Dead Like You

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Yes there is some forward development of the character, but compared to the other books in the series it seems that DS Grace and the rest of his team are secondary characters this time around with what felt like much less than a quarter of the story given over to them and their detection of the case. Maybe Peter James was struggling this time with where to take Grace etc. Maybe his publisher edited it down to a more manageable length. Who knows. Either way it didn't feel like a DS Grace novel, more like a spin off in which he and his team had a cameo role. Think CSI: Miami with a character from one of the other franchises popping up. None of the victims, bar the last one, have any particular personality traits beyond liking shoes. Of all the women in the book, only Cleo is not terrible, complaining bitch. And even her personality seems to primarily be "not the ex." This is the first book I've read by Peter James, and there's just something about the way he writes women that makes me deeply uncomfortable. The violence against women in this book is extreme, which I understand comes with the territory in crime fiction, but it's presented in such a way that the women become nothing more than objects of lust and violence. A woman is not just found naked after she is assaulted, no - she is spread eagle, with her genitals and breasts described in detail. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is forever haunted by the unexplained disappearance of his wife, Sandy, nearly ten years ago. Ever since she went missing, he's been consumed with finding out what happened to her. Finally, he may be moving on. He has fallen in love and is going to marry his girlfriend, Cleo, who is pregnant with their child. Crime writer Peter James to receive honorary doctorate". brighton.ac.uk. 24 July 2009. Archived from the original on 22 February 2012 . Retrieved 4 August 2009.

Hook/Tension: The book starts off very well. One skill Mr. James has not lost is the ability to create tension and suspense and convey fear. That did hold true throughout the book. Peter James is a global bestselling author, best known for writing crime and thriller novels, and the creator of the much-loved Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. With a total of 16 Sunday Times No. 1s under his belt, he has achieved global book sales of over 20 million copies to date and has been translated into 37 languages. Millard, Rachel (22 September 2015). "Crime writer's wedding bash goes off with a big bang". The Argus . Retrieved 20 May 2021. The autistic character, Yac, was a big issue for me too. He's presented more as a caricature of autism, and not a very nice one, than as a human being. Some loose ends which lure us into the next in the series. This one was not so good as the previous entries.Le Prix Cœur Noir at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines festival, Comme Une Tombe (French translation of Dead Simple) Originality: This is a story which has been told before. There was no real originality to the plot, but there were some interesting bits. I did appreciate the good detail of procedural investigation and the handling of rape victims and appreciated Grace’s awareness of the impact of rape on its victims. I made the mistake of reading the seventh book in the series prior to this, so I was somewhat spoilt by some of the key factors of Dead Like You. However, I still found it as enjoyable as a crime thriller should be! Peter James intertwines the evil main plot with a number of subplots that forever keeps me completely intrigued and gripped. What has happened to Peter James? I very much liked his first four books but suddenly, with his last book, found myself skimming through it, being bored. I had so hoped this sixth entry would return me to the author I originally enjoyed. It didn’t. Characters/Character Development: There were a lot of characters. This would be natural for a major police investigation. We are told who they are and, perhaps, their attribute or failing, but we never get to know most of them. The majority of characters are one-dimensional. Even Grace; aside from repeated reminders of how much in love he is with his new wife, we see very little depth to his character. For all of Grace’s declarations of love for Cleo, women are not well treated by the author. None of them, including Cleo, are very interesting or intellectually appealing as characters although one of the victims was wonderfully gutsy. For the suspects, however, we are shown what has caused them to be as they are; I did find that a strong point of the book. It is not an easy thing for an author to turn a suspect of a vile and violent crime into a somewhat sympathetic character.

His interests include criminology, religion, science and the paranormal, as well as food and wine. He has written many restaurant columns. He is also a self-confessed "petrol head," having owned many fast cars over the years, including four Aston Martins, AMG and Brabus Mercedes, a Bentley Continental GT Speed and two classic Jaguar E-Types. He holds an international racing licence, and has in the past competed in the Britcar series in both a Honda Accord and a former British Touring Car Championship SEAT Toledo. His 1965 BMW 1800 Ti, with his co-driver Steve Soper, came 10th overall in the St Mary's Trophy in the Goodwood Revival in 2013. James currently races a 1962 C1 Corvette and a 1964 Mini Cooper S. He has donated two police cars to Sussex Police, which bear his name, and a police car to States of Jersey Police. He is married to Lara James (m. 2015). [2] His first, 19-year marriage was to Georgina Wilkin, from 1979 until 1998. [3] Peter J. James (born 22 August 1948) is a British writer of crime. He was born in Brighton, the son of Cornelia James, the former glovemaker to Queen Elizabeth II.

Plot/Flow/Quality of Writing/Originality: Considering stranger rape is very rare in itself, the odds of more than one man with the same fetish operating at the same time are incredibly low. While it did add to the suspense and made for an interesting ending, it also raised the implausibility level to a point which diminished the plot. A device I’m seeing more frequently is that of dual time periods. There is a time when that works. In this case, I felt it more bloated the story to the point where I nearly stopped reading. It’s enough to read about numerous rapes during one time period; doubling that number became repetitive rather than suspenseful. The same is true of the secondary story line regarding the disappeared first wife. It doesn’t go anywhere or enhance the story in any way. Rather, it’s the massive imperfection on someone’s face at which you can’t help but look but it serves no purpose. The chapters are short, the time changes frequently as does the point of view, all of which leads to a choppy, fragmented read with no flow. It has been some time since I last read “Dead Tomorrow” and so glad to be catching up with Roy’s personal life while reading that his professional life gave challenging cases for our delight. I find Roy’s character to be pretty good and quite likeable. Le Grand Prix de littérature policère, shortlisted, La Mort Leur Va Si Bien (French translation of Looking Good Dead) In 2005 The Merchant of Venice, directed by Michael Radford and for which James was executive producer, had a royal premiere in the presence of Prince Charles and received a BAFTA Award nomination. In 2006 the film also won the Silver Ribbon for Best Production Design ( Migliore Scenografia) from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists. When unsolved crimes resurface, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace faces a possible copycat killing in Dead Like You , by award winning crime author Peter James.