Not Dead Yet (Detective Superintendent Roy Grace)
Rock star, actress, and international media sensation Gaia Lafayette (a little bit Madonna, a little bit Lady Gaga) is coming to Brighton, England, to film a movie that is supposed to rival The King’s Speech. The in-production film, The King’s Lover, puts Gaia in the plum role of the mistress of King George IV. Lots of buzz for the film and lots of danger for Gaia as her unhinged fans prepare to stalk her in Brighton. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace of the Brighton constabulary (this is his seventh appearance in the Grace series) coordinates with Gaia’s security to ward off disaster. But even before Gaia arrives, the dismembered body of an avid collector of Gaia memorabilia is discovered in a Brighton chicken coop. Growing evidence points to a self-styled “Number One Fan” targeting Gaia. The procedure is engrossing, and the Brighton setting wonderfully detailed, but the writing, with its too-quick shifts of point of view and combination of sensationalism and treacly romance, is hard to take in such a large dose, more than 400 pages. For dedicated series fans. --Connie Fletcher