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Peter James – Dead Man’s Footsteps | Review

Title: Dead Man’s Footsteps

Author: Peter James

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 582

Rating: 4*/5

Peter James – Dead Man’s Footsteps

At first, I wasn’t sure whether I was going to be able to get into this. After all, I’d just finished reading another lengthy crime novel, and while I am a pretty big fan of Peter James’ writing, I wasn’t as immediately sold on the concept here as I was with some of James’ other Roy Grace books.

It turns out that I shouldn’t have worried. It’s true that the story line got a little confusing from time to time, especially because it jumped backwards and forwards in time and focused on a number of different characters who, to start with at least, didn’t seem to have anything to connect them. But as the book rolled along towards its conclusion, it all worked itself out with the sort of mind-blowing simplicity that can only come from careful planning.

And speaking of planning, I was impressed, as always, with the level of research that James must have carried out before he started work on the book. If you’re ever in doubt, you can just read his acknowledgements, but suffice to say that a huge amount of time must have been spent just looking into the way that different police forces operate, including the processes for extradition and co-operation between Australia, the UK and the United States.

Peter James

A big part of this story is based around the terrorist attacks of September 11th, and while I think that’s been overdone in modern literature, I also thought that James handled it well. His depiction of that fateful day was evocative and brought the reader’s senses to life, and it enabled one of the major plot devices to happen in the first place. Not only that, but it all made sense, particularly when it came to how each of the characters responded to it.

There was also a lot of in-depth knowledge about stamps, which were used in lieu of money by several of the characters to make it possible for them to either legitimise crooked money or to carry large sums of it around without authorities wondering why they were travelling with suitcases full of cash.

As for the story line itself, it follows an investigation into a cold case in which the skeletal remains of a woman are discovered in a storm drain in Brighton. At first, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is worried that it could be the body of his estranged ex-wife, Sandy. She’s been missing for a long time, and a new colleague of his starts to actively investigate the possibility that Grace killed her and buried her in his front garden. But Grace has more pressing demands on his time.

Graham Bartlett and Peter James – Death Comes Knocking

Grace himself is one of the more exciting protagonists to be created in recent years, and while I’ve been reading the books out of order – and so I haven’t been able to actively watch his character as it develops – it is interesting to see different sides of him. Here, he’s forced to play the hero, as he has done before – by the end of the book, he’s (reluctantly) written his car off and received hospital treatment. But he’s also solved the crime, although there’s a little bit of wiggle room and a big twist at the end.

Overall, it’s hard to find fault with Dead Man’s Footsteps, and while it’s not quite perfect, there’s a lot to be said for it.

Peter James – A Twist of the Knife

Click here to buy Dead Man’s Footsteps.

Colin Dexter – Last Seen Wearing | Review

Title: Last Seen Wearing

Author: Colin Dexter

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 360

Rating: 8/10

Colin Dexter – Service of All the Dead

This book is another entry in Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse series, and here we get to watch as the detective is assigned to a cold case. But maybe the case isn’t that cold, because some new evidence is discovered and he’s given a lead to follow up on.

But with no body, it’s difficult to prove that a murder has even occurred. It’s a tangled web of intrigue that we’re looking at here, and we get to see it through his eyes – of course, Lewis comes into it as well, and he actually provides some useful insights, although it’s ultimately Morse who does most of the investigation. But will he find the answer out too late?

One of the things that I liked about this book was that Dexter did a great job of introducing you to his world – Morse works in and around Oxford, which isn’t far from me, and I even spotted a reference to High Wycombe, which is where I live. Because of that, it makes the story somehow more enjoyable, at least for me. The characters also feel real, and even though it’s set very much amongst the generation before mine, they were also easy to relate to, in some ways.

Colin Dexter

And of course, there’s the fact that it’s easy to read this, and the pages just whizz past. I read the whole book across the space of a couple of days, and there was never a dull moment – even the initial build-up wasn’t as slow as it was in some of the other Morse books, and I felt like the motives were well-thought out and realistic, and introduced slowly, more like a dawning epiphany than a sudden slap in the face.

Overall then, I enjoyed this as much as – if not more than – the other Morse books that I’ve read, and it definitely left me wanting to read the rest of the books in the series. It’s not a bad place to start if you’re new to Dexter’s work. So go ahead – enjoy it!