They both knew there was a lot more truth in that fear than either cared to explore.
“Bye, Dad,” Banks said. “I’ll be in touch.”
“Don’t be a stranger, son. And don’t worry. Your mother’ll get over it. I’ll tell her to ring you in a day or so, shall I?”
“Please do.”
His father smiled. “Or send you an e-mail?”
Banks moved forward impulsively and hugged him. It was quick, and he felt only the slightest pressure of his father’s hand on the back of his shoulder, but it was enough.
Banks dashed down the stairs and walked down the path to his car, tears prickling his eyes. He felt a weight in the side pocket of his jacket and realized it was Kay’s copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Now he decided he might as well keep it. Maybe he would even get around to reading it, over thirty years after he’d borrowed it.
When he got to the driver’s side of his car, he cursed out loud. Some bastard had taken a coin or a nail and made a deep scratch along the paintwork all the way from back to front. He thought he saw someone watching from an upstairs window of the Wyatt house.
Bugger them. Bugger the lot of them, he thought, and got into his car and drove away.
Acknowledgments
Individual stories first published in different form as: “Summer Rain” © Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, New York, December 1994. An Inspector Banks story; “Fan Mail” © Cold Blood II, ed. Peter Sellers (Mosaic Press: Oakville, Canada, 1989); “Innocence” © Cold Blood III, ed. Peter Sellers (Mosaic Press: Oakville, Canada, 1990); “Murder in Utopia” © Crime Through Time III, ed. Sharan Newman (Berkeley, New York, July 2000); “Not Safe After Dark” © Criminal Shorts, eds. Howard Engel and Eric Wright (Macmillan: Toronto, Canada, 1992); “Just My Luck” © Bouchercon XXII Souvenir Programme Book, Toronto, 1992; “Anna Said . . .” © Cold Blood IV, ed. Peter Sellers (Mosaic Press: Oakville, Canada, 1992). An Inspector Banks story; “Missing in Action” © Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, New York, November 2000; “Memory Lane” © Blue Lightning, ed. John Harvey (Slow Dancer Press, UK, 1998); “Carrion” © No Alibi, ed. Maxim Jakubowski (Ringpull: Manchester, 1995); “April in Paris” © Love and Death, ed. Carolyn Hart (Berkeley, New York, February 2001); “The Good Partner” © Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, New York, March 1994. An Inspector Banks story; “Some Land in Florida” © Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, New York, Christmas issue, 1996; “The Wrong Hands” © Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, New York, April 1998; “The Two Ladies of Rose Cottage” © Malice Domestic 6, ed. Anne Perry (New York: Pocket Books, 1997); “Lawn Sale” © Cold Blood V, eds. Peter Sellers and John North (Mosaic Press: Oakville, Canada, 1994); “Gone to the Dawgs” © The Mighty Johns, ed. Otto Penzler (New Millennium Press, Beverly Hills, CA, summer 2002); “In Flanders Fields” © Not Safe After Dark and Other Stories, by Peter Robinson (Crippen & Landru, Virginia, October 1998); “The Duke’s Wife” © Much Ado About Murder, ed. Anne Perry (Berkeley, New York, December 2002). “Going Back” first published 2004; © Eastvale Enterprises, Inc.
About the Author
One of the world’s most popular and acclaimed writers, PETER ROBINSON is the bestselling, award-winning author of the Inspector Banks series; he has also written two short-story collections and three standalone novels, which combined have sold more than ten million copies around the world. Among his many honors and prizes are the Edgar Award, the CWA (UK) Dagger in the Library Award, and Sweden’s Martin Beck Award. He divides his time between Toronto and England.
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Critical Acclaim for Peter Robinson and the Inspector Banks Series
Strange Affair
“An enjoyable mystery.”
Sunday Telegraph
“Mr. Robinson stocks [Strange Affair] with chapter-ending cliff-hangers . . . An addictive crime-novel series.”
