A Necessary End (Inspector Alan Banks Series #3)

When a peaceful demonstration ends with fifty arrests and the death of a young constable, Superintendent "Dirty Dick" assumes the investigation, forcing Inspector Banks to undertake his own hunt for the killer before his superior's misguided obsession results in further bloodshed.

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...

New York Times Book Review

Thoughtful...vivid...challenging...like the region that breeds them, the people in Robinson's mystery flaunt their colors but keep their secrets.

Peter Robinson spent six years as a speechwriter in the Reagan White House. Among his speeches was the celebrated "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" speech, which Reagan delivered in Berlin in 1987. Robinson is the host of the PBS television program, "Uncommon Knowledge, " and the author of two previous books, "It's My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP" and "Snapshots from Hell: The Making of an MBA." A fellow at the Hoover Institution, he lives in Stanford, California.