The eagerly awaited new novel from Canada’s top crime-fiction writer.

It’s the May half-term school holiday, and the first warm day of the year has drawn a few children to the River Swain for a swim. When one boy chases another off the path that runs alongside Hindswell Woods, a glimpse of orange through the trees tempts them into the shadows. Moments later, their high spirits vanish in an instant, for there, to their shock (and ghoulish fascination), they find a man in a brightly coloured shirt hanging from a branch by a rope around his neck. Alan Banks is in London with his new girlfriend when news of the kids’ ghastly discovery reaches the police in Eastvale, so the case falls to Annie Cabbot. And she’s mystified. Why would a successful set and costume designer, with a well-reviewed production of Othello currently playing, be in such despair that he would take his own life?

In All the Colours of Darkness, Peter Robinson has written an exceptionally gripping and intricately plotted story that delivers hard truths about jealousy and betrayal — and of the insidious, corrosive power of secrets. Once more, Robinson proves that he is one of the finest crime-fiction writers in the world.

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Police Incident Report

THE FACTS
NAME: Alan Banks
RANK: Detective Chief Inspector
DEPARTMENT: Major Crimes.
LOCATION: Western Area Headquarters, Eastvale North Yorkshire
PLACE OF BIRTH: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
AGE: Early 50s
SIGN: Gemini
FATHER: Arthur Banks, sheet metal worker made redundant by Margaret Thatcher.
MOTHER: Ida Banks, retired charlady.
EDUCATION: Grammar School, two A-Level GCEs; London Polytechnic; Higher National Diploma in Business Studies; various police training courses.
WIFE: Divorced from Sandra, who has now remarried and has another child.
CHILDREN: Brian, a successful rock musician. Tracy, a recent university graduate.


APPEARANCE
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: Scar beside right eye
HEIGHT: 5' 8 1/2"
WEIGHT: 150 pounds
GENERAL APPEARANCE: Lean and wirywith short, cropped black hair greying a little at the temples. Dark blue eyes. Not especially handsome in the classic sense,
but attractive to women.
CLOTHES: Casual dresser, hates wearing a tie, and if he has to wear one, he will tie it looselyand leave his top shirt button undone.


DETAILS AND HABITS
POLITICS: Not a particularly political creature. Moderate socialist/liberal humanist.
RELIGION: Cautious agnostic.
MUSIC: Fanatical about it. Almost anything–opera, chamber, vocal, orchestral, jazz, rock, especially 60s–but not so fond of country and western, funk, fusion, Gilbert & Sullivan or hip-hop. Likes to listen as he walks. Started with a portable cassette player, then switched to CDs and now owns an iPod.
FILMS: Old war films, James Bond type action films, historical epics like Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia, espionage and thrillers. Not much interested in horror or romantic comedies. Likes old black and white film noir such as The Third Man and Touch of Evil, and the old Ealing Comedies.
FAVOURITE ACTOR: Alec Guiness
FAVOURITE ACTRESS: Julie Christie
BOOKS: Largely self-taught in the field of literature. Mostly enjoys writers such as Graham Greene, Eric Ambler, Len Deighton and John Le Carre. Not much crime fiction other than Sherlock Holmes. Has far many more "serious" books on his must read list than he will ever get around to reading.
CIGARETTES: Used to smoke Silk Cut but has stopped and occasionally struggles with urges to start again.
ALCOHOL: Enjoys a pint of bitter, especially Theakston's Tetley's or Black Sheep. Also enjoys Laphroaig single malt whisky and red wine.
VACATIONS: Prefers exploring a new city on foot to lounging on a beach in the sun.
LIVES IN: A small cottage in the hamlet of Gratly, isolated at the end of a cul-de-sac.


PERSONALITY
FEARS: Blindness even more than deafness, despite his love of music. Loss of mobility. Confinement. Spiders.
SENSE OF HUMOUR: Tends towards the anarchic and satirical, even surreal, and not averse to a bit of slapstick, but equally fond of verbal humor: Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, W.C. Fields, The Goon Show, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Have I Got News For You, The League of Gentlemen, Little Britain.


GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Banks is a bit of a maverick in that he likes to get things done his own way, but he doesn't bend the rules to the point of beating suspects or forging evidence against them. He doesn't respond well to authority unless he respects the person who has the job. He's generally sympathetic, interested in people and curious about their motives. His mind is agile and he is always on the lookout for new experiences–new music new books. Though at heart a man of reason, he is also possessed of a certain amount of intuition and imagination and is not afraid to use them. Since his break-up with his wife Sandra he has had a couple of romantic relationships but has been unable to sustain them and is often baffled by the whole relationship "thing". He loves women, though, and has many female friends. He doesn't really have a short temper, but he can become very frustrated if he appears to be making no progress in a case, and he can sometimes be abrupt or sarcastic with people.


TOP SECRET
MOST CLOSELY GUARDED SECRET: That would be telling.

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“A terrific read.”
—Toronto Sun

“One of Robinson’s darkest books.…And one of his best.”
—Halifax Chronicle Herald

“Arresting.… Exerts a considerable grip.”
—The Independent

“First class crime complete with a lot of emotional intrigue.”
—Daily Mirror (4/5)

“A must for devotees of the Banks series.… Engrossing.”
—IndependentWeekly (Adelaide)

“Just try putting the book down after a chapter or so: you’ll have a problem.”
–The Independent


Praise for Peter Robinson:
“Nobody covers the ground quite like Robinson does. His storytelling is all about the conflicts of life. . . . It is this warts-and-all portrayal of lives on the brink that makes Robinson among the best there is in modern crime fiction.” — Edmonton Journal

“Brit cop-job books don’t come much better than Peter Robinson’s. . . . There’s none of that frantic, rat-race paced frenzy that the Yanks employ that leave you needing a lie down after half a dozen pages. This is relax-on-the-sofa stuff, layered and engrossing with just the right balance of thrill, chill and human spillage to keep the reader honest. . . . Bloody marvellous.” — Daily Sport

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Visit Peter Robinson's website

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Yorkshire-born Peter Robinson, who now lives in Toronto, is one of the world’s top writers of crime fiction and winner of numerous awards, including the United States’ Edgar Award, the British Dagger in the Library Award, France’s prestigious Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, Denmark’s Palle Rosenkrantz Award, and, in Canada, several Arthur Ellis best novel awards.

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