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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780380820498
ISBN number: 0380820498
Label: Avon
Manufacturer: Avon
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 352
Printing Date: April 01, 2002
Publishing house: Avon
Release Date: April 02, 2002
Sale Popularity Level: 48233
Studio: Avon
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Wednesday's child is full of woe ...
It was a crime of staggering inhumanity: a seven-year-old girl taken from her home right in front of her desperate working-class mother. With each passing moment, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks realizes that the child's death becomes more and more likely. But there are worse fates than death in a nightmare world of human monsters and their twisted games. And the grisly discovery of a young man slain in a particularly savage fashion only starts the clock ticking faster, drawing Banks into the sordid depths of an evil more terrible and terrifying than anything he has ever encountered.
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Rated by buyers 
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Robinson has done it again, delivering a chilling page-turner that I found impossible to put down. Mimicking his last outstanding novel, Past Reason Hated, the author chose to include two cases, that seem separate, but whose relationship soon surfaces, as the backbone of this book. All the usual characters are present in this installment, and we get to see the return of Jenny Fuller, a character that I have liked all through the series, and who with her psychological insights make these novels much more enjoyable.
When a seven-year-old girl is taken from her house by a couple posing as social workers and not returned when promised, the mother contacts the police. Inspector Banks and Superintendent Gristhorpe are thus immersed in a tough case, which proves not only complex and brutal, but also presents little promise for recovering the victim alive. When the body of a young ex-con surfaces a couple of days later, Banks suspects a connection, and decides to pursue this case, leaving the very first one to Gristhorpe. The two teams are thrown in a race against time, to beat the odds and recover the victim before it is too late.
I liked the idea Robinson had when he decided to have Gristhorpe handling one of the cases. Up until now, the involvement of this character has been fairly limited, and in my opinion, this change made the series better. The author also goes a little deeper into Banks' personal life, which I greatly appreciate, since when reading a series I always look forward to knowing more about the main characters and understanding what aspects of everyday life and their pasts affect their actions. The Inspector is going through the beginning of a mid-life crisis, with one son gone to college, and a teenage daughter that is growing fast, even if his father wants to ignore the fact. This also forces Banks and his wife Sandra to reinvent their relationship outside of their parenthood.
As is usual the case with Robinson's books, we get a mystery that has an interesting and coherent plot, with mesmerizing characters, especially the mother of the girl and her partner, and with dialogues that are among the best I have come across in mystery novels. The only thing that was a little taxing was that the case involved a little girl. Since having my daughter, who is now two years old, I have noticed that I am affected more by books or movies that touch upon the topic of child abuse. In this case, it was tough at times, but I have to accept that the author handled the topic well and did not twist the knife in the wound. I can understand though that some people with less tolerance may have a hard time reading this novel. Apart from that caveat, I think this is one of the best mysteries I have read in a long time.
Rated by buyers -
"Wednesday's Child" is another outstanding offering from the talented Peter Robinson. Each of his books are carefully constructed police procedurals and Robinson consistently exhibits an ability to build sensitivity, tension and character into each of his novels. This one features Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, the star of most of his novels, but it also gives added dimension to another favorite Robinson character, Detective Superintendent Gristhorpe. The two of them, with their loyal, able Yorkshire police comrades, methodically track down the kidnapper of a little girl. As in all the other Robinson novels, the bad guy is usually not who you think it is. And by the ending, you know that you have read a book written by a literary craftsman. I look forward to reading many more Peter Robinson books.
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Peter Robinson grew up in Yorkshire, and is the author of a number of previous novels featuring Inspector Banks. He is the winner of numerous awards in the United States, Britain and Canada, and in 2002 he won the CWA Dagger in the Library. As I also come from Leeds the background to his stories is something that I have experienced very first hand and because of this I have a special affection for his books. However they would be very first class crime fiction wherever they were based.
Having said that I can understand to a degree why some readers may not like the books. Banks is a character that has grown over several books and the author is very comfortable not only with the character of Banks, but all the other character too. To me this makes the stories flow because the author instinctively knows how his characters are going to react in certain situations. The books are produced as a series and it is nice if you can read them all in the order they were written, but this is by no means compulsory as each book stands alone. They are what I would call `light' reading. By that I mean that they flow and not that they are third rate in any sense, in fact quite the opposite.
This book centres around the abduction of a young girl from her mother by two people posing as social workers. It is the mother's fear of authority that to leads her to comply with their request to take the young girl away for tests. It is only when they fail to return the seven-year-old that the mother realises that she has made an awful mistake. For all those involved in the case it brings back dreadful memories of the Moors Murders. DCI Banks is also investigating a particularly gruesome murder at an abandoned mine and gradually the clues in the two cases begin to converge . . .
Rated by buyers -
It's good to see this series of British police procedurals getting generally better and better with each installment. This is the sixth and the main characters are well established: DCI Alan Banks, a tough but determinedly human ex-Londoner who moved to a small Yorkshire city a few years ago; his independent-minded wife, Sandra, and his two kids, now in their late teens (he has to struggle to turn loose of them); his boss, the usually kindly Superintendent Gristhorpe, a dalesman born; his old sergeant, now in comfortable exile to make room for up-and-comer Phil Richmond, a computer junkie; DC Susan Gay, smart and a hard worker, but still prickly in her junior status; and the market and tourist town of Eastvale itself, at the mouth of a dale filled with small villages, which themselves are filled with fascinating Northerners. The plots Robinson comes up with aren't Agatha Christie-type "cozies," though. In this one, Brenda, a not-very-bright single working class mother gives up her seven-year-old daughter to a couple of supposed social workers -- a peculiarly British attitude toward educated authority figures, apparently. As the search for the abducted child gets under way, the body of a young man turns up who has been gutted. The two cases diverge, for not for long. Brenda's boyfriend, Les, is a classic lowlife petty criminal, but his acquaintances include some who are considerably more chilling. The plot is well thought out and reasonable in its construction and the action is well developed. The only annoying part, actually, is Banks's and Gristhorpe's prejudices, which don't seem to go with the rest of their personalities. I also get a little tired of "cop games" when it comes to interrogation of suspects; how can anyone fall for such nonsense in this day and age? Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to the subsequent volume in the series.
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Chief Inspector Banks is called in to investigate the disappearance of a little girl named Gemma. Her bewildered mother has let her go with people who claimed to be from a child welfare agency, but instead they kidnapped her. Banks is haunted by the picture of the child, as she resembles the inspector's own daughter. Following this, there is a grisly murder of a man who may have been connected to the missing girl. It is up to Banks and Detective Superintendant Gristhorpe to put together the pieces of the two puzzles into a coherant whole. All of this time these grizzled policemen keep a mental picture of Gemma in mind as motivation to solving the crimes. This is another well-written Detective Banks Mystery by Peter Robinson.
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