Not Dead Enough: A Roy Grace Novel 3

by Peter James

His breath was rancid and he smelled sweaty, but she didn’t care. They were manly smells, his smells. She breathed them in as though they were the most intoxicating scents on the planet.

Yuck

Lindsay Lohan

He stopped the car.

That’s why they weren’t arresting him, he’s the bait, for bigger fish to fry….

people say they can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news,

I know where I was when Kurt Cobain died, & with 9/11 There must be lots & lots of other times where my brain links all sorts of things, but they’re 2 famous ones that most people would remember, well maybe not so much KC unless you were a grunge fan in the 90’s, which I was

A tuna sandwich still in its clear plastic box, stickered in yellow with the word Reduced!

Good god! What are you thinking? Fish sandwiches make me feel like throwing up & one that’s then reduced to clear? That WILL have you throwing up. Fish & chicken, don’t mess with them, the most likely sources of food poisoning!

in less than four weeks it would be September.

It’s 1/2 way through September here right now

‘No, he’s quite a loner apparently, unlike his wife, who was very gregarious, they say. He doesn’t have any really close friends, normally doesn’t say much.

Kinda like my parents, although one should never take quiet or loner as meaning someone doesn’t want friends or social interaction.

Had to go and see for himself.

Really a bit pointless, put yourself in another country you don’t know, & you want to find one specific person, how the hell would you, out of how many millions of people there?

He pulled the silky garment off her shoulders and

One thing I don’t like about these books, the sex scenes, they’re not needed to be quite so, so.. detailed? I’m not a prude, far far from it, but I don’t buy thrillers to read the karma sutra.

He gripped her head tightly,

I have a ‘thing’ about how some men like to hold women’s heads in their hands, a famous example would be The Kiss by Gustav Klimt, I find it off putting to the extreme.

‘I don’t believe you.

I’m not sure I do either

There was software on the Time Billionaire’s computer screen which he had written himself. It brought up analogue clock faces for cities in every time zone in the

Uhh, kinda like the clock app? Don’t tell me this was written before the app?! Nope, went & look at publication date, so why would this be mentioned as it’s not anything special?…

had hideous secondary double-glazing.

I have double glazing, it’s not hideous, it came with getting all my windows renovated/modernized

She had seemed happy enough,

I’m rereading the earlier 7 or 8 books in this series I’d read before, not so much to read the books through from 1 to… although there is that, but a lot for this aspect, Sandy, it’s stayed with me all the year’s in between reading this series from back when, until now. I do hope it gets sorted out by the time I’m fully finished with the series with the close of the last book, while I acknowledge the concept is great, dragging anything out for too long will just end up dragging it to pieces like a corpse behind a car…

‘Dear God, please forgive my lustful thoughts. Please do not let them stand in my way. Please don’t let me squander all the time you have graciously given me on these thoughts.

I don’t know if parents, for the most part, comprehend the damage they can do to a child’s psyche when they raise them to think of sex as ‘dirty, wrong, bad’ etc. Sexual feelings are an ingrained part of us, one of the basics, like pain, fear, basic core responses to ourselves & the world around us, & so no matter how much anyone may want to not have these feelings &/or needs, we can’t, they’re just there. Of course we can choose to not act on them, in some cases that should be the correct reaction (pedophilia for ex) but our brain is hardwired to have the feelings regardless, so you then have someone who is going to, at best, hate themselves, at worst, well there’s way too many options there, most of them not good, for the person, or for other people

dug her tiny, latest-model Nokia

Now THATS outdated. Heh

Darren

It has to be a reoccurring character, but I’m guessing if I say it’s her assistant. This is the problem of unfleshed out characters, there’s nothing to really remember them by, as I’m sure he’s been mentioned, just not enough, obviously.

