Jo Bannister

Page Updated: 29/03/2004

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Jo Bannister - Page 2

Unlawful Entry

Broken Lines

The Primrose Convention

No Birds Sing

Burning Desires

Unlawful Entry
'His name was Cristobal Baez ... and he was my brother'
The discovery that she had a half-brother in Mexico, and that he died trying to cross the American border as an illegal immigrant, came as a profound shock to Annie Meredith, safe in the Welsh stone house where she was born. Driven more by instinct than reason, she travels to Texas to see Cristobal buried and to find out more about his life - and death.
Immediately she becomes embroiled in border politics, and discovers that people are not the only commodity to make the difficult and dangerous journey. Drugs also pass that way and so too do treasures from Mexico's glorious past, like the elusive and precious Mason Codex …
'Even the most critical readers will be hooked ...a tour de force ' Kirkus Reviews
'Tautly written and deftly plotted, it is a novel of quality, one that will leave the reader breathless' Publishers Weekly

Paperback - Pan (1999)

Broken Lines
It's nice to have a hobby. Defective Sergeant Donovan likes motorcycling; Mikey Dickens enjoys armed robbery. And their chance meeting in a Castlemere petrol station leads to a hot pursuit, an horrific crash and a remarkable act of heroism as Donovan pulls the teenager from the burning wreckage.
The case against the young thief seems cut and dried, but the Dickens family are professional criminals and they concoct a clever defence. The tearaway, it seems, is going to walk …
Donovan, supported by Detective Superintendent Frank Shapiro and Detective Inspector Liz Graham, is determined to prove the boy's guilt. But has he finally met his match? For as he goes after Mikey for a second time, events escalate out of his control, leaving him fighting for his reputation, his career - and even his life…
'A superior police procedural with a strong cast.' Guardian
'Sensitive and intelligent writing produces a police procedural which ranks with the best of its kind... Highly recommended.' Yorkshire Post
'Gripping and original.' The Scotsman

First British Edition Macmillan (1997)

The Primrose Convention
Hunting down a missing person is not usually the job of an advice column - but then Rosie Holland is a very unusual agony aunt....The Primrose Convention is the first in a lively and witty new series by the popular Jo Bannister, centred around the larger than life agony aunt Rosie Holland....
Primrose Holland, an ex-pathologist, writes the replies in the unconventional `Primrose Path', the problem page of The Skipley Chronicle - a Midlands local paper. Her answers to readers problems are always far from orthodox, frequently hilarious and often land her in deep water. But never deeper than when a reader's bird-watching brother mysteriously disappears, and she becomes involved in the search to find him - a search that quite literally takes her to the outer Hebrides. Rosie's solution to this reader's problem proves to be very dangerous indeed…
'Crafting her story with authority and sensitivity, Bannister writes in the tradition of Dorothy L Sayers' Publishers Weekly

Paperback - Pan (1997)

No Birds Sing
See Review by Margaret Murphy
`The whole bloody town's gone mad,' exclaimed Chief Superintendent Shapiro to Liz Graham and Cal Donovan that morning. Certainly Castlemere had had its fair share of major crime during the previous forty-eight hours: a ram raid at a local jewellers, a train robbery in which Sergeant Donovan himself had been held hostage, the emergence of a dog fighting ring and the shocking rape of a local building society manageress...'
DI Liz Graham and DS Cal Donovan are not ones to shrink from violent situations, but neither could imagine the terrifying ordeals they are about to endure when they set themselves up as decoys... With so few clues to work on, Liz and Donovan offer themselves as bait to the perpetrators. But the events that follow test their courage, strength and commitment to the absolute, terrifying limit…
'A superior police procedural with a strong cast' Guardian
'Sensitive and intelligent writing produces a police procedural which ranks with the best of its kind… Highly recommended' Yorkshire Post
'A sizzling crime story.' Peterborough Evening Telegraph
'An exciting novel.' Sunday Times
'Something a bit more special, Good stuff' Northern Echo
'The novel throbs with energy and the reader is absorbed from page one... the best of the police procedure genre..' Yorkshire Evening Press
'Jo Bannister has come up, with a cracker' Luton Herald & Post
'An example of what can be made of a traditional police investigation by a first-class writer' Birmingham Post

Paperback - Allison & Busby (1996)

Burning Desires
An arsonist is on the loose in Castlemere. Frank Shapiro knows he has little time to find him. But, before he can so, the past catches up with the Chief Inspector. He is suspended, accused of suppressing evidence, evidence that would have saved an innocent man an eight-year prison sentence.
In a race against time, Detective Inspector Liz Graham and her Detective Sergeant, Cal Donovan, must not only track down a pyromaniac before he brings his career to a horrifying climax but also clear Frank's name - though the evidence is against him.
'Her work shows intelligence and humour' Spectator
'A first-class writer' Birmingham Post
'Bannister keeps the suspense tight as a drum' Publishers Weekly
'Superior' Matthew Coady, Guardian
'Gripping and original' The Scotsman