Dead If You Don't by Peter James
Publication Date: 17th May 2018
Publisher: PanMacMillan
Genre: crime, adult fiction
400 pages
Book Description:
Shortly after Kipp Brown and his teenage son, Mungo, arrive at the Amex stadium for their team's biggest-ever football game, Mungo disappears. A short while later Kipp receives a text with a ransom demand and a warning not to go to the police if he and his wife want to see their son alive again. But as a massive, covert manhunt for the boy and his kidnappers begins, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace starts to realize that not all is what it seems.
My Thoughts:
It's a good few years since I stumbled across the first in Peter James brilliant 'Dead' series Dead Simple, in my local bookshop. I was hooked on the series for a long while however got to the point where I couldn't keep up with the regular instalments being published due to the way my reading habits had changed - my fault entirely and definitely no reflection on the quality of the author's work. When I saw 'Dead If You Don't' available for request on Netgalley I decided it was time to dive back into the murky world of Brighton's crime scene.
Straightaway I was whisked into Peter James' flowing writing style. He is so easy to read and despite there being an ongoing back story to the series I didn't feel as if I was missing anything too major in reading this latest novel as a standalone. The regular characters are still there with their individual personalities still coming through strongly especially the wonderfully politically incorrect Norman Potting with his inappropriate brand of humour and sometimes cringe-worthy remarks, and the quirky Home Office Pathologist Frazer Theobold who is described as the slowest and most pedantic man in the job. Roy Grace's ongoing relationship with his boss Cassian Pewe continues to be an issue which many readers will be able to relate to as no matter how much Grace goes above and beyond the call of duty he only seems to garner criticism and threats of suspension from the senior officer.
We have lots of threads of story in the first half of the book: a young girl in search of a better life in foreign lands; a bomb threat at Brighton's biggest football stadium and the kidnap of a teenager at the same location which seems too much of a coincidence to not be connected; a successful local businessman with a gambling problem and a streak of bad luck which seems neverending; the Mr Big of the Albanian community in the area with a penchant for torturing anyone who upsets him. How all these things could possibly be linked seems pretty incredible early on in the book but bit by bit the author cleverly weaves the threads of the plot tighter and tighter until you are left thinking how you could possibly have missed the clues which were staring you in the face all along. The sense of time running out is palpable as the book draws to a close and I felt myself edging closer to the edge of my seat as I read - the description of Potting's erratic driving adds to the adrenalin fuelled events which come to a very satisfying conclusion which I felt brought together all the loose ends and tied them off very neatly.
Peter James continues to be one of the UK's top crime writers in my opinion. His ability to write a series which is as good in book 14 as it was in the book 1 is worthy of the highest praise, and I am excited to hear that he has signed up to provide us with further cases from the Brighton and Hove crime team - I can't wait!!!
Straightaway I was whisked into Peter James' flowing writing style. He is so easy to read and despite there being an ongoing back story to the series I didn't feel as if I was missing anything too major in reading this latest novel as a standalone. The regular characters are still there with their individual personalities still coming through strongly especially the wonderfully politically incorrect Norman Potting with his inappropriate brand of humour and sometimes cringe-worthy remarks, and the quirky Home Office Pathologist Frazer Theobold who is described as the slowest and most pedantic man in the job. Roy Grace's ongoing relationship with his boss Cassian Pewe continues to be an issue which many readers will be able to relate to as no matter how much Grace goes above and beyond the call of duty he only seems to garner criticism and threats of suspension from the senior officer.
We have lots of threads of story in the first half of the book: a young girl in search of a better life in foreign lands; a bomb threat at Brighton's biggest football stadium and the kidnap of a teenager at the same location which seems too much of a coincidence to not be connected; a successful local businessman with a gambling problem and a streak of bad luck which seems neverending; the Mr Big of the Albanian community in the area with a penchant for torturing anyone who upsets him. How all these things could possibly be linked seems pretty incredible early on in the book but bit by bit the author cleverly weaves the threads of the plot tighter and tighter until you are left thinking how you could possibly have missed the clues which were staring you in the face all along. The sense of time running out is palpable as the book draws to a close and I felt myself edging closer to the edge of my seat as I read - the description of Potting's erratic driving adds to the adrenalin fuelled events which come to a very satisfying conclusion which I felt brought together all the loose ends and tied them off very neatly.
Peter James continues to be one of the UK's top crime writers in my opinion. His ability to write a series which is as good in book 14 as it was in the book 1 is worthy of the highest praise, and I am excited to hear that he has signed up to provide us with further cases from the Brighton and Hove crime team - I can't wait!!!
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher PanMacMillan for the opportunity to read and review this excellent book ahead of publication date.
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