And Walter Hordern had been boning up on that on a forensic medical site

And Walter Hordern had been BONING up on that on a forensic medical site I’m guessing ‘boning’ is a little morgue humor? Word play? Whichever, or both, nicely done.

just a couple of hours ago she’d had a distraught phone call from her sister, Charlie, of whom she was hugely fond, saying she had just been dumped by her boyfriend of over six months. At twenty-seven, Charlie was two and a half years younger than she was. Pretty and tempestuous, she always went for the wrong men. Like herself, she realized, more sadly than bitterly. Thirty in October. Her best friend, Millie – Mad Millie, she used to be called when they were teenage rebels at Roedean School – had now settled into landed life with a former naval officer who’d made a fortune in the conference business, and was expecting her second child.

I had to read & reread this to get my brain wrapped around it, it may just be me, but it looked like she was referring to one person until I reread it & worked out, no, it just chopped from one to the other giving that impression.

And, she was sorry, she had told Richard, she just could not buy into a loving God who let all this shit happen.

Ditto

she had wanted to read for years and had finally bought this afternoon from her favourite bookshop in Hove, City Books.

I’ve never wondered before, what do authors think about kindles, & the other digital formats? Do they hate it? The loss of people not picking up their books, smelling them, (No it’s not crazy!) handing over their card & taking them home, looking forward to reading them. Then when it’s time cradling them as they start to read & turn over crisp page after page, then when the final one is turned, looking for a spot on an already over bulging bookcase where the book can go & remain with its new friends & where the reader can glance over every now & then, their eyes lighting on each book with fond memories & a reminder to them to check for new books by this or that author. That ^ was me with my books, I had 4 huge overflowing bookshelves & then I got the kindle app, I got one book, I really didn’t think I’d like reading off a digital book, but it turns out I do, I’ve never bought another book for myself since that day. My Mum however refuses to, so I have to buy some books twice, which annoys the hell out of me! I do miss the first part though, while there’s lots of advantages to kindles, there’s also loss, especially the bookcases, I loved my home looking like a library & I really did like looking over the books in their new ‘habitat’ & reminiscing.

‘And now I’m going in again,’ she said,

Just because he’s pissed & not good looking doesn’t mean he hasn’t got money, or power

Butterflies swarmed in his stomach as he absorbed his first-ever sights of German soil.

I bet people coming here for a holiday & flying into Auckland airport think there will be pretty blue water and greenery, I’d hate to disappoint them (well no I don’t really) but it’s mangrove swamps…. Yeah, I know right

And he realized he had not properly thought this through. What on earth could he hope to achieve in just one day?

De nada, or should I say nicht

Relieved to have something to actually do this morning, Norris swung the car around

I’m gonna take a guess right now, he doesn’t really have a cast iron stomach, the younger guy, the older one, hmm we will see…..

Was it possible Sandy had married again in some new identity she had adopted?

I actually had a dark twist plot overnight, his friend that called him about seeing her here, they’d been having an affair, she was going to break it off, so he took her, & he kept her, & every now and then he’d turn around & say to her “I guess he loved you more than you thought, more than we both thought” Yeah yeah I know I’m a little sick :)

Dick Pope

This guy

He could smell the beer in the air,

I ended up at Oktoberfest one year in Aussie, no clue why or how, & there was no such thing as too much beer, there were trestle tables packed tight as far as you could see & not a soul was sober, & not a soul wasn’t going to buy another beer

“Nice bum and tits.

Related to good old Norman?

he turned to his junior officer. ‘Keep in my footsteps. Don’t touch anything. We don’t want to contaminate any evidence.

My crystal ball is now showing clearer, the old guys gonna throw up & the young guy, he just may be ok….

Fish was busily exploring her rectangular tank, as ever. Swimming slowly for a few moments, as if stalking some invisible prey, then suddenly darting at something, maybe a speck of food, or an imaginary enemy, or lover.

Still cruel

adipocere

Grave wax, comes from the fat in the human body breaking down, although it’s more soapy than waxy

grave wax.

See, & I never read ahead, what’d be the fun in that

‘Can’t guarantee I’ll be awake. But you can try!

GOOD FOR CLEO!

him. If he went back for a week, maybe that would be sufficient. He could have one week there and another in New Orleans with Cleo. That would work – if he could get her to buy it. A big if.

