Blood At The Root by Peter Robinson

 It was a horrific murder.  A young man, home for the weekend to visit his parents and play football on the local team, is found dead in an alley.  He has been beaten and kicked to death.  Who could have done such a thing?  The man and a friend had been in an encounter earlier that night with three Pakistani youths and there was bad blood between the two groups.  Were they the culprits?  Was it someone who thought he might have money and be an easy target as he stumbled drunk from the pub?  Where was his friend and did he have anything to do with it?

As DCI Alan Banks and his team start to investigate, secrets start to be uncovered.  The victim had led a secret life, letting his parents think he had a job and an apartment in the next town over.  But he had lost his job months ago and moved.  He was a Neo-Nazi and a true believer in their philosophy.  Had that hate filled life been at the root of his death?  Banks thinks that may be most likely but he also has issues going on in his personal life.  His wife of many years has suddenly asked for a separation and left to go live with her parents.  Is everything falling apart?

This is the ninth book in the DCI Banks series.  The reader is taken to Amsterdam where Banks reminisces about his early years and learns more about the Neo Nazi movement.  There is an undercover policeman in the local group and Banks has to step carefully not to put him in danger.  The victim was not a sympathetic one but a policeman works on every case, not just the ones that appeal to him.  The book ends with a showdown with Banks and a superior who has never liked him and Banks feels that he is losing everything in his life.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.