SUMMER RAIN is an intriguing short story that explores the Lake District in England, a land of glaciated features, drystone walls and villages nestling in valleys. In SUMMER RAIN Peter Robinson's excellent police detective, Inspector Banks, is for once not too busy, so when a youngish American comes in with some wild story about having been murdered in Swainsdale in a previous life Banks admits that the story piques his interest.

Whether reincarnation is real or not, an allegation of a murder of a hippie in the 1960s might jog some memories. Banks asks an older police officer about the tale. A young man did die, having come to visit his parents; he was known to use drugs and had lived in a commune. But he just fell down the stairs. Banks decides to keep an open mind - because the American, Jerry Singer, had mentioned going upstairs and falling, in connection with the case. He heads off with Detective Constable Susan Gay to question the parents of the deceased, Joseph Atherton, who died in 1969.

There is not much detecting in this tale, but plenty of atmosphere. The hill farm where the young man died is a monument to regret. Yorkshire people are tough, maybe too tough and dogged for their own good. With the decline of small farming, and the lack of an heir, it's easy for the reader to wonder if the elderly folks should have gone to an old folks' home for some ease in their last years. But this would mean leaving not just a way of life but everything they'd ever known.

After the end of SUMMER RAIN we get an excerpt from Peter Robinson's next full length work, which is called In The Dark Places and continues the popular Inspector Banks series. I can't wait.