Inspector Alan Banks Series Books in Order

The Inspector Alan Banks series by Peter Robinson is one of British crime fiction's most sustained and acclaimed achievements — twenty-seven novels following DCI Alan Banks of the North Yorkshire Police through cases that span four decades of investigation and allow Robinson to document the changing social landscape of England with the consistency and depth only a long-running series can achieve. Robinson writes the Yorkshire setting with the geographical and cultural specificity of deep local knowledge.

Banks himself is one of crime fiction's most fully realized series protagonists — his personal life, his relationships, his tastes in music and literature, and his evolving understanding of justice all develop across the series with the patience of genuine literary character work. Robinson does not shy from permanent change: marriages end, colleagues die, Banks ages and is marked by his experiences.

The BBC television adaptation DCI Banks with Stephen Tompkinson found a large audience and introduced many readers to the novels, which consistently exceed the adaptation in depth and atmosphere. Begin with Gallows View (1987).