Dead Like You (Novel). Peter James

 This is another in Peter James' series of police novels about Roy Grace. In discussing a good police thriller, especially one that is part of a series, there is a limit to what one can usefully say without giving the plot away. Is it up to the high  standard I've come to expect?  Yes. Are the permanent characters still interesting? Yes. Are the hero's personal problems still bubbling away  in the background? Yes. Have they progressed in the direction of a final resolution?  Maybe.  Most importantly, did I enjoy reading Dead Like You? Yes.

In books like this there are often three puzzles going on at the same time.  The police are trying to solve the case using evidence that they gradually uncover. At the same time the criminals are doing their own planning, partly  on the basis of what they know of the police investigation. And in the foreground the reader (who knows some things that are unknown to the cops and some that are unknown to the crims) is making his own guess about the final outcome.

Sometimes I think there is a PhD to be had in drawing an extensive analogy between literature and cricket. Plotting a novel must be like the art of bowling. If I grip the ball in such a way as to conceal the position of its seam the batsman will be uncertain about which way the  ball will move after it bounces. If I bowl two balls that pitch in the same spot and  move in the same direction I then aim for the next ball  to hit that same spot but move in a different direction. What makes the writer's task more difficult than the bowler's is that the writer can't observe the reader.  The bowler can ask specific questions and expect the answer to be revealed. What makes the batsman uncertain?  How quickly does he change his mind?  What sort of puzzles does he solve readily? The writer, unaware of how any specific reader is likely to react, must set his traps in the hope of catching most readers most of the time.

A side benefit of good crime novels is that the reader benefits from the author's research. There is nearly always some aspect of the setting which is unfamiliar to the ordinary reader and the incorporation of that subject in the plot,  if it is well done, adds to the reader's interest and enjoyment.

By these standards the Roy Grace novels are among the best of their kind that I've read.  After some initial reluctance, I am an enthusiastic convert. Hallelujah!