance from his London days, Detective Superintendent Dick Burgess. Perhaps “helping” is not the right verb here. Banks is not very fond of Burgess’ abrasive and cocky attitude, not to mention his constant bragging about his (yet to be proven) sexual conquests. The duo try to work together but very quickly Banks realises that if he wants to save his career he needs to find the killer before Burgess does.

The plot of this book is one of the best so far in the series, especially thanks to the fact that most of the characters turn out to be something different from the stereotypical roles assigned to them initially. The dead policeman turns out to be a bully that relished the freedom police work gave him in beating people up. The violent Boyd has to run away lest he be blamed for a crime he did not commit. And the real killer, and his motives, turn out to be quite unexpected. This is a most enjoyable book.

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LibraryThing member -Eva-

During an anti-nuclear rally, a policeman is stabbed to death and it's up to DCI Banks to figure out if it was manslaughter or something more nefarious. This is another good installment in a solid series where the characters are very believable and the mystery not easily guessed. The Yorkshire

atmosphere is coming across as very genuine as well and that adds a lot to the overall story.

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LibraryThing member elizabeth.b.bevins

I'm reading these in order. Inspector Banks is my new favorite detective!

LibraryThing member Daftboy1

This is one of the earlier Inspector Alan Banks novel
There is a demonstration in Eastvale a Copper is killed, Banks with the help of Dick Burgess investigate this.
All suspicion points to a farm were some misfits live.
Its not all strait forward Banks does his best and discovers who the murderer

was.

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LibraryThing member VivienneR

Another good yarn involving Inspector Banks, the Good. He might be good, but not perfect as he flirts with a colleague. This time he is offset by Dirty Dick, aka DS Dick Burgess, who is in charge of the investigation. The case is the murder of a police constable at a political demonstration.

Robinson is hard to beat for a police procedural that takes an interesting look at 1990s society in England.

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LibraryThing member LARA335

A policeman is killed during an investigation, and inspector Banks researches into the victim's past as well as the craftspeople at "Maggie's Farm". Well drawn characters of both suspects and Banks, and the bully of a detective brought in from London to assist.

LibraryThing member crazeedi73

Really liked this one. Looking forward to getting number4

LibraryThing member jkdavies

Ok, mildly interesting for all the Yorkshire settings, although the story felt a little thin. Rounded up from 2.5* as it was my 104th book this year which means I hit my target 11 days early

LibraryThing member Carol420

The quiet town of Eastvale in Yorkshire is rocked by an anti-nuclear demonstration that turns violent. A police constable named Edwin Gill is stabbed to death during the demonstration and Inspector Alan Banks is on the case. Unfortunately, his superior is not the supportive and sensible

Superintendent Gristhorpe but "Dirty Dick" Burgess, a sadistic, chauvanistic, hard-drinking CID Superintendent who has a hatred for "commies" and hippie-types. Burgess roars into town and immediately starts threatening the locals, using his bullying style of interrogation to get results.
With Sandra and the kids out of town for a few weeks, Banks has plenty of time to follow a few leads of his own. Most of his suspicions are centered around a commune known as "Maggie's Farm," where some sixties-type people live together. One of the residents, Paul Boyd, is a particularly suspicious character, since he has a lengthy police record. Banks wants to find out if Officer Gill was murdered deliberately or if his killing was merely a random act of violence.

is not a scintillating mystery. The resolution of the story is a bit anti-climactic. What Robinson does well is develop character. From the brutal Dick Burgess to the gentle and loving Mara (who lives in the commune), each character comes alive as a result of Robinson's vivid descriptive writing and realistic dialogue. This 3rd book in the Alan Banks series is a well-paced novel that is also filled with colorful and authentic Yorkshire atmosphere.

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LibraryThing member thornton37814

When a demonstration results in the death of a police officer from another jurisdiction, Supt. Burgess, aka "Dirty Dick," is sent from London to lead the investigation into the homicide. Attention begins to focus on the residents of Maggie's farm as two residents were among those arrested at the

demonstration. Burgess' reputation precedes him. Chief Inspector Banks begins investigating on the side when it becomes clear, Burgess is willing to stick the murder charge to the first suspect for whom he can make a case strong enough to possibly stick. With many of the protesters already suspicious of police, Burgess' actions jeopardize the rapport Banks built with the people of Eastvale since his arrival.

