Publishers Weekly
08/04/2014
British author James’s 10th novel featuring Det. Supt. Roy Grace of the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team (after 2013’s Dead Man’s Time) is an adroit study of obsession and revenge. Bryce Laurent, a violent narcissist who can’t bear to see ex-girlfriend Red Westwood dating someone else, rents an apartment nearby, and spies on her using the night-sights of his crossbow and several bugging devices. Shortly after Red’s new boyfriend, Dr. Karl Murphy, fails to show up for a date, the police question her about his disappearance, while also enquiring after Laurent, against whom Red has a restraining order. When a group of golfers discover a badly burned corpse, Grace gets on the case. The author is unflinching in his descriptions of domestic abuse, and paints a vivid picture of Brighton with daily life punctuated by cigarettes, booze, and greasy food. A subplot involving Grace’s vanished wife, Sandy, will please series regulars. Agent: Carole Blake, Blake Friedmann Literary. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
Peter James is one of the best British crime authors” —Lee Child
“Peter James is one of the best crime writers in the business” —Karin Slaughter
Kirkus Reviews
2014-09-13
While he counts down the days till he marries pathology technician Cleo Morey, the mother of his baby son, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace tangles with a dangerously unbalanced jack-of-all-trades who just won't let his ex-lover go. "If I can't have you, no one will," thinks George Clooney look-alike Bryce Laurent about Red Westwood, the flame-haired beauty who dumped him when his over-the-top devotion turned abusive and scary. It's hardly an original concept, but Bryce brings unusual qualifications to the role of the spurned lover-turned-avenger. Though his stories about being an airplane pilot and air traffic controller were piffle, he has expert knowledge of locks (and how to pick them), fires (how to put them out, how to start them) and explosives (guess). He's a classic narcissist who's perfectly prepared to warm up for his planned torture killing of Red by attacking those closest to her, beginning with her current boyfriend, widowed family physician Karl Murphy. As Bryce considers whom to strike next—perhaps Red's best friend, dentist Raquel Evans, or Camilla Westwood, the mother who hired a detective to dig up dirt on Bruce—Grace (Dead Man's Time, 2013, etc.) faces an adversary closer to home: Sandy Lohmann, his wife, who plans to end her secret life in Munich with their son Bruno by interrupting Grace and Cleo's wedding with the news that even though she's been declared legally dead, there's enough life in her yet to ruin their big day. Bryce's ruthless proficiency as an arsonist guarantees the requisite number of pulse-pounding set pieces, but the whole affair feels a bit mechanical, right down to the climactic sequence in which he and Red are locked together inside the panic room she's installed to keep him at bay.
