Gallows View

Peter Robinson's novel is set in Eastvale, a small market town in the Yorkshire Dales of northern England, where three seemingly separate criminal cases converge around Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, a former London policeman who relocated to the countryside six months earlier.

The story opens with three parallel threads. A voyeur watches a woman named Carol Ellis undress through a gap in her curtains before fleeing into the night. Alice Matlock, an 87-year-old woman who lives alone in one of the Gallows View cottages, hears someone running outside and then a knock at her door. Banks, at home with his wife Sandra, learns that Carol is the fourth peeping victim. A local feminist group led by Dorothy Wycombe has been publicly accusing the police of indifference, and Banks notes the near-impossibility of catching a voyeur who leaves no physical evidence.

Banks also investigates a string of break-ins targeting elderly women living alone. He interviews a fence in Leeds named Crutchley, who describes the young man who sold him stolen jewelry. Meanwhile, Superintendent Gristhorpe introduces Banks to Dr. Jenny Fuller, a psychology professor at York University hired to develop a profile of the peeper. Gristhorpe privately notes that Jenny's connection to Wycombe's feminist circle will help deflect public criticism.

The town's domestic entanglements surface through Graham Sharp, a shopkeeper at number eight Gallows View who has raised his 15-year-old son Trevor alone since Trevor's mother left. Graham quarrels with Trevor over his failing schoolwork and his friendship with Mick Webster, a rough 16-year-old from the East Side Estate. Mick relays instructions from his older brother Lenny, a petty criminal with contacts in London: They are to stop robbing old women and move on to wealthier, empty houses. Lenny has also acquired a large handgun.

When Alice Matlock is found dead at the foot of her table, her skull fractured and her home ransacked, Banks is called to the scene. Jenny explains that prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces, is common in elderly people and may explain why Alice opened her door to a stranger. Detective Constable Philip Richmond interviews the Gallows View neighbors and finds discrepancies: Andrea Rigby heard running on the adjoining street around 11 o'clock followed by knocking; Henry Wooller, the local librarian, claims he heard nothing but behaves evasively; and Graham says he and Trevor were watching television, though he initially omits Trevor's presence.

Over several meetings, Banks and Jenny discuss the psychology of voyeurism. Jenny warns that while the peeper is unlikely to escalate to murder, he could progress to more aggressive acts. She suggests identifying local men aged 20 to 35 living alone or with a single parent and staking out pubs the peeper has targeted. Banks assigns these tasks while struggling with his growing attraction to Jenny. After one meeting, he visits her house for coffee but tells her he is married and cannot pursue a relationship. Jenny accepts this gracefully.

The teenagers' crimes escalate. Trevor and Mick break into the Ottershaws' large home while the family is on holiday, stealing cash and jewelry and vandalizing the property. The following Monday, they break into the home of Thelma Pitt, a once-wealthy local woman who returns early and surprises them. They tie her up, and Trevor rapes her. Mick kicks her in the head before they flee.

Revisiting Alice Matlock's cottage, Banks notices a crucial difference: Alice's fragile keepsakes, a ship in a bottle and a glass-encased Dales scene, are untouched, unlike the wanton destruction at the Ottershaws'. He concludes that Alice's killer is someone else entirely.

The peeper targets Sandra Banks. She spots him on the roof of a back extension and screams; he escapes into the darkness. Banks and Sandra decide not to report the incident, fearing professional embarrassment.

Thelma Pitt comes to the station five days after her assault. She provides a vital detail: She has recently contracted gonorrhea, meaning her rapist is now infected. She describes two teenagers in balaclavas, one lean and tall with dental decay between his front teeth. Banks alerts venereal-disease clinics across the region to watch for a young man matching the description.

Trevor wakes with gonorrhea symptoms and, terrified of his father finding out, takes a bus to a clinic in York under a false name. The suspicious doctor contacts police, and York's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) detains him. Banks and Sergeant Hatchley bring Trevor back to Eastvale and summon Graham. Trevor refuses to confess, but Graham inadvertently names Mick as a bad influence, and Banks sends officers to arrest Mick.

Three crises then erupt simultaneously. Robin Allott, a shy young college teacher and Camera Club member whom Sandra befriended, arrives at the Banks home to borrow a slide projector. In the darkened room, he pulls a kitchen knife and forces Sandra to undress in the projector's beam, telling her she resembles a woman from his childhood who first stirred his sexual feelings. He breaks down before going further, dropping the knife and sobbing. Sandra grabs his heavy camera and strikes him, knocking him unconscious. At the same time, Mick, high on amphetamines, sees police approaching his house, flees across The Green, and breaks into Jenny's home, taking her hostage at gunpoint.

Banks receives both emergencies in quick succession. Reasoning that Sandra is safe while Jenny's life is in immediate danger, he sends Richmond to his wife and rushes to Jenny's house. Jenny provokes Mick's confusion while Banks tosses a cassette box through the broken window. Mick fires at the noise, but the gun backfires and mangles his hand. Gristhorpe and Hatchley secure the scene. Banks brings Jenny home with him; Sandra embraces him at the door, and Jenny stays the night.

Robin confesses to all the peeping incidents and provides a crucial lead: On the night Alice died, he saw a man near her house under a streetlamp, medium height with light brown hair and a beige overcoat. Jenny interviews Robin professionally; he traces his voyeurism to a childhood fixation on a woman he watched undressing from across the street.

With Mick cooperating from his hospital bed and stolen jewelry recovered from his house, the burglary and rape cases close. Lenny Webster is arrested in London with a cache of drugs and confirms a partnership with Larry Moxton in fencing stolen goods. Moxton is a con man Banks convicted years ago who has been living in Eastvale under the alias Lewis Micklethwaite. Trevor is charged and bound over to youth authorities.

The final piece falls into place when Robin's mother arrives at the station insisting her son was home every night, despite his confession. Her fierce protectiveness triggers Banks's realization: Graham Sharp would go to similar lengths to shield Trevor. Banks summons Graham, and Robin immediately identifies him as the man he saw near Alice's house. Graham confesses. Alice had overheard Trevor bragging about the robberies and tells Graham she will report the boy. That Monday night, Graham goes to her cottage wearing gloves to beg for her silence. Confused by her failing memory, Alice does not recognize him and grows agitated. Graham loses his temper and grabs her; she falls backwards, cracking her skull on the table edge. He stages the scene to resemble a burglary. Banks tells him the bitter truth: Given Alice's advancing memory loss, she would likely have forgotten the incident by morning. Graham killed her for nothing. With all three cases resolved, Banks walks home through the drizzle listening to La Traviata, feeling the familiar lightness that comes at the end of a case.