When the Music's Over

When the Music's Over
Peter Robinson
William Morrow
Harper Collins Publishers
ISBN: 978-0-06-239478-1
2016
$ 25.99
421 pages

'When the music's over, it's time to have some fun.'
For Detective Superintendent Banks, his new promotion is overwhelming.   He is in charge of the Danny Caxton case. 
Danny Caxton is now an elderly, retired celebrity who now faces accusations of rape from fifty-years-ago.   Obviously, there is little evidence so till available from that time and fewer witnesses.
One victim, Linda Palmer has come forward.  She has lived a fruitful and well-adjusted life, working as a poet who vividly remembers the event.  As a young fourteen-year-old with dreams of stardom, this could be her chance to audition and to become a star.   Caxton appealed to her ambition, but the cost was being a victim of sexual abuse.   She was young and inexperienced.   Caxton took advantage of her through his charismatic personality on television.
With the media appeal, Banks realizes that this is a delicate investigation requiring immense patience in building a case to prosecute Caxton.
On a rural road, a young woman is found, dead.   Her body is naked and after being sexual with three different partners, and possibly thrown from a vehicle and then beaten and killed later.   Who is she?   Why has no one identified her after days of her discovery?
These two cases consume Banks and those investigators working with him.
When the Music's Over is a realistic investigation involving many of the problems of today such as poverty, immigration, prejudice, racism, ignorance, and drug abuse.  With no easy solutions, these problems frequently spill over into the criminal world.
The characters are well-developed in this tightly-written mystery.  The pacing is superb running parallel to the revelations throughout the investigation.
Author Peter Robinson resides in both Toronto and England while writing his twenty-three Inspector Banks novels winning numerous international awards and honors including the Edgar Award, the CWA Dagger in the Library Award.
When the Music's Over is for an adult audience.  The book has descriptive events and tragedies not appropriate for children.  These are events that are natural in the life of a law enforcement officer.