The Stamp of a Criminal by Peter James
The young DCI Roy Grace gets called out to a burglary in a well-off area and a valuable collection of silver and an even more valuable stamp collection have been stolen. Things are not what they seem, and Grace soon finds the owner's actions rather suspicious. Can the young DCI solve his first ever case?
About the author
Peter James is a UK No.1 bestselling author, best known for his Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, now a hit ITV drama starring John Simm as the troubled Brighton copper. Peter has won over 40 awards and to date has written an impressive total of 19 Sunday Times No. 1s, sold over 21 million copies worldwide and been translated into 38 languages. His books are also often adapted for the stage – the most recent being Looking Good Dead
Review
I loved ‘The Stamp of a Criminal’ when I first read it a few years ago and even more this time! It was great to see how Roy Grace started his career in the Brighton police force. It focuses on a burglary where items of high value have been targeted and it's up to Roy to figure out what has happened! Doesn't help that this is his first-ever case as a detective - but of course, he does a marvellous job. I really enjoyed seeing the case from the perspective of the baddies as well - they were just as clueless as Roy at times. This is a great short story to whet your appetite and a fabulous introduction to Roy Grace if you haven't read the series.
This is one of the stories which Books on the Hill are using for their Kickstarter campaign and Peter James is hopefully providing the introduction to the book if the funds are raised! This is a great campaign and I have provided details of it down below.
Dyslexic friendly fiction for adults by BOTH Press
Following their successful "Open Dyslexia" Kickstarter in 2021, which led to publishing eight dyslexic friendly fiction titles, BOTH Press is launching on June 7th 2022, their second Kickstarter "Open Dyslexia: the sequel" with more high-profile authors than ever before, lasting 30 days and finishing on the July 4th 2022.
The Kickstarter aims to publish eight more titles of high-quality fiction from bestselling authors: including household names such as Bernard Cornwell and Peter James.
The line-up is full of many front-list authors such as Gareth Powell, J.M Alvey(aka Juliet Mckenna), Scott Oden, Snorri Krisjanason, and James Bennett.
Peter James will also be doing an introduction for the 2022 collection.
There are very few initiatives for reading for pleasure for adults. The eight titles BOTH Press has already published are the only readily available dyslexic friendly fiction for adults in the UK and can be found in libraries and any bookshop. The scale of accessibility is not nearly enough, as around 10% of the UK population deal with some form of dyslexia.
Despite Jay Blades's (the Presenter of ‘Repair Shop’) unique telling of his own learning to read on the documentary ‘Learning To Read At 51’, which the BBC recently aired. There are still few or no resources for adult dyslexia. A glance at Adult dyslexics charity websites and reading charity websites indicates there are few resources on reading fiction for pleasure for adults with dyslexia.
The dyslexic blogger Suzy Taylor who writes for Dyslexia Scotland, said:
"It is frustrating that we now have children's books in dyslexic friendly formats. As adults we apparently do not require books in the same form."
There needs to be a choice for people to read for pleasure, where there are books designed to be friendly to them and are not dumbed down, are high quality and enjoyable fiction, which people can chat and socialise about with friends and family.
Darren Clarke, the director of Succeed with Dyslexia, said:
"This books shop is doing incredible things and helping people to fall in love with reading again" [and] "I love the fact and the thought that has gone through on these [titles] with the spacing, the font, with the colour of the paper and the way that the book just flows."
BOTH Press has had many heart-warming responses of how the books have impacted their lives.
Dr Alistair Sims said:
"Many individuals who have told us their stories do not want to be mentioned due to fear of stigma about their struggle to read. For example a man in his 50s is Scotland had not read a book since he was a child. His partner found us and bought him one of our titles. He read it. Then called us up to order another. He was so happy to actually read. In fact the partner wrote us a letter explaining how much of difference it is making and then ordered the four more for a Christmas present."
BOTH aim to raise £16,000 to publish eight titles. Though looking to the future, they will need more than £20,000 a year to keep publishing eight titles regularly. All funds go toward the book production/ life cycle to make them readily available. The bookshop Books on the Hill and their manager Alistair Sims, who created BOTH Press, receives no profits from the project.
Further information is available at:
https://www.booksonthehill.co.uk/dyslexic-friendly-books-for-adults-/
