Book #23 for 2023: Not Dead Yet by Peter James
Not Dead Yet by Peter James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The eighth Roy Grace novel is quite an ambitious one, and it feels like there is a lot going on.
The main story put me in mind of the murder of John Lennon. It involves Gaia, a film star who is coming to Brighton to make a film, but who seems to have attracted the attention of two obsessed stalkers.
The first is fixated on killing her, and tries to shoot her in the opening chapters, only to kill an innocent victim instead. He then follows her to Brighton, and starts to create a new plan to kill her, albeit one that almost feels like it could have been invented like Wil-E-Coyote, only without the use on an anvil. His motivations are eventually made clear, and they are a little unexpected.
The second is a woman who seems to believe that she is Gaia's number one fan; she even believes the star can communicate with her through the television, and is fixated in getting to meet her idol.
The plot ends up with both stalkers somehow getting jobs as extras on the film set so that they can get close to Gaia, perhaps one of the most alarming aspects of the book, about how easily they manage to do this, as well as one of the stalkers' later actions.
Meanwhile, as well as being charged with protecting Gaia, Roy Grace is involved in the discovery of a dismembered body in a chicken coop, and attempting to figure out who it is. Inevitably, this dovetails with the plot involving Gaia, although both seem unconnected at first.
There are a couple of other subplots, including Glenn Branson and Norman Potting ending up in a love triangle with the same woman. Also, Cleo starts finding threatening messages appearing on her car, and Grace thinks its an act of revenge by a man who he helped put away twelve years ago. The identity of the real culprit is more of a surprise, and although this plot seems to fizzle out, I'm hoping its building up to something that will happen in the next few titles.
Overall, this novel felt okay; there were a couple of neat plot twists that came out of nowhere, but near the end, I wondered if a few of the storylines could have been taken out altogether. Also, I've noticed that Peter James has been creating fake tension by trying to conceal characters' identities for several pages, before spelling out who they are. One of Gaia's stalkers isn't given a name until about a third of the way into the book, which led me to expect a bigger plot twist.
The conclusion of the main plot was ultimately satisfying though (as well as gruesome) and I want to keep reading the series, mostly before any more ITV adaptations get made.
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