Piece Of My Heart by Peter Robinson

 

In this sixteenth novel of the DCI Alan Banks series, two murders are investigated.  Thirty years ago, a young girl was found stabbed and left in a sleeping bag at one of the first Woodstock-like outdoor rock concerts.  While someone had eventually been charged and sent to prison for the crime, there was always some question if the police had gotten the right person.  

Now Banks and his team are faced with the murder of a rock journalist.  Worked at first as separate cases, eventually there seem to be ties between the two cases.  The journalist had talked to friends about his next piece having a murder.  He was writing an in-depth piece on the band, the Mad Hatters.   

This band seems to be the link tying the two cases together.  The girl killed at the rock concert was a cousin to one of the Mad Hatters and he had gotten backstage tickets for her and a friend.  The friend later joined the band.  The journalist seemed to be in the area to interview that same man from the band who had left the band after the first murder as he had a mental breakdown from all the drugs he was taking.  He is now living quietly in the area and emerges as Bank's main suspect.  Another Mad Hatter had died in a swimming pool at the estate of a wealthy landowner in the area on a drug-fueled weekend.  Are the two cases linked and will Banks have to solve them both?

This is the sixteenth case in the series.  Banks is in his element with the cases revolving around the music scene which as every fan knows, is a major part of Bank's life.  He has a new superintendent, a woman who makes it clear she doesn't care for Banks but who wants him to do whatever he needs to so that results are successful.  His son also seems to be settling down as he comes to stay with Banks and brings a girlfriend for the first time.  Readers will be interested in how the cases merge as the book progresses and how, while other things change in thirty years, murder never does.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.