Personal Lives – DaneCobain.com

Title: Dead Simple

Author: Peter James

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 470

Rating 4/5

This is the first Peter James book, and I was actually quite impressed by how good it was. As a general rule, I’ve found that he got better and better as time went on, so I was surprised to find that his first was pretty good. The main problems that I spotted were a couple of typos, but they didn’t really hamper my enjoyment.

It was also interesting because it was set back in 2005, which would have been when it was written. Mobile phones had physical keypads on them and the smoking ban was yet to take effect. Then there’s the fact that we’re introduced to a bunch of characters that appear throughout the rest of the series, and so it was good to get to know them from that initial meeting.

The good news is that you don’t need to read them in order if you don’t want to, and I’ve just been picking them up every time I see them in charity shops. It’s not a bad way of doing it, but it’s also not the best, because you’ll spoil yourself for bits of the characters’ personal lives.

The plot in this one revolves around what at first glance appears to be a stag night prank gone wrong. The groom has been buried alive in a coffin and the stag party, the only ones who know where he is, have been killed in a car crash. Enter Detective Superintendent Roy Grace of the Brighton police force, as he tries to figure out what’s going on in a race against time.

There were plenty of twists and turns to keep you going throughout this novel, and I was also taken by surprise by the big reveal at the end. James does a great job of setting your expectations and then subverting them, and I think it’s that which makes him a decent crime writer. That’s especially difficult to pull off when, as in this novel, the reader gets to see from the point of view of the suspects, as well as the police force.

All in all, this was a pretty solid book and a decent start to the Roy Grace series, although I also think that it gets better over time. Seeing as it’s the first book in the series, I don’t know why you wouldn’t start here, but if you are tempted to skip in then that’s fine too. Just make sure that you come back to it eventually, because it really is worth reading. It’s a decent example of what a crime novel should be and I know it’s easy to say looking back, but it seems obvious he was destined for great things.

Click here to buy Dead Simple.

Peter James – Dead Tomorrow | Review

Title: Dead Tomorrow

Author: Peter James

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 664

Rating: 4*/5

Peter James – Dead Tomorrow

Dead Tomorrow is one of Peter James’ Roy Grace crime novels, and so if you’ve read one of them before then you should know roughly what to expect. This book in particular follows Grace and his team of Brighton policemen as they investigate a series of crimes that appear to be related to human trafficking for the purpose of killing kids and harvesting their organs to sell them on the black market. Grace and his team get involved after a body is discovered by a dredging boat and the autopsy reveals that their organs have been removed with some serious surgical skill.

Meanwhile, a mother is nursing her daughter through a tough time. Her liver is failing and while she is on the waiting list for a new one, she’s been let down a couple of times and hope is starting to run out. I think you can see where this is going.

I’m not going to tell you any more than that because I’m already at risk of revealing spoilers, but I will say is that it’s interesting because it gives the reader a unique insight into the story. There’s a real sense of dramatic irony, because none of the characters is able to see the full picture, but it works well here and it even helps to heighten the tension at times. It’s also interesting because the lack of available organs – and the black market trade – are both real world problems, and James does a great job of highlighting the issues through the medium of entertainment. I have a lot of respect for anyone who can make learning things fun, as well as for anyone who can use fiction to hold a mirror up to the world and make their readers ask questions. James does a great job of both of them.

Peter James

This isn’t my favourite of Peter James’ Roy Grace novels, but it’s definitely in the top half of them. At times, the plot seems a little predictable, but crime novels need to fit a formula to a certain extent and it’s also a byproduct of the way in which the story is revealed to the reader. Here, it works well, and while I’d already progressed further into the series before I got to this book, there were plenty of little gems that taught me more about the world that Roy Grace and his team live in. One thing that James does well is to show the backgrounds and the personal lives of each of his characters, and it’s not just the main ones that get the treatment. Even the most minor characters have a fully-fleshed backstory behind them.

The book is also made a little more interesting by the fact that the action takes place in multiple countries. Grace himself is forced to fly to Germany in the middle of the investigation, and Romania is also featured as a key aspect to the story line. But as usual, the majority of the action takes place in Brighton – that’s Grace’s beat, and it’s also where James lives and works. That helps him to write convincingly about the area, and his high level of research – which includes the author working with real life policemen – helps to mark his work apart from that of his contemporaries.

Overall, this is a decent crime thriller with a lot going for it, but it’s not necessarily one you should go out of your way for if you’re new to Peter James’ work. It would make more sense to start at the beginning, but if you see a copy of this going spare then get your hands on it and, if not, work your way through to it. It’s a rewarding little read, and even though it’s long, it’s pretty easy to whizz through it. James’ clear and concise writing style allows you to fall into the story.