Oh, the joy of “discovering” a new writer.
Whoops, the slight embarrassment when you realise that everyone else in the world except you already knows about said writer.
And so, having got that off my chest, let’s talk about Peter James.
I was riveted by “Dead Simple” – published in 2005, so how up to date am I? – and literally could not put the book down, with its clever plot twists and its gripping, macabre story line.
Reviewing a murder mystery inevitably involves being a little vague, because the last thing I would want to do is to spoil your enjoyment of this brilliant story.
We are introduced in this book to Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, a man we instantly like and trust and respect. What makes Roy Grace so interesting a man is his own tragic back story. 9 years earlier, his adored wife Sandy disappeared, and he still has no idea what happened to her. He wonders, constantly, whether Sandy is still alive and in his quest for answers, Roy consults mediums and fortune tellers, and has an interest in the occult – for which he is sometimes ridiculed, within the conventional world of modern policing.
Roy Grace lives in the southern English coastal town of Brighton, and the city features largely in the story.
I am not going to spoil the book by telling you anything more than the book’s blurb does:
“It was meant to be a harmless stag-night prank. A few hours later Michael Harrison has disappeared and four of his friends are dead.”
As I said earlier, there are plot twists in this book, lots of them, but at one point I was cocky enough to think I’d “got it”. That I’d figured out what was happening.
No way. You are kept on your toes tight until the last sentence of this exciting book.
Personally recommended.
And if you would like to buy the book, here’s the link. You know what to do.