Peter Robinson Books In Order – Complete List

Bestselling author Peter Robinson is popular for his Inspector Banks series, which currently includes 28 books, with the last novel published in 2023 titled Standing in the Shadows.

Peter Robinson passed away in October 2022.

Here are the Peter Robinson Inspector Banks books in order of publication (the reading order is the same as the publication order). The series is set in the fictional English town called Eastvale. Generally, Peter Robinson’s books and short story collections are more or less related to the Inspector Banks.

Latest Peter Robinson Books

Standing in the Shadows (Inspector Banks #28), 2023
Ink and Daggers (anthology), 2023

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Peter Robinson’s Inspector Banks Books in Publication Order

  1. Gallows View , 1987
  2. A Dedicated Man, 1988
  3. A Necessary End, 1989
  4. The Hanging Valley, 1989
  5. Past Reason Hated, 1991
  6. Wednesday’s Child, 1992
  7. Dry Bones That Dream, 1994
  8. Innocent Graves , 1996
  9. Dead Right aka Blood at the Root, 1997
  10. In A Dry Season, 1999
  11. Cold is the Grave, 2000
  12. Aftermath, 2001
  13. The Summer That Never Was, 2003
  14. Playing With Fire, 2004
  15. Strange Affair, 2005
  16. Piece of My Heart, 2006
  17. Friend of the Devil, 2007
  18. All the Colours of Darkness, 2008
  19. Bad Boy, 2010
  20. Watching the Dark, 2012
  21. Children of the Revolution, 2013
  22. Abattoir Blues, 2014 (new publication title: In the Dark Places)
  23. When the Music’s Over, 2016
  24. Sleeping in the Ground, 2017
  25. Careless Love, 2019
  26. Many Rivers to Cross, 2019
  27. Not Dark Yet, 2021
  28. Standing in the Shadows, 2023

Short Stories and Novellas in Order of Publication

Short Story Collections and Anthologies in Order of Publication

Standalone Novels in Publication Order

Peter Robinson Biography – About the Author

Peter Robinson books in order

Canadian-British author Peter Robinsons was born in Armley, Leeds, England in 1950. He grew up in Yorkshire, where his Inspector Banks series is also set. After getting his BA in English Literature at the University of Leeds, in 1974 he moved to Canada, where he got his master’s degree in English and Creative writing from the University of Windsor.

Next, he moved back to the UK but couldn’t find a teaching job, so he returned to Canada and got a Ph.D. in English at York University in Toronto. It was much easier to find jobs in Canada, so the author would go back and forth between the two countries until he eventually fully settled in Canada.

Before writing his Banks series, he wrote poems and published his own work. When, one summer, he went back to Yorkshire, he found his father reading a Raymond Chandler book. Next, he picked up many different British crime books by various authors and was hooked. He started writing as well, but the first three books were duds. Then he wrote A Dedicated Man (a book that became book #2 in the Inspector Banks series), and soon Penguin in Canada picked it up, along with the rest of the series.

Inspector Banks was born through Peter Robinson reading many crime novels set in England in the 1980s with detectives working cases at the police station. Thus, he figured that a new crime mystery series set in Yorkshire, where he grew up, would be enjoyable to British crime mystery readers.

When he started the series, the author was already living in Canada. However, he was still nostalgic for the UK of his past. He also knew his home country much better than his new uprooted country.

Several books in the Inspector Banks series take their plots from real-life crimes reported in newspapers but are incomplete in their storylines. The author takes the stories and through his creativity, takes the plots to new interesting directions.

In an interview, Peter Robinson mentioned that in order to write successful crime mystery novels, you need to have a morbid imagination that leaves no space for squeamishness.

The Price of Love, the collection of short stories, includes several about Inspector Banks. In addition, Not Safe After Dark is all about Inspector Alan Banks.

Besides writing his Inspector Banks series, standalone novels, and short stories, he was also occasionally teaching crime writing at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. The author lived in Toronto, Richmond, and North Yorkshire with his wife until October 2022 when he passed away.

