Children of the Revolution by Peter Robinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is first DCI Banks novel that I have read. I quite like the TV show but usually try to avoid the books if I have seen the show. I’m on a cruise so beggars can’t be choosers and the ship’s the ship’s library well it’s really a trolley. I took a chance and read it in a day or so. Stephen Tomkinson voice was firmly in my head as I’m reading the yarn he stars in the TV version.
The trouble with books and TV shows and films for that matter is how the stories diverge. I suspect this is to simplify the story or more easily explain a character. Case in point DCI Banks TV version has a very difficult relationship with his father which in many ways shapes his character. DCI Banks book version seems at ease with his parents and his anguish is mostly located within which a book can explore more easily. Anyway enough moaning I did like Children of the Revolution by Peter Robinson which had elements of the British class struggles one law for the rich and so on.
The origins of the story go way back traversing through the troubled times of Britain in 1970s. It starts as a curious suicide in a small village emerges as a tragic tale of murder and greed. Sandwiched in amongst all of this a glimpse of romance for the lonely DCI Banks. The dead man is something for recluse and hardly known to the locals. The team start unravelling his life and it leads back in time to the turbulent 1970’s and to the upper echelons of the local elite.
Might be tempted to chance some more of DCI Banks book version. Although this was number 21 in the DCI Banks series it was quite readable as a standalone novel. I do think having seen the TV series provided me with an entrée to the novel.