Book #36: Dead Man's Time by Peter James
Dead Man's Time by Peter James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The ninth instalment of the Roy Grace series feels a bit different from the previous ones.
Starting with a flashback to New York in 1922 (this is explained later on), the narrative cuts to ninety years later, with an elderly widow having her antiques stolen from her house. After the woman dies, her brother starts to mete out justice on people who he thinks may have been responsible.
This isn't the first book in the series to include vigilante justice, but it feels different. This one involves an old watch that acts as the book's McGuffin throughout. The plot involving the vigilante attacks also provides some rare moments of comic relief involving a hitman who doesn't seem to like his job, and so apologises to his victims. The main plot takes Grace to New York, and finishes with a couple of unexpected, and even poignant, plot twists.
There are a couple of other subplots; the most prominent one has a returning character: Amis Smallbone, who appeared in the previous novel, and who has a grudge against Grace, plots revenge. This storyline becomes quite dark in places, before being wrapped up in a slightly unexpected way.
The novel also pushes forward the continuing storyline, with a revelation about Grace's former wife Sandy that I should have probably guessed. It also makes the bold decision to kill off a few recurring characters (I won't spoil which ones).
Overall, I quite enjoyed this book, and thought this was one of the better titles. I was trying to predict some of the main plot developments, and failed completely. There were a couple of things that I thought would have a greater effect on the main storyline that Peter James quickly seemed to drop at the end, and I wonder of this had been his intention from the start. I am keen to keep reading the books, if just to stay ahead of the ITV adaptations.
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