A drought caused the remains of a town flooded to create a reservoir to emerge. As a boy plays among the ruins seeking a treasure, he find the treasure, but he also finds a skeleton. Jimmy Riddle puts the disgraced DI Alan Banks on the case. No missing persons reports fit the skeletal remains, but as they look over historical records, DI Banks and DS Annie Cabbot believe the young woman may be someone who lived in that house.They must search for persons who lived in the town who knew the young woman and determine if the woman's killer is alive or deceased.It's a pretty good mystery, but I could do without romantic/sexual interests thrown into the mix. ( )

This is No. 10 in the Inspector Alan Banks series. I have not read any of the others, but this was handed to me with a recommendation by a friend who borrows a lot of books from me, so I felt I should give it a go.

In the late 20th century, a Yorkshire village that had been flooded to create a reservoir in the 1950's re-emerges during a dry spell, and a young boy playing among the ruins discovers the skeletal remains of a murder victim. Who was she? How long has she been there? Did no one ever miss her when she disappeared? Who killed her? Why? All the usual questions. The investigation takes us back to World War II, as DI Banks searches for the answers.

I found the story premise intriguing, but it needed to be tightened up a bit in the telling. And probably because I hadn't read any of the earlier books and didn't have an attachment for the main character, his personal story line just got in the way for me. Even though elements of that personal story were left unresolved at the end, I don't feel much inclined to explore this series further. I have been told by others who have read more of it that this installment is one of the best. 3 stars is all I can give it.
Read and reviewed in 2011
Note for 2023: Other respected readers have recently encouraged me to read this series, and I mean to begin at the beginning very soon.

Quite good. ( )

In this early novel, DCI Banks is in "career Siberia", an unspoken discipline for past infractions. Chief Constable Riddle gives him what appears to be a dead-end case as a further sign of ill-will. A skeleton has been found in a village that has been flooded to form a reservoir for the past fifty years and is now dried up. His sidekick is DS Annie Cabbot, who because of her past record with the police, is regarded as another kind of punishment for Banks. The story is told in alternating parts: the modern investigation and the account of one of the principal characters of the crime scene. It was an interesting look back at Yorkshire in wartime and the modern understanding of the times. ( )

The village of Hobb's End was abandoned and flooded to make way for a reservoir. With the drought in Yorkshire, the water levels have receded, and a body has been discovered in the outbuilding of one of the houses. Alan Banks is assigned to the case, as is one of the local detective sergeants, Annie Cabbot. The case takes them through the Second World War, present-day secrets, and a personal relationship.

While the Second World War story was interesting, as such stories often are, I found the story of Banks and Cabbot hooking up to be inappropriate, primarily because they are working on a case together. If they were on different forces and did not work together regularly, it would be less weird, although the difference in rank does introduce a power dynamic that could be problematic.

I very nearly didn't finish this book because the personal subplot was making me cringe so much, and also it was over 500 pages in my edition, which felt excessive. This is one I won't be holding onto. ( )