In A Dry Season by Peter Robinson

 

It's been a dry season and lakes and rivers are down.  Nearby Thornfield Reservoir has dried up and the small village that was drowned when it was created has been revealed once again.  A boy playing in the houses and sheds that are now evident finds a body and Inspector Alan Banks is called out.

It's been a dry season personally for Banks as well.  His wife left him around a year ago and Banks has been adjusting to life on his own after twenty years of marriage.  His last case ended with him punching his boss and he has been reinstated but confined to desk duty and routine tasks.  

The body turns out to be that of a young woman who lived in the village in the waning years of the second world war.  Gloria was outgoing and attractive, her husband overseas and reported missing.  Had one of the soldiers she had dated killed her?  The artist who painted her nude?  Her husband who returns, shell-shocked and disabled?  Banks works with a young female inspector from the area, Annie, and begins a relationship with her.  Can they find the answers to a murder that happened so many years ago?

This is the tenth novel in the series.  It is interesting to see how Banks's life has changed and how he is adjusting to such a drastic change.  He has bought a cottage he is restoring and venturing into new relationships.  The reader sees Banks not just as a man who solves mysteries but as a father and a man discovering what his new life will be.  The mystery is interesting and has a satisfactory twist at the end.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.