Review of Dead Man's Grip by Peter James

Wow, second review in as many weeks! Well, thought it was about time to write something about the addicitive Roy Grace written by Peter James.
I started reading the 'Dead....' series featuring the much harassed, Detective Superintendend, Roy Grace a year or so ago. I was totally gripped by the first volume and soon had it finished in a couple of days. This lead me to seek out the other titles in the series and now finally, I've just finished Dead Man's Grip which is the 7th title in the series. This was just published last year, so I'm guessing we'll have to wait a wee while for the next one because he writes other fiction too.

This story was a bit different to the others, in that its starts off with a road traffic accident when a cyclist is knocked off his bike by white van man into the path of an oncoming artic, ending up losing his leg, innards and dying on the road. This in itself is a nasty thing to happen to anyone but doesn't really make a complex crime novel, such that Mr James is famous for. No, the main guts of the story follow on from this. The most unfortunate aspect of this is that the victim of the accident is an American who is studying in Brighton and just happens to be related to a mafia family in New York. Click! As soon as they hear, a contract is put on the 3 people who were involved in the incident although 2 of them were there by happenstance.
Unfortunately, Carly Chase, who swerved to avoid the bike tests positive for drink from the night before and the truck driver has been driving for too long without a break. Obviously, they caused Mr Revere's death!

So the book is a procedural following Roy Grace, Glenn Branson and the rest of the team who feature heavily in the earlier books, trying to find and catch the contract killer. This guys, Tooth, is a psychotic american vet who takes his job very seriously and ultimately does escape but not without being stoppped mid crime.
For me the tension wasn't really as taut as it could have been and the key event/clue which brings Grace and Branson to the final scene, Shoreham Power Station, is a bit tenuous. But hey that's what happens. Another continuing sub plot, the search for his estranged wife, Sandy, is more developed here and obviously, James will be bringing this to a head possibly in the new book. This is because, Grace's fiancee, Cleo is pregnant and it turns out that Sandy also has a son who just might be Roy's!
It would be good if this was developed for TV and I'm quite surprised it hasn't been...yet!