In a Dry Season

New York: Avon Books, 1999. K6 - A first edition (stated with complete numberline) hardcover book SIGNED by Peter Robinson and inscribed to Otto (Otto Penzler) on the title page in very good condition in very good dust jacket. Dust jacket has some wrinkling and chipping on the edges and corners, tiny tear and peeling on the front top right corner, vertical wrinkling on the right side of the back flap, light discoloration and shelf wear. Book has some bumped corners, light discoloration and shelf wear. Peter Robinson, internationally acclaimed author of literary suspense, knows the serenity found in the rustic Yorkshire countryside can be deceptive. For evil can strike in the most pastoral of surroundings, and go unpunished for years - even decades. 9.5"x6.5", 422 pages. Satisfaction Guaranteed. Water is the essence of life. Yet during a dry season, when supply cannot meet demand, the precious commodity rapidly drains from a manmade reservoir to reveal a forgotten town that was sacrificed for the sake of water. A blistering summer has struck, and thirst has consumed the resources provided by the Thornfield Reservoir, unmasking the remains of Hobb's End, a small village at its bottom that ceased to exist in post World War II England. A curious child thinks of the resurfaced hamlet as a mystical playground, until he unearths as human skeleton. Modern forensics determine that the skeleton belongs to a young woman appears to have been brutally murdered and hidden beneath the floor of a decrepit outbuilding in the 1940s. it falls to a grudge-wielding police superior to select a detective for the impossible task of putting a name to the unidentifiable remains from a place that no longer exists, and whose living former residents are scattered to the winds. Having challenged the system and his superiors once too often, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks has been restricted to desk duty as punishment for insubordination, until an official telephone call lands him in the much of the decades-old murder. Given the state of affairs, any sensible policeman would throw in the towel, but not Banks. Aided by Annie Cabbot, an intuitive Detective Sergeant, Banks challenges the odds by identifying the victim and proceeds to uncover the past buried beneath a flood of time, indiscretions and denial. IN A DRY SEASON brilliantly interweaves Banks' private life with flashbacks to secrets of the past, as Peter Robinson reinvents the police procedural by instilling it with his all-too-human characters' passions, flaws, and contradictions. For when Robinson's vulnerable protagonist tackles this improbable investigation, he can no longer hide from his own long overdue self-reevaluation. Here is searing suspense from a storytelling master writing at the height of his powers: an insightful and haunting novel of past crimes and present evil.. Signed by Author. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.