A spot of crime
Occasionally I like to read a crime novel for light relief from my usual fare. The last one was Steig Larsson's Girl with a Dragon Tattoo which was pretty good, despite its length. This time I was lucky enough to pick up the latest Peter James novel, Dead Man's Footsteps for £1 in a book bin at my local post office.
Peter James' detective is Roy Grace, of the Sussex police, and what makes his books popular in the area I live in (the Sussex coast) is that they are all set in Brighton. Peter James has a good relationship with the Sussex Police and has been allowed to accompany them on various sorties such as drug raids etc, and apparently his books are highly respected by those in the force. The police issue press releases when he writes a new novel and it is reported that Peter James gets emails from officers asking if they can be included in his next book.
The publishers of the Roy Grace novels have even sponsored a police car, which must be fairly unique for a crime novelist.
The novel is pretty good, being very pacy, but quite complex. Most chapters are only three or four pages long so its easy to pick up and put down - definitely light relief.
Peter James puts lots of local detail in his books and if you know the area you can trace the story around from one place to another recognising roads and buildings referred to.
When I've finished this book I'm going to read a couple of more serious books but I already have on my TBR pile another crime novel, this time Robert Wilson's The Ignorance of Blood which is set in Seville and has been sent to me from the Amazon Vine programme.
