Peter James' Dead Man's Time - Review

Dead Man's Time by Peter James

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Another gripping volume in the case files of Roy Grace.

An elderly woman is tortured during a robbery at her home and left for dead, launching a major police inquiry led by Detective Superintendent Roy Grace.

Ninety years earlier, the victim and her brother left New York following the murder of their mother and kidnapping of their father. That legacy has haunted them and may have a bearing on the present day crimes.

As Grace and the team investigate, another operation to hunt down the killers is underway, one intent on vengeance rather than justice.

'Dead Man's Time' is Peter James' ninth novel in the Roy Grace series, featuring an investigation into a vicious crime that has its origins nine decades earlier, entwined with the history of the Irish Mafia and one family's place in it. Travelling from Brighton to Marbella and New York, with a few scenes set in Munich, we uncover crimes stretching across the globe and back in time, the narrative deftly blending elements of a standalone organised crime family revenge thriller within the continuing police procedural series.

Starting less than two months following the conclusion of the last book, picking up on the ongoing threads, Roy Grace is struggling to juggle his responsibilities to the new major investigation and to new baby Noah and his partner Cleo. Meanwhile, a face from his past continues to plot revenge, and more secrets continue to bubble away, unbeknownst to Grace. There are some deeply emotional moments for many of the recurring characters, while the rising threat against Cleo and Noah leaves us on the edge of our seats.

Peter James continues to be at the top of his game, delivering another taut, suspenseful thriller, balancing a keen sense for detail and depth with its lightning pace, the various plot threads entwining as we reach the final chapters and a mystery reaching back decades is solved. Always intriguing, always gripping, this high quality series continues to deliver something a little different in each case, while maintaining that sense of familiarity with returning to a world and characters that we love about a series.

'Dead Man's Time' is a tense, enthralling thriller, leaving us poised to dive into the next in the series - 'Want You Dead'.



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