Gallows View by Peter Robinson

 

Chief Inspector Alan Banks has moved from London to a small village, Eastdale, in Yorkshire.  He had anticipated that there would be less violence and an easier job but that hasn't proved true necessarily.  Currently, he is faced with finding a Peeping Tom before he escalates to more violent sexual crimes, a pair of thieves who are breaking into elderly women's homes to rob them and are assaulting them, and finally, a murder of another elderly woman.  

Alan is offered the help of a police psychologist to assist in the Peeping Tom case.  This is Jenny Fuller, who in addition to being intelligent and professional is gorgeous and there is a spark between the two.  That causes tension in Alan's marriage and with his wife, Sandra.  He also has two children. 

This is the first of twenty-eight Alan Banks novels.  Alan is an interesting character, mad for opera and intensely moral.  He has moved his family to a small village because he believes that it will be a better environment for the children to grow up in.  This is a police procedural and the violence is not dwelt on in a gory way nor is the sex there for sex's sake.  The emphasis is on solving the case and making the village safer.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.