Wednesday's Child by Peter Robinson
Constable (0 09 475690 2) £14.99
When unfortunate seven year old
Wednesday's child Gemma Scupham is visited by a couple posing as social workers the
pretence turns out to be even worse than the real thing. Her vacuous mother allows Gemma
to be taken away for tests and she is not heard of again. Hard working Saturday's children
Detective Chief Inspector Banks and Superintendent Gristhorpe then have to mount an
investigation into her abduction in and around the Yorkshire Dales. Gristhorpe has a
particular abhorrence of cases like this, having participated in the search for the
victims of the Moors murderers thirty years previously. Within a short time he has to take
over the investigation when Banks becomes involved in the case of a gruesome murder which
may have been connected with the abduction. Police procedure is the basis of the converging investigations: no corner cutting, rule bending, individual efforts here. Not once was Banks given forty eight hours to crack the case. Nor did the hard nosed D.C.I. fling down his wallet with a cry of "So take my lousy commission".
The Dales and their inhabitants are an integral element of the plot. The novel is a product placement of Yorkshire in general and Theakstons brewery in paticular. When I were nobut a lad there were only eight pubs you could buy Theakstons, but now you can even get it in Eastvale. Ah Eastvale! - just north of Keith Waterhouse's Stradhoughton and J.B. Priestley's Bruddersford. Aye Eastvale- I can remember when it were just imaginary fields and hills and now it's the scene of kidnap and murder. In one passage the author has ironic fun with the concept of fictional localities, drawing parallels with Hardy when Banks and Gristhorpe test one another on Hardy's names for real Dorset locations. Now I know why a writer has to resort to such mythical placenames for anywhere outside a large city, but it is a convention I find difficult to live with when I know the area where the story is set. Maybe that's just me.
That small cavil aside, I found Wednesday's Child a gripping story with a strong narrative thrust. Apparently, this is the sixth in Peter Robinson's series of mysteries. Not having read the others in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the book, though I was left wondering when Banks is going to have his affair with vivacious psychologist Jenny Fuller. After all, it is eighteen months since the painful split with Dennis Osmond and relations are occasionally strained in the Banks' household. It looks like we'll have to wait for a future story for that one. (J.R.C)
