Book #4: Dead Like You by Peter James
Dead Like You by Peter James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The sixth book in the Roy Grace series is the most harrowing of all so far, as it tackles the subject of rape. It involves the reappearance of a sex offender called "shoe man" because of his bizarre fetish for women's shoes, who Grace failed to catch in the 1990s.
So, for much of the book, there are constant flashbacks to the original Shoe Man case, which also gives Peter James an excuse to write more scenes involving Grace's missing wife Sandy, and her relationship with him before she disappeared.
This book threw in a number of possible suspects that kept me guessing, including a taxi driver with asperger's syndrome. As someone who has myself been diagnosed with asperger's, I was glad to see the subject handled with sensitivity.
The handling of the subject of rape was well done too, particularly with the fact that the novel acknowledged how only about 6% of rape cases ever get reported. It was something that I wasn't myself aware of, but probably should have been.
This felt like one of the better instalments in the series, mostly because of one of the plot twists near the end that made me suspect that at least one of the characters introduced in this book will appear later in the series. I'm looking forward to reading more of the books, and looking at the book titles, I am predicting a big plot twist that was signposted a few titles ago (no spoilers here though).
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