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Content snapshot
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Violence
A lot
Murder and crime violence; 9/11 as backstory including its immediate horror
Language
Some
Moderate language in a crime register
Sexual Content
Barely any
Brief adult relationships
Substance Use
Barely any
Moderate social drinking
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Opportunism during collective catastrophe, the long tail of deception, a detective piecing together a life from its remains
What this book is about
The fourth Roy Grace novel. On September 11, 2001, Ronnie Wilson faked his own death in the World Trade Center collapse and disappeared. Twelve years later, a skeleton is found in the Lewes area. The Brighton team has to untangle what happened — and who killed him — while Grace investigates another thread involving a Melbourne detective looking for an English woman who vanished. James's thriller uses 9/11 as a backstory to explore a particular kind of opportunistic fraud.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
9/11 depicted in backstory
murder investigation with some graphic details
best read as fourth in Roy Grace series
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