VJ Books presents Peter Robinson!

Born in Castleford, Yorkshire in 1950, Peter Robinson studied at the University of Leeds before emigrating to Canada in 1974 and took his MA in English and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor, with Joyce Carol Oates as his tutor, then a PhD in English at York University. He is best known for his crime novels set in and around the fictional Yorkshire town of Eastvale, and featuring the detective inspector Alan Banks, introduced in his first novel, Gallows View (1987). A Necessary End and The Hanging Valley, both Inspector Banks novels, followed in 1989. He has also published a number of other novels and short stories—in 2001, "Missing in Action" won the Edgar Award for Best Short Story—as well as some poems and two articles on writing.

Caedmon's Song, the first departure from the series, was published in 1990 and was also nominated for an Arthur. The fifth Inspector Banks novel, Past Reason Hated, won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel in 1992. The sixth, Wednesday's Child, was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Final Account appeared in 1994 and won an Author's Award from the Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Letters in 1995.

The eighth Inspector Banks novel, Innocent Graves (1996) was nominated for a Hammett Award for "literary excellence in the field of crime writing" by the International Association of Crime Writers, and won the author his second Arthur Ellis Award for best novel  In a Dry Season, the tenth in the series, won the Anthony and Barry awards for best novel and was nominated for the Edgar, Hammett, Macavity and Arthur Ellis Awards. Cold is the Grave won the Arthur Ellis Award after that and was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award. Aftermath appeared in 2002 and made the top ten in both the UK and Canadian bestseller lists, where it reached number one.

In 2002, Robinson was awarded the "Dagger in the Library" by the Crime Writers' Association. The thirteenth, The Summer that Never Was, appeared on the New York Times expanded bestseller list in February 2003, and on both the UK and Canadian bestseller lists and was nominated for an Arthur Ellis and an Anthony award. Playing with Fire was published in January, 2004. The books have been translated into fifteen languages.

Robinson has also published many short stories. "Innocence" won the CWC Best Short Story Award, [1991. "The Two Ladies of Rose Cottage," which appeared in Malice Domestic 6, edited by Anne Perry, in April 1997, won the Macavity Award and was nominated for both the Agatha and Arthur Ellis awards. His first collection of short stories, Not Safe After Dark and Other Stories, was published in 1998 by Crippen & Landru and in September 2004, in an expanded edition, by McClelland & Stewart in Canada and Macmillan in the UK. "Murder in Utopia" won Robinson his fifth Arthur Ellis Award in 2001, and the same year "Missing in Action" won the Edgar Award.

Robinson lives in the Beaches area of Toronto with his wife, Sheila Halladay, and he occasionally teaches crime writing at the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies.

All the Colors of Darkness

Close to Home Signed First Edition

Strange Affair Signed First Edition

Piece of My Heart Signed First Edition

Playing with Fire Signed First Edition

Bad Boy Signed First Edition