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Before the Poison - by Peter Robinson - major disappointment! [A stand-alone novel -- NOT an Inspector Banks mystery]
This book started off reminding me of Laura - lonely man obsessed by dead woman, but quickly lost all narrative momentum. Briefly, a recent widower, who happens to be a mega-successful movie soundtrack composer, moves back to England and buys a huge house -which seems to be haunted by a woman who lived there and was hanged for murdering her husband in the 1950's. He embarks on a quest to prove her innocence ... and is a horrible detective. Robinson seems more interested in how many musical references his narrator can drop into a chapter, or the quality of his wine & food choices, rather than constructing a compelling mystery. The ersatz plot wanders around, with infusions from the dead woman's diary (actually more interesting than the contemporary mystery), to a contrived ending.
N.B. If you read this on a Kindle Fire, or other tablet, it can be fun to listen to the music mentioned in the book as you read - that, at least, was interesting.
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