The Price of Love by Peter Robinson

Val Penny ♦ January 21, 2016 ♦ 2 Comments

My older daughter gave me this this book as part of a Christmas present. I had not realised at first that The Price of Love is a book of short stories. Peter Robinson is an excellent writer and I do enjoy his novels. His short stories are probably less well known than his novels about DI Banks, however they are beautifully crafted and I was thrilled to have a chance to read this collection.

Peter Robinson is an interesting man who is generous with his time and talent to newer writers. He was born in Yorkshire, England UK, but  after getting his BA Honours Degree in English Literature at the University of Leeds, he went to Canada and took his MA in English and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Joyce Carol Oates was his tutor. Peter then achieved a PhD in English at York University, England. He has taught at a number of Toronto community colleges and universitie. Peter also served as Writer-in-Residence at the University of Windsor for a while in the early 1990s.

Peter often chooses his titles from classical books, the Bible or lines from songs. The Price of Love was a song that was a hit for the Everley Brothers in 1965. They were an  American country-influenced duo of rock and roll singers, best known for steel-string guitar and close harmony singing.

Peter’s book, The Price of Love includes ten new short stories and a novella about his recurrent character, Alan Banks. The novellla tells about the time when DCI Alan Banks arrived in Eastvale. It seems his life was every bit as much of a mess as it is now. However, he has an envelope that could change everything he understood about the events that sent him north from London twenty years ago. He remembers the seedy Soho nights of his last case in London, dubious businessmen in dodgy clubs, young girls on the game -a killer on the loose.

In addition to the brand new novella that fills in the gaps in Banks’s life before Yorkshire, Peter gives us ten more varied and eclectic stories that have never previously been published in the UK. These include the delicious The Eastvale Ladies’ Poker Circle finds that murder may be just another game of risk. Another story is about a suitcase of cash. Is it worth a man’s head on a plate? In another story a tragedy leads a young boy to learn the price of love. Bacause everything has a price. If you enjoy thrilling murder, mystery and suspence, The Power of Love is the book for you. Peter Robinson at his best. I really enjoyed it.

Valerie Penny