This is the 10th title in
the Brighton-set crime series featuring Detective Superintendent Roy Grace who
this time is racing against time to protect a young woman from her obsessive
former lover who has vowed to destroy her and everyone who is important to her.
This one also has a sub-lot
featuring major developments in Roy Grace’s private life involving parenthood
and marriage which provides a pleasant contrast to all the murderous aspects of the novel !.
Author Peter James has written
another gripping and authentic police procedural for which he is acclaimed
which I know his many fans will greatly enjoy as I did.
His books have sold over 14 million
copies worldwide and been translated into 35 languages. Astonishing figures by an standard.
2014 marks 10 years of the Roy Grace novels, so 10 novels featuring him, along with several stand-alone novels, all in 10 years, makes James a prolific writer. This book runs to some 400+ pages and the story is set over 20 days. I note too that all his Roy Grace novels have DEAD in the title, from the first one, Dead Simple, to last year’s Dead Man’s Time and now Want you Dead.
2014 marks 10 years of the Roy Grace novels, so 10 novels featuring him, along with several stand-alone novels, all in 10 years, makes James a prolific writer. This book runs to some 400+ pages and the story is set over 20 days. I note too that all his Roy Grace novels have DEAD in the title, from the first one, Dead Simple, to last year’s Dead Man’s Time and now Want you Dead.
One of James’ hallmarks is his
detailed and impeccable research on everything he writes about. Interesting
that when I looked in his acknowledgements at the back of the book I see that
some of the characters in the book are in the acknowledgments i.e. they appear
in the book with their real names e.g. Alan Setterington, former deputy
Governor of Lewes Prison, Matt Wainwright of the Worthington Fire Station and a
number of senior police officers, pathologists and other medical professionals.
All folk I guess who helped him with his research.
Back
in 2012 I had the great pleasure of talking to Peter James about his writing
life at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival and I remember him saying
then that he spends a lot of time with the Sussex Police. And I note too that
he says in his acknowledgments that the idea
for this novel came from the Divisional Commander of Brighton & Hove
Police.
·
Interesting too that he was awarded the 2012
Sussex Police, Outstanding Public Service Award. He has also of course won loads of
awards for his writing including crime novel of the year on a number of
occasions. In 2009 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters at the
University of Brighton.
·
He has served two consecutive terms as chairman of the UK Crime
Writers Association, and is Overseas Vice-President of International Thriller Writers in the USA.
All
round a most interesting fellow and a great crime fiction writer. I agree with Lee Child who called him one of
England’s outstanding crime fiction writers, in fact I would go further and say
he is one of the most outstanding in this field throughout the English speaking
world
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