"Dead Like You", by Peter James

Roy Grace book #6

This police procedural mystery follows “Dead Tomorrow”. At this point, Roy is still haunted by the unexplained disappearance of his wife Sandy many years ago and since then he has been consumed with finding out what happened to her, although he seems to be moving on and going to marry his pregnant girlfriend. His professional life is hectic as always this time Roy is faced with sexual attack on a woman at a New Year’s Eve ball and another a week later. These attacks very similar to unsolved crimes back in 1997 where victims shoes where taken...The perpetrator dubbed “Shoe Man” appears to have resurfaced and was believed to have raped four other women and murdering his fifth victim...

The chase is on.

It has been some time since I last read “Dead Tomorrow” and so glad to be catching up with Roy’s personal life while reading that his professional life gave challenging cases for our delight. I find Roy’s character to be pretty good and quite likeable.

The plot is interesting and moved quickly through its twists and turns. The story is intriguing and from the opening page till the conclusion it is not certain who from the long list of criminal characters is the Shoe Man. This is much more traditional crime fiction where we have a rapist, a murderer on the loose and a selection of possible suspects. But.. Always a but: if this book had been half the length it could have been a far more enjoyable police procedural. No doubts the author certainly can write a good, involving storyline.

However, “Dead Like You” is so bloated with voyeurism depicting terrified women and fetishes....shoes. 500 pages around designer shoes......give me a break. This story is hard to follow at times it skips different time frames back to 1997 and then forward and hops between characters. Some may say this creates some cliff-hangers to keeps us going just a tiny bit longer...ok.

Even with the minor niggles it is still a good mystery