New York Times
“The gripping story . . . shows Robinson getting more adept at juggling complex plot lines while retaining his excellent skills at characterization. The result is deeply absorbing, and the nuances of Banks’s character are increasingly compelling.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Peter Robinson is a mystery writer’s mystery writer. . . . I can’t imagine a more flawless police procedural than Strange Affair.”
Globe & Mail (Canada)
Playing with Fire
“A shotgun blast of northern realism. . . . Robinson brings a welcome injection of reality to police investigation in his fictional Yorkshire, if not the genre. God’s Own County tastes all the better with a dash of Canadian bitters.”
Independent
“An engaging pleasure. . . . Virtually every character is etched with care, precision, and emotional insight. With each book, the quietly competent Alan Banks gets more and more human; like red wine, he gets better and more interesting with age.”
Publishers Weekly
“A good, solid, satisfactory police story with a host of well-depicted minor characters and an intriguing protagonist.”
Evening Standard
“Peter Robinson gets better and better.”
Publishing News
Close to Home
“Robinson’s Inspector Banks novels have built up a rising reputation as one of the most authentic and atmospheric of crime series. The Summer That Never Was [Close to Home] engrossingly confronts its fine mind with foul acts. Procedural details aside, Banks can make Morse look almost philistine. . . . Any reader who still misses Morse should promptly resolve to go north with Banks.”
Independent
“As a crime writer, Robinson is not as granite-hard as Ian Rankin, and this is reflected in the crisp yet empathetic narration. Banks is genuinely human, rather than a hard man.”
Observer
“As he ascends the international ranks of mystery writers, Robinson quietly and methodically stretches the boundaries of crime fiction, to the point where critics now routinely compare him with P.D. James. . . . Robinson handles his story and his characters with all the respectful skill of a fine cabinetmaker.”
Aftermath
“It demonstrates how the crime novel, when done right, can reach parts that other books can’t. . . . A considerable achievement.”
Guardian
“With Aftermath, Peter Robinson emerges as a definite contender for fiction’s new top cop.”
Independent on Sunday
“A guaranteed page-turner.”
Mirror
Cold is the Grave
“Absorbing.”
Scotsman
“Exhilarating.”
Toronto Star
In a Dry Season
“A powerfully moving work.”
Ian Rankin
“A wonderful novel.”
Michael Connelly
Blood at the Root
“Every page here is readable and compelling.”
Washington Times
Innocent Graves
“Atmospheric.”
Time Out
Final Account
“Highly entertaining.”
Scotland on Sunday
Wednesday’s Child
“A dark, unsettling story. . . . Impressive.”
New York Times
Past Reason Hated
“The characterizations are unfailingly sharp and subtle.”
New York Times
The Hanging Valley
“Highly recommended.”
Kirkus Reviews
A Necessary End
“Another superior mystery.”
Publishers Weekly
“A deftly constructed plot . . . Robinson’s skill with the British police procedural has been burnished to a high gloss.”
Chicago Tribune
Gallows View
“Peter Robinson is an expert plotter with an eye for telling detail.”
New York Times
“An impressive debut.”
Publishers Weekly
The Inspector Banks Series and Also by Peter Robinson
The Inspector Banks series
Gallows View
A Dedicated Man
A Necessary End
The Hanging Valley
Past Reason Hated
Wednesday’s Child
Final Account
Innocent Graves
Blood at the Root
In a Dry Season
Cold Is the Grave
Aftermath
Close to Home
Playing with Fire
Strange Affair
Piece of My Heart
Friend of the Devil
All the Colors of Darkness
The Price of Love and Other Stories
Bad Boy
Children of the Revolution
In the Dark Places
When the Music’s Over
Also by Peter Robinson
Caedmon’s Song
No Cure for Love
Before the Poison
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
not safe after dark. Copyright © 2004 by Eastvale Enterprises. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Originally published as Not Safe in The Dark in the U.K. in 2004 by Macmillan.
first edition
Cover photograph © Hayden Verry / Arcangel
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Digital Edition DECEMBER ISBN 978-0-06-267390-9
Print ISBN 978-0-062-67389-3
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