Roy Grace #1
Dead Simple
Peter James
Depending on the edition this book runs to nearly 500 pages. That's quite a commitment. That the writer and his detective is old horse-faces' favourite is hardly a recommendation to this reader. Not something that appealed to me when I commended this book to my local library's attention. The series is set in Britain where Bobbies were traditionally an unarmed service.
What those outside the police service tend to forget is that detectives are people with insecurities, hopes and dreams, egos, and hungers just like everyone else. The stag party in progress as the book begins goes horribly wrong and the collision at the centre of the tale makes Roy Grace miss his latest dating opportunity.
The groom at the centre of the stag stunt is buried in a coffin with an air hose, bottle of rye, flashlight, walkie talkie. Three of his four buddies are killed in a collision, the fourth unconscious in intensive care. The matching walkie talkie picked up by a tow truck driver's retarded son.
Roy Grace is a detective superintendent with a past, a missing spouse, and a mystery with little to go on as the clock is ticking on Michael, the groom. Always the suspicion that the people who are interviewed know more than they're telling.
And like all good murder mysteries this one has plot twists, car chases, and double dealing.
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