ONE OF US IS DEAD (2024) ***
by Peter James
This paperback edition published by Pan Books, 2025, 464pp
© Really Scary Books/Peter James, 2024
ISBN: 978-1-5290-9003-1
Blurb: Arriving late for a funeral, James Taylor spots a familiar face in the church – his old schoolfriend Rufus Rorke. Except it couldn’t be him, could it? Because two years ago, Taylor attended Rufus’s funeral. He even delivered the eulogy. On the other side of Brighton, at Police HQ, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace has been alerted to a number of suspicious deaths that he can’t get out of his mind. But how are they linked? And could they possibly be connected to Rufus Rorke?
Comment: Peter James continues his Roy Grace series with this middling procedural thriller. It is a milestone for the series, as it is the 20th book, and it stays true to the tried-and-trusted formula James has finely tuned over the years by mixing mystery elements with police procedural and personal dramas, though the latter takes a back seat after a promising opening. There are no real surprises in this one; it is down to the reader following how the detectives manage to hone in on Rufus Rorke, who it is believed was killed in a boat accident two years earlier. As such, the story seems to be stretched too thinly over its more than 400 pages. The banter between the detectives, which always feels a little forced in James’ prose, is even more so here. The generic finale feels as if it is catering to the lowest common denominator of readership and serves to dumb down a story that often showed promise of a more psychological direction.
