NOT DARK YET

Investigating the murder of a mob-tied developer and the possibly related rape of a young woman, DCI Alan Banks finds himself in the crosshairs of the Albanian Mafia.

At the center of the investigation is Zelda, a sex trade survivor on whom Yorkshire's Banks developed a major crush in Many Rivers To Cross (2019)—an attraction he can't act on since she's the romantic partner of one of his best friends. Abducted at 17 from an orphanage in Moldova and horrifically abused for years, she has been using her skills as a super recognizer to help Britain's National Crime Agency track sex traffickers. But a cloud of suspicion hangs over Zelda—real name Nelia Melnic—following the unsolved murder of a Croatian trafficker who violated her and her possible involvement in another killing. While Banks looks into the murder of the developer, his female colleagues DI Annie Cabbot and DC Gerry Masterson  trace the history of the rape victim until the dots between the two criminal cases connect. The plot, which also features a Banks nemesis from the past, may be one of Robinson's knottiest. Full pages are devoted to the volleying of questions about possible motives and methods and what led to a suicide. But Robinson pulls the reader in with deft characterizations, powerfully understated action scenes, and strong locales—while leaving space for this amateur musicologist's usual legion of song and album references. The title of the book is taken from a Bob Dylan song included on the mortality-obsessed album Time Out of Mind. For Robinson, it would seem, things can never get dark enough.

A strong addition to the Banks series that suggests tantalizing possibilities for the next installment.