Perfect Night

by Peter Grimsdale

Can you trust your memories? An edgy and compelling thriller about a film-maker who unknowingly captured a secret that governments are willing to kill for...When ambitious young documentary film-maker Nick witnesses the death of a notorious arms dealer in Sri Lanka, he's lucky to escape with his own life. He was on his way to interview him on his yacht when it was blown to smithereens. But the head injuries he receives destroy his memory - and his burgeoning career.Years later, working as a film archivist, he uncovers an image in a forgotten reel of film that seems to totally rewrite the incident that derailed his life. But as he starts to search for the other pieces of the puzzle, he quickly realizes that this single, explosive piece of film could destroy him all over again. Soon he's on the run from people who want the lid put very firmly back on the past. His only option is to restore his memory - however painful it turns out to be - and find the whole truth before it kills him.

Genres: Mystery

384 pages, Paperback

First published August 14, 2008

About the author

I grew up in Sheffeld, attended a variety of schools including Bedales in Hampshire and East Brunswick High in New Jersey. I went on to Sussex and Georgetown Universities where I read American Studies and started writing short stories. I joined the BBC in 1980 and worked on everything from Crimewatch UK to a history of the Falklands War. I also did a spell in Enva Hoxha's Albania on a secret filming assignment about an MI5/CIA mission there that went horribly wrong. In 1984 I was sent to Sri Lanka for the Real Lives series to report on the uprising against the Tamils and the diary I kept of that time became the basis for Perfect Night. I moved on to Channel 4 where I was head of History,Religion and Features and indulged my passion for cars in several programme commissions. I also found myself in charge of Big Brother 3, the one that gave the world Jade Goody. After a brief foray into the brave new world of Yahoo (source of the sacking scene in Perfect Night), I returned to TV as a freelancer but determined to write. Perfect Night was the result. My two biggest infuences were and still are my wife Stephanie Calman (see Badmothersclub.com)and my agent Mark Lucas who showed what thriller writing was all about.
Just Watch Me came about after a bad day at Gatwick Airport discovering that my then five year old daughter's passport had expired and instead of heading for Tobago I found myself in Durham where the only passport office in the land would give me a replacement over the counter. Set in Britain Tobago and Afghanistan, it tells the story of a man who loses his family and has to go on the run while he tries to find out why.
My last two books Battlefield 3 - The Russian (with Andy McNab)and Battlefield 4 - Countdown to War have been written in association with Electronic Arts, publishers of the Battlefield global game franchise. To EA's great credit they gave me the space to develop an autonomous story using some the games' characters and situations as launch pads for stand-alone narratives. You do not have to be a 'gamer' (I'm not - there, I've confessed)to enjoy them, in fact you don't need to know anthing at all about the games or how it relates to the books. But if you find them via the games they should add to your appreciation of the characters who pass through.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Current bookclub selection. Not my cup of tea, but surprisingly readable. I didn't really like the ending, it felt cramped, confusing and convenient. I liked much of the setting (film archive vaults, Colin's apartment), and the characterisation of the hero, and his various cohorts were complete and interesting. The action up until the end in Sri Lanka was coherent and exciting. I would recommend to a fan of the espionage/thriller type genre.

[Marnie Z · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't finish this, the prologue was good but lost my interest after that...

[LJ Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the twists and turns of the plot. Very good characterisation.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to fess up here and say that I abridged (ie cut from 70,000 words to about 20,000) this book for radio, but the reason I mention it is twofold. Firstly, the better the book, the harder it is to abridge, and secondly, when you cut that much, huge holes sometimes appear in the plot. Oh and when you sit down to read a book with the words 'what can I cut?' running through your head, you tend not to enjoy the book as much.

Well I read Perfect Night in one sitting. It's a terrific thriller, which sets off at a scorching pace when Nick, a fresh faced journalist gets into a terrible mess on his first foreign assignment, managing to shag the amazingly glam Greer, find an international 'terrorist' lose a vital tape and watch her boat blow up the following morning. Fast forward ten years and Nick's life has frozen. He works as a film archivist, literally stuck in the past. Then he finds out that the terrorist he thought was dead might not be.

Unlike many thrillers, the hero feels real. You feel his exhaustion and despair. (One of the many things that pissed me off about The Da Vinci Code was that nobody ever got tired! Or needed the toilet! Or got hungry!) Nick is a wreck by the end, as the plot twists and turns and keeps you guessing. The pace never lets up. It has a strong filmic quality and as the Guardian review pointed out, not a cliche in sight. Oh and it was a pig to abridge.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

As far as murder mystery thriller type books go... You can do better. Main character was not interesting or someone I particularly sympathized with. I did like how he seemed like a real person, he just had too many weaknesses that made me dislike him. Plot was often difficult to follow and seemed a little forced.... But had an unexpected twist at the end which was nice

[Shay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the atmosphere and the main characters, but found the plot confusing. I found I was caught up in the moment, but now that I've finished it I can't explain why most of it happened!

I may well try it again to see if I can get it next time!

[juice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good idea, let down by confused execution.

TBH, it struggled to be a three, but it was better than a two, so it got there.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh.