Publishers Weekly
British author James dreams up a horrific intersection of extreme perversion and Internet technology in his frightening, expertly constructed second Det. Supt. Roy Grace novel (after 2006's Dead Simple). London marketing exec Tom Bryce makes the mistake of popping a CD he found on the train into his computer: it logs him onto a snuff film Web site, where he watches helplessly as a beautiful woman is butchered. Soon thereafter, Grace and his partner, Det. Sgt. Glenn Branson, find the mutilated body of the victim, Janie Stretton, a law student from Brighton, whose murder reminds him of the unsolved disappearance of his wife, Sandy, nine years earlier. While the lawmen pursue elusive leads, Bryce draws the ire of the twisted criminals behind the Web site and sees his family's comfortable suburban life unravel. The rapid-fire suspense builds to a terrifying, graphic conclusion that leaves tantalizing room for future installments in the series. (Mar.)
Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
In the follow-up to James's best-selling debut, Dead Simple, a businessman going home on the train finds a CD left on the seat and, after popping it into into his computer, witnesses the savage death of a young woman. Despite warnings not to got to the police, the man reports the crime to Brighton Detective Chief Superintendent Roy Grace, with fatal consequences. At the same time Grace's major crimes team must identify the mutilated remains of a woman, whose head is missing. James's complex tale of violence, danger, and nerve-racking suspense is not for the timid. Fans of Quentin Jardine's Bob Skinner police procedurals will appreciate. James lives in London and Sussex.
—Jo Ann Vicarel
Kirkus Reviews
Det. Supt. Roy Grace's sophomore case is just as suspenseful as his first (Dead Simple, 2006), and just as wildly improbable. Leaving the commuter train at Brighton, struggling entrepreneur Tom Bryce finds an unlabeled CD where a particularly obnoxious fellow-traveler had been sitting. He takes it home, idly boots it up and discovers in the few moments before it stops playing and begins to erase his hard drive that it's a record of the brutal murder of Janie Stretton, the law student whose mangled body has launched the Sussex CID on a frenzied investigation. In short order, Tom gets an email with a dire warning from Scarab Productions: If he tries to open the program or contact the producers or the police, he'll be killed along with his wife and children. While Tom is agonizing over what to do, Grace is having his own troubles. He's under intense pressure to solve a case with no clues; the gruesome crime details he's trying to keep secret in order to screen out crank callers are promptly splashed across the front page of the local tabloid; and his tentative advances to pathology technician Cleo Morey are thwarted by his grieving for his wife, Sandy, who disappeared without a trace nine years ago. Supported by the surprising compassion of his alcoholic, spendthrift wife, Kellie, Tom inevitably phones the authorities and then watches his life turn from a battle against recalcitrant clients and overdue bills to a battle of life and death. Because Scarab Productions makes special-interest films for a limited market, they approach the prospect of killing the Bryces as a business opportunity. Despite echoes of Thomas Harris, the closer analogue is to Jeffery Deaver's clock-racing thrillers. Andif you can't wait for Deaver's next, James delivers the goods.
From the Publisher
I couldn't put it down” —Mark Timlin, Independent
“Sharply plotted, suitably sordid” —Daily Express
“James dreams up a horrific intersection of extreme perversion and Internet technology in his frightening, expertly constructed second Det. Supt. Roy Grace novel . . . the rapid-fire suspense builds to a terrifying, graphic conclusion that leaves tantalizing room for future installments in the series” —Publishers Weekly
“A sick website which features videos of people being murdered is at the dark heart of this razor-sharp crime thriller. Gripping - but not for the faint-hearted” —News of the World