The installment compels the reader, but some things seem to drag down the plot. Readers do not need to know every time a character lights a cigarette, particularly when all the characters seem to be chain smokers. If a future installment doesn't feature some of the characters developing lung cancer, Robinson missed out on the plot he's setting up.

I listened to the audio version narrated by James Langton who did a good job with the voices although they were perhaps not as British sounding as they could be.

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LibraryThing member gypsysmom

This is the third Inspector Banks mystery and I have to confess it didn't hold my attention as much as some others.

A protest against a nuclear energy plant is the scene of a knifing of a policeman. Banks discovers that the dead officer was something of a bully so he thinks the attack may have a

personal motive. Meanwhile a former colleague from London comes in to head the investigation and he thinks the attack was terrorist motivated. Banks is batching during this book as his wife and kids are off with her parents. Could this be an attempt to see how Banks as a single man works out for the series? I know that in later books Banks is single but for now he is happily married.

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LibraryThing member SamSattler

A Necessary End is book number three of in Peter Robinson’s twenty-six-book-long Inspector Banks series. By the beginning of this one, Banks has comfortably settled into his Yorkshire surroundings and much prefers his new job to the one he left behind in London. The locals consider him to be a

likeable enough guy, and more importantly, an honest cop who doesn’t cross the line. But when Scotland Yard sends a hotshot cop up to Yorkshire to take over a murder investigation, all of that is suddenly in jeopardy because the London cop is the exact opposite of Banks and doesn’t care who might object to his behavior.

What should have been a small, peaceful demonstration in little Eastvale goes suddenly wrong when a policeman is stabbed to death during a confrontation between 100 demonstrators and the handful of police on hand to keep them under control. CID Superintendent Richard Burgess makes it perfectly clear upon his arrival from London that someone is going to pay for the crime – and the sooner the better because he can’t wait to get back to civilization. Banks, when he figures out that Burgess will build a case against the easiest target he spots, regardless of actual guilt, makes the potentially career-damaging decision to run his own parallel investigation behind the superintendent’s back.

So, did the policeman die because one of the demonstrators just happened to pull a knife during the fight or is there more to the man’s murder? As it turns out, the young cop had a reputation for taking the opportunity to bash a few heads with his baton every chance he got and particularly enjoyed working demonstrations and protest marches. Had any of the demonstrators had a previous run-in with him - and a whole different motive for pulling that knife? Or not? The murder may just be a whole lot more complicated than Burgess wants to admit – and every bit as complicated as Banks fears it is.

The author does not add much to the Banks character in A Necessary End, and his wife and children are still pretty much blank slates in this third book. In fact, the whole family is out of town during the entire novel and their only communication with Banks is via short evening telephone calls. We do learn that Banks sees his job “as a defender of the people, not an attacker” and that he is now thirty-eight-years-old. But Robinson keeps Banks real by making sure that he is a long way from being perfect, as illustrated by what Banks reveals about himself to Burgess during one of their numerous pub-fueled conversations: “I don’t like violence. I’ll use it if I have to, but there are plenty of more subtle and effective ways of getting answers from people. That aside I never said I was any less ruthless than you are.” (Of course, Burgess sees through the bravado and spits beer while trying to stifle his laughter at the claim.)

As for personality quirks, the reader does learn that Banks is a chain-smoker who does not much concern himself with the private spaces of others and will force his habit into almost any situation and location. Too, he may be just a bit of a snob when it comes to his attitude toward American culture and the way that it is relentlessly spreading throughout Great Britain. After one conversation with Burgess, Banks finds himself wondering, for instance, “why so many people came back from America, where Burgess had been to a conference a few years ago, full of strange eating habits and odd turns of phrases – ‘pain in the ass’ indeed!” (The superintendent’s big sins were the way he cut and ate his meat in the American style and his love of donuts for breakfast.)

But that’s about it as far as new revelations go.

Bottom Line: A Necessary End easily stands on its own merits as a standalone. Readers should definitely not be concerned with having to read the first two books in the series prior to picking up this one. It is based on a solid murder mystery with numerous plausible suspects that will keep the reader guessing right up to the end – and it solidifies the image of Banks as a “good cop” willing to buck superiors to ensure that justice is served.

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LibraryThing member TGPistole

A good read. Good character development. Good mystery without tricks or wide stretches of the imagination. I want to return to Inspector Banks and fortunately Robinson has written other books with this protagonist. John Mark introduced me to this author. This was the 2nd Banks book I read.

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