Number 9

The Daily Mail has published an article about the Top 10 criminal masterminds , listing “the world’s most successful living crime writers.” Peter Robinson comes in at number 9 in this list, which contains such renowned authors as David Baldacci, Patricia Cornwall, Ian Rankin, Michael Connolly and others.

The Mail says the following about Peter:

Age/Nationality/Sales: 63, British/Canadian, 10m sales worldwide.

Crimefighter: DCI Alan Banks moves to the town of Eastvale for a ‘quiet life’ – naturally, his arrival has the same effect on the murder rate as Hercule Poirot checking into your hotel.

For fans of… normal cops. Banks isn’t a kung fu ace, forensic whiz, or at loggerheads with the universe.

Killer book: Gallows Views. The Yorkshire tourist board can’t have enjoyed Banks’s debut, as peeping toms, glue-sniffers, and murderers run riot in a sleepy village.

Deadly detail: Biology teacher has a cellar full of dead blondes.

Screen violence: Stephen Tompkinson is appropriately down-to-earth in ITV’s hit adaptation of the Inspector Banks novels.