Sleeping in the Ground

Author: Peter Robinson
Genre: Suspense
Type: Hardcover
Pages: 372
Series: #24 in the Inspector Banks series
Source: Publisher
Publisher: McClelland and Stewart
First Published: Oct 24, 2017
First Line: "If the incident had been a scene in a film, it would have looked beautiful."

Book Description from GoodReads: At the doors of a charming country church, an unspeakable act destroys a wedding party. A huge manhunt ensues. The culprit is captured. The story is over.

Except it isn't. For Alan Banks, still struggling with a tragic loss of his own, there's something wrong about this case — something unresolved. Reteaming with profiler Jenny Fuller, the relentless detective deeper into the crime... deep enough to unearth long-buried secrets that reshape everything Banks thought he knew about the events outside that chapel. 

And when at last the shocking truth becomes clear, it's almost too late.

My Rating: 3 stars

My Review: This is my first book by Peter Robinson so, admittedly, I'm a little late coming to the Inspector Banks party since this is the twenty-fourth book in the popular series.  This book starts out with an impressive bang - actually, many bangs as several guests are gunned down at a wedding. Inspector Banks, along with some of his law enforcement cronies, are brought in to figure out the identity of the shooter.

The mystery itself was good, with twists and culprits sprinkled liberally throughout, but the momentum of the mystery was hampered by the constant inclusion of numerous side stories. I realize that these characters have pasts and side stories help to flesh them out to readers but I think it was to the detriment of the mystery. Granted, I didn't have the background of these characters since I haven't read the previous books but with so much time devoted to relationships and mouth-watering descriptions of the food they ate, I felt like the mystery was being interrupted too often and I was unable to invest myself into it as much as I wanted to. As the pages were dwindling, the tension suddenly ramped up to an intense, nail-biting ending but this conclusion felt too swift leaving me feeling a little put out at its abruptness. 

Overall, this slow burn suspense read will probably be viewed more favourably with fans of the series. The mystery aspect was wonderfully twisty but with less interruption from side stories the tension would have been higher and I would have given it a higher rating.

Disclaimer: This ARC was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.