My Friday Post: Dead Man’s Footsteps

Published on by Margaret

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

I’m currently reading Dead Man’s Footsteps by Peter James.

It begins:

If Ronnie Wilson had known, as he woke up, that in a couple of hours he would be dead, he would have planned his day, somewhat differently.

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice. *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your  ereader . If you have to improvise, that is okay. *Find a snippet, short and sweet, but no spoilers!

These are the rules:

  1. Grab a book, any book.
  2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
  3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don’t spoil it) that grabs you.
  4. Post it.
  5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda’s most recent Friday 56 post.
  1. Grab a book, any book.
  2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
  3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don’t spoil it) that grabs you.
  4. Post it.
  5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda’s most recent Friday 56 post.

Page 56:

And another part of his brain was telling him that while one plane hitting the Twin Towers was an accident, two was something else.

Dead Man’s Footsteps is the fourth Roy Grace novel, a fast paced police procedural. There’s a woman in hiding, a skeleton discovered in a storm drain, a man believed to have died in the 9/11 disaster, and a body found in the boot of a car submerged in a river in Australia. And there is the continuing story about Sandy, Grace’s wife, who had disappeared 9 years earlier.

16 thoughts on “My Friday Post: Dead Man’s Footsteps”

  1. I keep trying Peter James but getting absolutely nowhere. Maybe the problem is that I keep trying the first one in the series. Perhaps I should jump in further along. Is he one of those writers that took some time to get going?

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  2. I first read Dead Simple about 8 years ago and as far as I can remember I had no problem getting started with it. Since then I’ve read books 2 and 3 in the series and they all are the same style, which is not to everyone’s taste – he uses lots of description of what the characters look like, what clothes they wear and their surroundings. I tend to scan read some of that to get on with the story. He writes short chapters, following the various characters storylines, so it makes me want to carry on reading to find out what happens next. Dead Man’s Footsteps follows the same format. And I should also mention that the books are quite gory in parts – but not many in each book, which I don’t like and there is also a bit too much sometimes about the characters’ sex lives which I don’t need to know about.

    Having said that I do want to get back to the books each time I have to stop reading. Hope this helps – probably not!

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  3. This is a good series in my opinion, Margaret. The Roy Grace character is done very well, and there’s some sly, dry wit that I like. And it’s possible to read the novels out of order without losing much (although I do think it’s best to read them in order). I hope you’ll enjoy this one.

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  4. I’m glad you enjoy the books too. I agree about the Roy Grace character – and I think all the characters are done well. They’re all clearly distinct people.

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    1. I think that it would help to follow Roy Grace’s story it would help to start at the beginning, but I also think they work well as standalone books.

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  6. This sounds intense! I haven’t read anything by Peter James, but the excerpts you shared do have me curious. I always like an opening like that–it’s a great tease. The Friday56 – I remember having a similar thought when that second plane went into the World Trade Center. There was no way that was an accident. It’s been ages since I last read read a police procedural. At least it feels that way. I really enjoy them from time to time. I hope you have a great weekend, Margaret. Happy reading!

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  8. I think that opening statement, with it’s obvious foreshadowing, is quite an understatement. Ha. If I knew I’d be dead in a few hours, I’d change everything. But would it work?

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  11. This is a series I keep meaning to try. I read a stand alone by him that I didn’t like and that put me off, but I should give the series a try.

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  12. I’ve read one of his standalones too – Absolute Proof which certainly tested my ability to suspend my disbelief several times. I preferred his Roy Grace books.

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