Watching the Dark

by Peter Robinson

This is Robinson's latest books.  I have read several in his series about DCI Banks.  It was a typical Robinson book, but in this one the crimes involved crime beyond England.

In the story a police officer is killed while recuperating at a police rehab facility.  The man's wife had died recently and he was having neck pain.  No one seems to know why he would be murdered, it looks like a professional hit, a crossbow.  Banks finds some compromising photos of the man in his room.

As they are investigating an inspector from the Professional Standards arrives to investigate if the dead man was a crooked or compromised cop -- none of the police are happy to haver her there. Annie Lennox, Bank's colleague is just returning to work after recovering from an attack where she saved Bank's daughter,

Things get very complicated.. does the death of the police officer have anything to do with the disappearance of a young British girl in Estonia six years before?  An Estonian reporter is found dead at an abandoned farm in England, a man who was a became friens with the cop while he was investigating the girl's disappearance.  The reporter had been undercover trying to investigate illegal migrants and loan sharking of migrants.  Banks is convinced there must be some connection to the murdered girl and he convinces his boss to let him go to Estonia to investigate while Annie and his other colleague dig for information back home.

The loan shark is murdered, his employee spills the beans about what he knows.  One of the migrant workers is found and identifies the potential murderer. Banks finds a former cop in Estonia who tells him how the disappearance was covered up and her body is located thanks to a letter from a woman who saw the crime committed and ran away rather than telling the police.  The man behind all the murders is found shot in a Russian river-- he has become a liability to his colleagues/bosses.

It was as okay story, a typical Robinson book, but I think I like the stories when they are a bit less convoluted.