Peter Robinson Awards and Nominations

Several of his Inspector Banks novels have been nominated for and won various crime fiction awards, including the Anthony Award, the Arthur Ellis Award, the TORGI Talking Book Award, the Macavity Award for Best Short Story, the Barry Award, the Swedish Martin Beck Award, Spoken Word Bronze Award, CWA (UK) Dagger in The Library Award, and have been nominated for the Agatha Award. The book In a Dry Season has been a New York Times Notable Book. The author was shortlisted for the John Creasey Award, among others. Here is the full list of awards won:

  • Innocence – Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story in 1990
  • Innocence – Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Short Story in 1991
  • Past Reason Hated – Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel in 1991
  • Past Reason Hated – Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel in 1992
  • Innocent Graves – Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel in 1997
  • The Two Ladies of Rose Cottage – Macavity Award for Best Short Story in 1998
  • In a Dry Season – Anthony Award for Best Novel in 2000
  • In a Dry Season – Barry Award for Best Novel in 2000
  • Missing in Action – Edgar Award for Best Short Story in 2000
  • Cold is the Grave – Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel in 2001
  • Murder in Utopia – Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Short Story in 2001
  • Before the Poison – Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel in 2012
  • Before the Poison – Martin Beck Award in 2012
  • Sleeping in the Ground – Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel in 2018

TV Adaptations vs the Book Series

The ITV DCI Banks TV series includes 5 seasons. While the show follows the general plotlines and characters of the books, there are some differences between the two.

The books take place in the fictional Yorkshire town of Eastvale, while the TV show is set in the real town of Leeds. The show also features more modern technology, such as smartphones and computers, compared to the books.

Authors Similar to Peter Robinson

50 Comments

  1. Where does Blood at the Root come in the order of things? Why is there no mention of this book I. Your order of books?

    1. Blood at the Root is Dead Right, book #9 in the series. I can’t always keep track of every new title that any given book is renamed at. A newer printing changed the title from Dead Right to Blood at the Root. It is now mentioned in the listing as well.

  2. are you planning to write a new book this year Peter as I am having withdrawal symptoms now that I have read all the books in the series

  3. Are there any plans for another book this year?

  4. I so agree. Banks lives in a rural town in north Yorkshire, not a big city near Leeds. The tv show is far too gritty. Neither actor is right, for banks or Annie

  5. Am re-reading all in correct order this time. Make much more sense! Love the books but can’t get into TV series. He is SO wrong for Alan Banks – character and height!!

  6. Not sure if I am remembering correctly, but our first glimpse of Lucy is when as a small child she is kept in a cage along with other children at a quasi double house somewhere —–what is the name of that book ????

    Then we meet Lucy in Aftermath. Ok no problem

    Lastly she turns-up murdered herself ——– what is the name of that book anyone ??????

    I think I have my facts straight, if not can someone please set me straight by sending me an email.

    Thanks

    Roy Brown

    1. The book in which Lucy is murdered is called “Friend of the Devil”!

  8. September 4th 2014

    I looked at the books in order because I wanted to read them from the start. I have a listing for a book called Caedmons Song, an Inspector Banks mystery?? I can’t find it in the list above so don’t know where it fits in. can anyone help please.

    1. Caedmon’s Song is not a DCI Banks book. It is a standalone novel, published in 1990. I know Amazon lists it as part of the DCI Banks series, but it is listed as such wrongly. (you can find the book listed here in the Other Works by Peter Robinson section)

  9. last book Banks was getting married and had a baby, Noah. this next book Abattoir Blues he has an Italian girlfriend..

    where are the wife and son????? will I know when I finish this book?

    2. I also was surprised that Annie and her Daughter Isla did not feature as Bankses new family in this latest story.(which is titled ‘In The Dark places’ in the US. What is the explanation of this? I kept thinking I must have missed a book. My feeling is that this latest story does not have the intrigue and ‘staying power’ of all the others. It is shallow and lacking in the interaction of relationships , both familial and professional, that we are used to in the previous novels. In my opinion the plot is thin and boring – the pothole scene, while producing a spark of inventiveness, has a very predictable outcome.
      I love the tv series and wish there were more. I especially appreciate the incredible landscape photography- brilliant! It gives great depth to the tv series. I think Stephen Tompkinson, while not looking at all like the description of Banks as a short dark haired Welsh man, plays the part perfectly.

      1. Annie having a daughter does not happen in the books, the TV writers created that. I think the DCI Banks is portrayed as too miserable in the tv show, I much prefer the books.

        1. Me too, Kathryn,
          BTW, does anyone know the title of his novel about the Mitford sisters…or is there, perhaps another Peter Robinson?

  10. I always enjoy Peter’s book, the Yorkshire settings are well and warmly depiceted. Iam very much looking forwards to meeting him in Malton on the 6th of next month and bying his latest book.
    Just wish his inspector Banks had been better representated in the t.v series. Well done Peter and many thanks.
    Ren Entwistle. Ampleforth

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