A Necessary End

The Inspector Banks Series, Book 3

By: Peter Robinson

Narrated by: Simon Slater

Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

A Necessary End is the third novel in Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series, following on from A Dedicated Man. 

In the usually peaceful town of Eastvale, a simmering tension has now reached breaking point. An antinuclear demonstration has ended in violence, leaving one policeman stabbed to death. Fired by professional outrage, Superintendent 'Dirty Dick' Burgess descends with vengeful fury on the inhabitants of Maggie's Farm, an isolated house high on the daleside. 

Inspector Banks is uneasy about Burgess' handling of the investigation. But he has been warned off the case. Soon Banks realises that the only way he can salvage his career is by beating Burgess to the killer.... 

©2018 Peter Robinson (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio

A long listen

Definitely not fast-paced, but while the long descriptions drag on at times they generally add to the reader's visualisation. I started with this book in the series, because the first two received somewhat low scores. It didn't really matter, it wasn't difficult to pick up on the overall thread.
The story and plot are OK, but are somewhat overshadowed by the sheer nastiness of the visiting superintendent's character. Much of it comes from the time in which the story takes place (mid 80s?), when sexism and misogyny was still openly practiced and accepted. I had to remind myself of this at times when I wanted to give up in disgust - that this was how things really were, as experienced by myself as a young female professional at the time. A good reminder of how far we have come, in a way.

The performance is good. Yorkshire natives may pick up on problems with accent, but at least it is not so overdone that it distracts. (I often wish readers would use a more neutral accent rather than try to give every character their own voice.)

A final comment, related to editing, is that the poor performance of the app with Bluetooth listening devices should really be sorted out. The way in which the first word after an editing cut - usually the first word in a new voice - is clipped, makes listening just that little bit annoying. This is a common complaint by Bluetooth users, and only comes up in Audible, so definitely a problem to be fixed by Audible!

Solid story

A good solid book with a good plot and also well narrated. I'll no doubt listen to the others in this series.

superb

i loved this book and the story top stuff

liked the character of Burgess too.

satisfying Banks story with quite a surprising end

Rambled on a bit but overall it ticked all the Banks boxes. I'll be back for another.

Dreadful Dialect

The narration was distracting with its caricature dialects, the Yorkshire was particularly awful.
Story was fine, plenty of red herrings and twists. Being written in the 80s it's like a little time capsule of an era before mobile phones and when drinking during the working day was acceptable. Almost all the characters smoke and it's perfectly normal to light up in the office and pub.