'The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I'm wrong' - Stephen King

When a body is found, Banks must confront his past.

A skeleton has been unearthed. Soon the body is identified, and the horrific discovery hits the headlines.

Fourteen-year-old Graham Marshall went missing during his paper round in 1965. The police found no trace of him. His disappearance left his family shattered and his best friend, Alan Banks, full of guilt.

That friend has now become Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, and he is determined to bring justice for Graham. But he soon realizes that in this case the boundaries between victim and perpetrator, between law-guardian and law-breaker, are becoming increasingly blurred . . .

In The Summer That Never Was, Alan Banks must return home and face the greatest fear of his childhood. If you enjoyed it, then you'll love the next instalment in the Banks series - which became the major British ITV drama DCI Banks - Playing With Fire.

*****

Critical acclaim for the Inspector Banks series:

'A powerfully moving work' - Ian Rankin

'Top-notch police procedure' - Jeffery Deaver

'A wonderful novel' - Michael Connelly

'An addictive crime-novel series' - The New York Times

'A guaranteed page-turner' - Daily Mirror

'Demonstrates how the crime novel, when done right, can reach parts that other books can't . . . A considerable achievement' - The Guardian

'One of the most authentic and atmospheric of crime series' - Independent

'The master of police procedural' - The Mail on Sunday

'Near, perhaps even at, the top of the British crime writers' league' - The Times

'Banks is genuinely human, rather than a hard man' - The Observer