Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

PETER JAMES – DEAD MAN’S GRIP – 2011

Do not believe the subtitle of the cover: “One mistake, Two murders, No remorse.” This is a promotional caption that has little to do with the real novel. I was actually expecting “Three culprits.” But the author avoided this easy Christian simple trinity. Though he could have gone a lot further since there are at the very least four dead bodies, a real crucifixion, in fact even five, a diabolical pentacle, and one skeleton in the cupboard, closet or whatever old tunnel or WC.

But the book is absolutely excellent because it is true to the very last detail. The language, the procedure, the institutional working, even the human reactions of the cops mostly are absolutely perfect. They are not believable, they are just what they have to be to be true to the core of any criminal investigation. That’s the pleasure of this book. That makes it just thrilling, not because of the gross elements that are mentioned but never described, but because of the accurate events, their description, and their processing. And this pile of small elements geared into some kind of malicious network if not plainly fishing net that catches us and will never let us go, is the very charm, hypnotic fascination the book evokes in us, brings up to life, casts upon us without any possible escape.

The chapters are so small that they are not chapters any more but successive short sequences ready for the TV or cinema adaptation we all expect soon, especially those among us who have visited at a moment in our life or in a previous life this phenomenal city-harbor-beach of Brighton, halfway between Folkestone-Dover and Portsmouth-Southampton. And what’s more with a US extension through the very first victim of a dumb road accident that definitely would not have occurred if a dumb driver – who is accidentally a woman but could be a man – who was too impregnated with alcohol to drive since she had a diabolical and satanic hangover, had not recklessly cut in front of a lorry, after her passing it at probably excessive speed, causing the lorry that was ahead of her to then run after her with a very close and dangerous tail-chase engagement, eventually jumping a traffic light, hitting the first victim that caused the drama and running away like a guilty fox, his tail well squeezed between his thighs.

And that dangerous cutting in front of a vehicle to turn left or right, who cares, was the second in a row. She is entirely responsible for the accident, even if she did not touch the victim on his bike. And she is, what’s more, outrageously remorseless, unconcerned, free of any guilt and even provocative towards the parents of the victim. The fact that it brought the New York mafia into a simple traffic accident is only the magnification of her obvious and criminal responsibility.

The book is concentrating on stopping the hit man in his attempt richly paid by the New York Mafia to kill in atrocious suffering all those who were involved in the crash, no matter whether they were responsible or not, responsible by negligence and selfishness or responsible by real circumstantial but deadly developments. The author is malicious about this vengeful spree of murders, though the author does not describe the particularly gross elements of the various assassinations. I must admit the details are very creative. We are dealing with a criminal artist or an artistic criminal.

The only victim that is worth saving is a young teenager who is in no way involved in the road accident. He is only a circumstantial element in the project to kill the hungover careless and selfish woman who is his mother because that would make her suffer. The novel saves him and unluckily saves his mother too though she is the real culprit who will not be prosecuted for the death of the first victim, the road accident’s victim. In other words the book is quite ethical as for the police when they save the life of an innocent young teenager. But it is totally immoral since the main culprit in the initial road accident goes through the whole episode with hardly a slap on the hand for driving in a drunken state, under the influence as they say to hide the reality of the crime. And all the other actors on the English side as well as on the American side, two against two, two on both sides, are brutally killed or die brutally  as a consequence of that woman’s carelessness and umbilical egotism.

But after all, who cares since the victims are first the son of a Mafia family; second a criminal who had not gone back to his prison as he should have after his day of work (AWOL if I can say so); third a Scottish truck-driver; fourth the daughter of the Godfather of the New York Mafia; and fifth the son of the same. The only two English people involved in that killing spree are English, one guilty up to the gills with drunkenness and driving under the influence and the other totally innocent, but they are English, aren’t they.

But yet a good thriller that is not fantasizing about police work. The author actually explains that he used the advice and counseling of several cops or ex-cops on both the English and the American sides.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU