Sandy – DaneCobain.com

Title: Not Dead Enough

Author: Peter James

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 626

Rating 3.75/5

This is another of Peter James’ Roy Grace novels and so as such, it follows Detective Superintendent Grace as he investigates a crime in his native Brighton. James is a Brighton native himself and he also spends a lot of time carrying out research so his books are as accurate as possible.

In this one, Grace has to investigate the murder of a socialite called Katie Bishop. The problem is that the main suspect, her husband Brian, seems to be innocent. Then things start to get a little bit weird, and I can’t really talk about it without sharing spoilers. Suffice to say, though, that the storyline touches on identity theft and family secrets. I’d also say that it’s one of those rare books where the investigation of the crime is more interesting than the crime itself.

In fact, I think that the most interesting part about this particular book is the side story. Each of the Roy Grace books can be read as a standalone, but you’ll get a little more out of it if you read them all in order. That’s because each of the books also covers what’s going on in the personal lives of many of Grace’s fellow coppers, but we also get a lot of Grace’s own back story including an update on his missing wife Sandy and a little bit of development when it comes to his current squeeze, Cleo.

Now like I say, I’ve read these out of order and so I kind of knew what to expect and what was coming, at least with the cops’ personal lives. Still, I’ve read enough of these books by now that I’m pretty attached to most of the characters and so it was a lot of fun to revisit them and to just hang out with them.

This is one of the longer Roy Grace books, and that poses a little bit of a problem because each of my reviews has the same number of words as the book has pages, and yet I don’t have much more to say about it because there wasn’t a whole load of stuff going on. I enjoyed reading it, but it didn’t seem to have as much substance as some of the others, so it was kind of like snacking on a big bag of crisps instead of eating a proper meal.

Because of that, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this one if you’re new to Peter James’ stuff, but if you’re working your way through the series then you also shouldn’t skip it either. It’s one of those weird books where there’s nothing necessarily wrong with it but where it feels as though it’s just business as usual. The good news is that I know from experience that the series continues to get better and to evolve and so you’ve got that to look forward to, too.

Click here to buy Not Dead Enough.

Peter James – You Are Dead | Review

Title: You Are Dead

Author: Peter James

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 520

Rating: 4*/5

Peter James – You Are Dead

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ve probably already noticed that I’ve been getting heavily into Peter James of late. Interestingly enough, I didn’t actually start with one of his crime novels – I started with The House On Cold Hill, an excerpt of which is included at the end of this novel to give potential readers a chance to preview it before buying it. Which you should do, of course – it’s a good book, just like all of James’ releases.

This book, though, is one of his Roy Grace detective novels, and it follows the story of the first serial killer to operate in Brighton in several decades. Grace and his team must track down the killer before he strikes again, but with no real leads and a huge pool of suspects – plus a number of known kidnap victims who may or may not still be alive – it’s one hell of a challenge for the Sussex police force. And then there’s the simultaneous story line about Grace’s missing ex-wife, Sandy, who may or may not have turned up alive (just!) in a hospital in Germany.

To some extent, you know exactly what you’re getting when you pick up a Peter James book; like Stephen King, he’s one of the rare breed of writers that maintains a constant high standard throughout everything he works on. This book isn’t my favourite of the Roy Grace books, but it is one of the better ones, mainly because the serial killer gives him a new angle to work with. The media gets involved, there’s widespread panic on the streets, and the killer is even given his own nickname – the Brighton Brander, because each of his victims is found with a brand on their body. A brand that says: U R Dead.

Peter James

That brings me on to one of the few negative aspects that I picked up on – the significance of the brand was never really explained, and that was one of the main things that I was hoping to have resolved by the end of the book. I think more could have been done with that, but then James left it reasonably open ended so it’s entirely possible that this will be referred to again in a future release. I also found that certain elements of this were spoiled by the fact that I read the series out of order – it can be done, and it won’t hamper your overall enjoyment, but while each book in the series is a standalone, there’s also the recurring story line of Grace’s personal life, as well as the lives of his colleagues.

Overall, though, I have a lot of time for You Are Dead. The tension – and the evil – is palpable, and James’ characters are at their best here. I even found myself feeling sorry for DS Norman Potting, which I didn’t think was actually possible. But ultimately, it was the victims that I found to be relatable, which added to the story.