Friend of the Devil

Two murders . . . two towns . . . two determined cops . . .

One morning in March, on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea, a woman named Karen Drew is found in her wheelchair with her throat slit. Back in Eastvale on that same morning, in a tangle of narrow alleys behind a market square, the body of Hayley Daniels is found raped and strangled.

On loan to a sister precinct, Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot draws the first case, but she turns up nothing in Karen Drew's past that might have prompted someone to kill her. Meanwhile, in the Hayley Daniels murder, Chief Inspector Alan Banks has suspects galore.

Then a breakthrough spins Annie's case in a shocking and surprising new direction, straight toward Banks. Together they must search for two killers who could strike again at any moment, with bloody fury.

"Corpses may pile up in Robinson's thrillers about Yorkshire Chief Insp. Alan Banks and his now former lover, Det. Insp. Annie Cabbot, but rock and roll will never die. In Robinson's 17th novel, named for a Grateful Dead song, Banks frequently departs from his sleuthing to listen to enough rock anthems that it seems odd for an audio version to limit its music to just a few seconds of ominous introductory notes. Prebble's pitch-perfect rendition clarifies a complex tale of two serial murders that harks back to an earlier Banks-Cabbot investigation. His narration remains on cue and unruffled even when describing a paraplegic's severed neck (victim number one), the brutalized corpse of a beautiful young girl (victim number two) or Annie Cabbot's sad fall from grace at the end of a very boozy evening. Robinson's yarn comprises intriguing police procedure and the even more intriguing personal and professional relationships of his investigators. It's an engaging medley, and Prebble's vocal expertise makes it sing. Simultaneous release with the Morrow hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 8). (Mar.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Peter Robinson's award-winning novels have been named a Best-Book-of-the-Year by Publishers Weekly, a Notable Book by the New York Times, and a Page-Turner-of-the-Week by People magazine. Robinson was born and raised in Yorkshire, but has lived in North America for more than twenty-five years. He now divides his time between North America and the U.K.

Simon Prebble has worked extensively on British and American television as both actor and narrator.