About this title: This novel of psychological suspense was written by the British author best known for the Inspector Banks series. The story of Kirsten, a university student who narrowly escaped death at the hands of a serial killer known as the "Student Slasher" is intercut with the story of Martha Browne, a woman carrying out a mysterious mission of revenge. THE FIRST CUT was previously published in the United Kingdom and Canada under the title CAEDMON'S SONG.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: Book Club (BCE/BOMC)
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Perennial, N. Y.
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780739446416ISBN:073944641X
Description: Cover Art. Very Good in Very Good jacket. Hard Back. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. The hard cover and the jacket has very little shelf wear...................We are very careful when we list our books, but sometimes something minor may get by.. read more
"Published in the UK as "Caedmon's Song", this Peter Robinson book branches away from the Inspector Banks books. "The First Cut" is a psychological mystery...dealing with the thoughts and emotions of a young girl after she's been attacked. Although it wasn't hard to figure out what was going on, the book is written in such a way as to entice you into quickly turning the pages until the very end...where it leaves you wondering and thinking. Robinson has the ability to write in such a flowing manner that each and every one of his books is one that i fly through."
"UK Title Caedmon's Song. Unlike most other of Robinson's crime novels, this doesn't feature his regular Inspector Banks.
That turns out to be a very good thing, as it frees up the narrative methods, and the characterizations, from the pretty standard procedural confines of the Banks books. (Not to say Banks titles are bad, but they are pretty confined fare.)
A kind of modulated back-&-forth --every other chapter is narrated by one of a pair of characters, each identified at the chapter's start---- takes you right into a relatively straight seeming 'pair' of parallel story-lines.
This is nothing new in Mystery novels. There are a myriad of victim-killer-victim-killer style shared-narratives out there. But Robinson does a neat trick with Time as the paths converge here..... I don't think I've ever seen the timeline reconstructed in other 'multi-path' narrations as it is, and cleverly so, done here... and the story flies.
Sorry to leave it at that, but any more would start to give it away... This has a lot going for it, not at all apparent in the early chapters. The pace and suspense are neatly turned as the story progresses, the characters are compelling, and the atmosphere is moody & complex--- the Yorkshire coast and the historic town of Whitby provide a singular backdrop for the proceedings.
"This was later released in the U.S. under the title The First Cut. It is the only Robinson novel that wass not part of the Inspector Alan Banks series (although its events became relevant to the story told in 2008's Friend of the Devil), but the atmosphere of Whitby, England, and the interweaving and converging of apparently unrelated story lines make for a fascinating story."
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