Is It Always That Simple ?. Review on Dead Simple - Peter James

THE BOOK

We all love playing pranks on friends and family but do we realize how dangerous these thoughtless pranks can sometimes be? How it can lead to fatal injuries to others and even to death…Playing a prank is always easy but it doesn’t always turn out to be Dead Simple and this simple rule of having fun is taught to us by the novel Dead Simple by Peter James…

The book deals with two aspects…Mystery of Michael Harrison’s disappearanceand the personal life of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace…

THE STORY

Five friends decide to play a prank on their best-friend Michael Harrison,the practicle joker,on a stag night party just four days before his wedding with the beautiful Ashley Harper. On the party night Mark Warren(one of the five friends) was detained from joining his other friends Josh,Pete,Luke and Robbo who had planned a revenge on Michael…they decided to pay him back for all the pranks he had played on them…they planned to bury him alive in a coffin at a deserted forest area for two hours just to scare his wits out of him!….Dead Simple

But little did Josh, Pete, Robbo, Luke, and even Mark and Michael knew what fate had in store for them! After the four smart prankers forcefully buried Michael, leaving him with a champagne bottle and a walkie-talkie only, they were going to visit another pub nearby when on the road they had an accident where Pete, Robbo, Luke died and Josh went to coma, later he also died!…Does this sound Dead Simple?

It was always intended to be just a bit of fun.A prank among friends.Dead Simple.

There never was a plan B.

And murder was certainly never on the agenda…

Now except Mark no one alive on earth knew where Michael was!Mark Warren was not only Michael’s best friend but also he was Michael’s business partner…Mark has always been jealous of Michael though. He hated to see Michael always in the limelight…..Michael had everything which Mark had always wanted to possess himself - looks, attitude and wealth……

Now Ashley, Michael’s fiancée, and Michael’s mother are worried dead about Michael’s whereabouts…so they called in the police…Dead Simple…

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace of the Sussex CID, is certainly a heroic character…successful at an early age, has a friendly humour and is intelligent as well. Roy’s wife Sandy had deserted him suddenly 10 years back and till date Roy is struggling to find her! At his work, many a times Roy uses unconventional methods(like Black magic, uses mediums who can connect with spirits etc.) for solving crimes…and the best thing is that he never loses hope or gives up!

Well Roy is involved in the case of Michael Harrison by his best friend Glenn,for whom Roy takes up the case willingly…Dead Simple

FACTS

Roy’s point of view of the case:

A missing bridegroom, a less distressed beautiful fiancée, a best-friend who definitely lies that he didn’t know of what they were going to do at the stag night party, and a lot of money involved with the disappearance. He has to find Michael out before its too late and he can’t think of anything else at present other than Michael Harrison’s disappearance which he feels sure has a lot more to it than just a stag-night prank…Is this Dead Simple?

Some discoveries:

Its found out that the prank to be played on Michael was to bury him alive in a coffin but no idea where!

Ashley Harper is an unfaithful lover who is actually in love with Mark and not Michael…

The wedding is not cancelled though the groom didn’t turn up…Mark behaves aggressively with Roy…Ashley produces only one relative on the most memorable day of her life!

A mentally unstable young man,Davie,found murdered near Ashdown forest and who has confessed to his father some days before that he had been talking to Michael Harrison on a walkie-talkie from the day-after Michael’s disappearance!

At last after a thorough search of the whole forested area a coffin is found but with no corpse inside…

Mark Warren murdered…and Michael’s forefinger with a blackmail note is found in his apartment…Is all this Dead Simple?

Michael’s point of view:

Oh no he is not dead yet…just in an about-to-die condition…with his forefinger detached from his anatomy!

From the day he was buried he had been conversing with Davie and pleading Davie to help him out…and at last help came but he was not in a condition to realize what was happening around him, when he was moved out of the coffin…he regains consciousness only to find that now some other psycho who calls himself Vic is his possessor and is torturing him…Dead Simple???

CONCLUSION

Will Roy ever find Michael out with his unconventional methods? Who killed Mark? What’s Ashley Harper’s big secret? Who is Vic and what does he want? Will Michael survive???

To know the answers to all these questions…just go and read the book!

MORAL

We should always be a little more careful and thoughtful about our actions…

MY VIEWS

The ideas used by the author are really very practical…and a good divert from Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie…Besides thrilling us and gripping us with suspense, we get to learn a lot from this book about the truth and reality of human nature… A must-read for everyone…

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