The British police detective has long been a popular figure in the crime genre, with characters often crossing over from the page to the TV screen.
Holding his own in that lineup is Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, whose creator, Peter Robinson, recently published the sleuth’s 27th outing, “Not Dark Yet” (William Morrow, $29). This time, Banks and his Yorkshire team of investigators are handling three cases simultaneously, all of which may turn out to be related.
The DCI Banks series has been translated into 24 languages, with sales of more than 10 million copies. British television adapted Robinson’s novels for the series “DCI Banks” (2010-2016), which was distributed worldwide and is still available in the U.S. on some streaming services.
“The books and the TV series are like a parallel universe in which both exist but don’t meet,” Robinson says.
The multi-award-winning author, 71, who responded via email, divides his time between Great Britain and Canada.
Q: What have you been doing during the pandemic lockdown?
A: I wouldn’t say it has been a particularly good time for me as a writer. I have found it difficult to summon up the concentration necessary for an extended piece of writing, and I’m afraid I don’t have much more than a germ of an idea for the next Banks novel. I’ve been doodling away at a screenplay of my standalone novel, “Before the Poison,” in spare moments, but that’s slow work.
Q: How does “Not Dark Yet” compare to the other DCI Banks novels?
A: It’s more of a thriller than a whodunit, and there are several shocks. There is a mystery, and it is solved through good detective work and keen psychological insight, but Banks is pursuing other matters as well. We know who (the villains) are, but the question is what damage will they do to Banks and (his friend) Zelda before they are stopped, or will they get away, as they have done before?
Q: You debuted Banks in 1987, how has he evolved?
A: He’s got older, unlike some detectives who remain stuck at a certain age as the world ages around them. Banks is close to retirement now, which doesn’t mean he won’t be back working as a consultant on high-profile murders or cold cases. It does mean, however, that he has started to think more about mortality, about things done and not done, and he has become more introverted and philosophical and has come to value his solitude.
Q: How closely bonded are you with Banks? Who takes the lead when you sit together at the computer?
A: I do, but it’s definitely an odd relationship. He never talks to me, but if I’m trying to make him do something he wouldn’t do, I can feel him pushing back.
Q: Banks left the grit of the London Metropolitan Force for the countryside, but there’s no shortage of crime there, either.
A: He lives in Eastvale, a fictional town of 20,000 in the Yorkshire Dales, an area of great natural beauty in the north of England. I write a book a year, so the whole area has one or two fictional murders every year. Of course, some of the crimes are really nasty, but wasn’t it Sherlock Holmes who remarked on how “the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside”? The ingredients for murder are all there — isolation, a long history, old grudges — and the people are just as likely as anyone else to get murderous due to lust, greed or jealousy.
Q: How did you get into writing the series?
A: I was bitten by the crime-writing bug in my mid-30s, through reading Raymond Chandler and Georges Simenon, and after a few false starts I came up with Alan Banks.
Q: How did you get the expertise to write about police procedure?
A: You can divide crime writers into two groups — those who came to it via journalism and those who arrived through the study of literature. I’m of the latter. But we’re all trying to convince readers that the world they are entering is a believable one.
I do get advice from a number of working police detectives, so I always have someone to ask if there’s something I need to know. Mostly I try to concentrate on character and ignore the procedure.
Q: Your list of international literary awards is staggering. What’s your take on that piece of the profession?
A: It’s always better to win the award than not, but it doesn’t mean a lot in the long run. They are soon forgotten by the world, and any elation the author may feel lasts only until you have to batten down your ego to get back to work on your next book. That’s a humbling experience.
Q: Unlike many other police-detective series, yours includes many women of strength and authority.
A: I have tried to reflect the reality of policing today, in that there are far more women in higher positions, including the chief constables of several counties and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. I also happen to like the company of women and find them fun to write about.