As a woman & as a reader, I’m torn, I can see all sides of it & ALL has intense emotional pull, I don’t think there’s any winning solution, no matter what

‘We’re looking at a serial killer – whatever that description actually means?’ Grace queried.

Technically 3 kills, but I don’t think you need to wait for body #3

and they’re jolly efficient workers, those Spaniards.

That sounds like a backwards compliment

They’re the cutest & most overlooked bird, they remind me of fairies, especially when you see older fairy artwork, they’re very shy, but can become very friendly given time

how to leverage our results and how to strategize and drive that process.’ She shrugged. ‘What’s the secret?’ Grace asked. ‘To go after the low-hanging fruit first.

Well he walked into that one

‘Good!’ she said, with the gusto of someone praising a puppy for urinating in the right place. For a moment he thought she was going to pat him on the head and give him a biscuit.

Well that’s be better than a smack on the nose from a newspaper

Their gowns rustled as they held each other

Hate to be a party pooper, but those gowns do not rustle, I’ve worn 100’s of them over the years & while they can be unsoft at times, never once did they rustle. The newer yellow plastic ones do though, as well as make you sweat like a pig at a luau ;)

In a hotel room, like a caged animal,

That’s me, over 6 months in a one room hotel room 24/7

He slotted the gadget back in its holster on his belt

Are we in The Jetsons or a John Wayne movie?

you were more likely to die from something you picked up inside than from whatever brought you in here in the first place.

They’re called nosocomial infections, aka hospital acquired infections, it’s a broad spectrum, but let’s face it, if you go anywhere there are a lot of sick people, you run the risk of catching something, no matter how hard people try to stop it. & yes medical staff are all overworked, trust me, that I know from personal experience after working way more than a few yrs in surgical support. However standards slip that shouldn’t, even stuff like hand washing, wearing gloves when they should, etc off the top of my head & cleaning wise most cleaners don’t give a toss about doing it right, just filling in the time until they finish work. It’s a shit job, but still one they are paid to do, not dawdle with a mop & phone, whoops I meant bucket….

The smell of school dinners was even stronger in here, tinged by a faint, sour smell of urine and disinfectant.

‘Geri’ ward? Geriatrics I mean, the smells quite distinctive, unfortunately

of the summer. Mind you, that should be easy. He’s a crap player!’ Grace grinned, then asked gently, ‘What the hell are you doing in this ward?’ She shrugged. ‘They moved me about three days ago. Said they needed the bed in the other ward.’ ‘Did they, hell. You want to stay here?’ ‘Not really.

I was in hospital 2 weeks ago, severe anemia, took 5 bags of blood & 1 of iron, they’d barely pulled the last bag off before they wanted me to leave, now this was 9pm at night, I’m handicapped, cannot drive & could barely walk at the time, when I said I didn’t think I could leave, that I didn’t feel capable to get back where I’m living atm, they conferred, then said & I am not making this up “how about if we pay for a taxi?” I kid you not! In the end they let me stay, but I’d barely woken up before they wanted me out, I threw my clothes on & went down to wait for my Mum. At least that night I had a blanket though, night one they told me “sorry we’ve run out of blankets” & they gave me a bloody curtain to put overtop of me, still, I kid you not. I bet nobody ever reads that ^ safe place to have a whinge!

green medical pyjamas,

They’re NOT pajamas! Please tell me they’re not called that in England?

a world authority on seagulls.

I love gulls, they look so graceful in the air, like they’re floating with the wind. I actually saw some baby gulls a few days ago, it took me a minute to realize what they were, as they were trailing, I guess, their parents, so SO damn cute, minime gulls!

Potting shook his head. ‘All ages. Anyhow, Li’s only twenty-four. She and I got a joint profile.

Yeah, till she dumps him once she’s been in the country long enough to be able to stay even though divorced, I mean c’mon, 24?!? I know Pottings a little deluded, but…..

It was Vernon whom Brian Bishop had turned to when, on going through the papers in his mother’s bureau in her bedroom soon after her death, nearly five years ago, he had discovered something that had been kept from him throughout his life.

Not going to highlight the actual ‘newsflash’ as I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, but I think there’s something else too, a twin!