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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Whilst DCI Banks is on holiday in the US, his daughter Tracy gets caught up in an adventure with the titular boy that quickly turns sour when the pair end up on the run. Upon his return, Banks is horrified to discover what has happened - events which have repercussions not only for Tracy but also for his team. He must try to track the pair down before things end really badly for his daughter - and maybe for him too.
Bad Boy is a return to form after what was (for me, anyway) a dip in the quality of story in the last book. It is always a comfort to pick up a Banks' story and this one was fast paced and therefore I read it quite quickly. I'm sad that since the last one I read, Peter Robinson has died. Now I'm torn between wanting to read the rest of the series quickly and wanting to savour the final nine!
Bad Boy is a return to form after what was (for me, anyway) a dip in the quality of story in the last book. It is always a comfort to pick up a Banks' story and this one was fast paced and therefore I read it quite quickly. I'm sad that since the last one I read, Peter Robinson has died. Now I'm torn between wanting to read the rest of the series quickly and wanting to savour the final nine!
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I have read Peter Robinson since his first Alan Banks procedural. As with most long series, the first several were excellent. But then the plots became predictable, the writing stale, and the recurring characters boring. I stopped reading him. When I saw “Bad Boy,” I decided that after a several-year hiatus, I would try him again. Unfortunately, that was a mistake.
Robinson’s recurring women characters in “Bad Boy” are immature, trite, and badly drawn. You have his partner and former lover Annie Cabot, who continues to carry a torch for her partner, even after nearly two decades. Annie has become childish and her career stalled. She has become less of a strong woman character than she was when the author first introduced her years ago. It is as if Robinson wants Annie to rue the day he had her choose her career over Banks. Banks’ daughter, Tracy, hasn’t grown up either. She remains thirteen years old even though she is, with this outing, in her mid-twenties. In this day and age, you’d think that a woman that age would at least think twice about going about with a man in his 30s who stashed an illegal gun in his girlfriend’s flat. Tracy seems intent on punishing her father, something most kids do in their teens. By their mid-twenties, most are ready to get on with life.
Very quickly, Tracy and Annie began to grate, there were no other characters who were sympathetic so there was really no reason to continue to read the book other than Publishers’ Weekly giving the book a starred review. I continued to read wanting to get to the parts that PW’s reviewer read that resulted in the starred review. I never found them.
There are just too many very, very good authors writing excellent British procedurals (Charles Todd, Laurie R. King, P.D. James come immediately to mind) to waste time on mediocre authors and their books.
Robinson’s recurring women characters in “Bad Boy” are immature, trite, and badly drawn. You have his partner and former lover Annie Cabot, who continues to carry a torch for her partner, even after nearly two decades. Annie has become childish and her career stalled. She has become less of a strong woman character than she was when the author first introduced her years ago. It is as if Robinson wants Annie to rue the day he had her choose her career over Banks. Banks’ daughter, Tracy, hasn’t grown up either. She remains thirteen years old even though she is, with this outing, in her mid-twenties. In this day and age, you’d think that a woman that age would at least think twice about going about with a man in his 30s who stashed an illegal gun in his girlfriend’s flat. Tracy seems intent on punishing her father, something most kids do in their teens. By their mid-twenties, most are ready to get on with life.
Very quickly, Tracy and Annie began to grate, there were no other characters who were sympathetic so there was really no reason to continue to read the book other than Publishers’ Weekly giving the book a starred review. I continued to read wanting to get to the parts that PW’s reviewer read that resulted in the starred review. I never found them.
There are just too many very, very good authors writing excellent British procedurals (Charles Todd, Laurie R. King, P.D. James come immediately to mind) to waste time on mediocre authors and their books.
I love this series. They get progressively better as Robinson develops his characters. DCI Banks is a Renaissance man. He is well read and an avid music fan . I love his references to music and poetry in these books.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Alan Banks books are losing their way. Character motivations change to suit the plot, characters (especially of women) are becoming flatter and less believable, apparently meaningful connections between them are forged in a couple of stilted and unconvincing pages. After the genius of [b:Aftermath|377916|Aftermath (Inspector Banks, #12)|Peter Robinson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174310113s/377916.jpg|1346842] and [b:Friend Of The Devil|989584|Friend Of The Devil (Inspector Banks, #17)|Peter Robinson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180033217s/989584.jpg|3125167], it is disappointing to have such a humdrum book.
I don't know if I have read anything from this series before, but it's quite a nice catchy book that you get into. Not too many things that are completely unbelievable or irritating. Overall a good quick read.
It’s not bad but not outstanding. Quite a bit of repetition on what is happening which gets a bit tedious. The whole Banks family seem very self-absorbed.
Far from the best Alan Banks, but a good read. When a mother reports her daughter has brought home a handgun, the armed division of the british police swings into action, leading to tragedy. Tracey Banks, DCI Banks daughter, gets into trouble with the titular bad boy. Not really a whodunit or even a mystery, more trouble-and-how-do-we-get-out-of-it.