My Review (5 stars out of 5)
Detective Superintendent Roy Grace takes on a seemingly straightforward case following a road traffic incident involving three vehicles and a bicycle. But the dead person – the cyclist – turns out to be the offspring of a notorious Mafia family, and they want vengeance. When the driver of the van goes missing, Grace and his team set out to track him down, but then the lorry driver is found dead, and Grace realises someone may be on a killing spree. Solicitor Carly – the driver of the car – sets off to New York to meet with the dead lad’s family, and inadvertently exacerbates the threat to her own life and that of her son. Can Roy Grace find the killer before he strikes again?
This is book 7 in the Roy Grace series, and it’s the best yet. The team are faced with a frantic hunt for a killer, unaware that the person they seek is a professional assassin and has all sorts of tricks up his murderous sleeves. Although the initial chapters appear a little slow, they merely reflect what the police believe to be an uncomplicated case. When it becomes obvious a killer is on the loose, the pace quickly hots up. The details around police procedures are as accurate as ever, and the realistic locations used (around Brighton and Hove) add a layer of authenticity to the plot, as do the delightfully gory descriptions of the murders. Mr James continually ramps up the action as the story hurtles towards an unexpected and exciting conclusion.
Thrilling, original and a damn good read.
Colin Garrow 