Prophecy - Peter James
Peter James (born 1948) is a bestselling British crime writer, celebrated for his gripping thrillers and keen sense of place. Raised in Brighton, the son of Cornelia James—the former glovemaker to Queen Elizabeth II—James attended Charterhouse and Ravensbourne Film School before launching a career in film and television, including work as a screenwriter and producer in North America.
He achieved international recognition with his Roy Grace detective series, set in his native Brighton, which blends police procedural detail with psychological suspense. James’ work spans techno-thrillers, spy fiction, and supernatural tales, reflecting his interests in criminology, science, and the paranormal. Notably, his 1994 novel Host was released by Penguin as the world’s first electronic novel, published on floppy disks—a testament to his willingness to experiment with new forms.
James is known for meticulous research, often collaborating with police to ensure authenticity. He continues to be a prominent figure in contemporary British crime fiction, with a prolific output and a dedicated global readership
Prefer the black and white picture but added this for comparison of his current looks
On Monday may 9 2022, i bought a book, titled prophecy by Peter James, and until May 17 of 2025 i did not look back or read it properly. I remember picking it up once and putting it down because i thought i was a meh and oh boy was i wrong and did no see it coming.
While reading the book some part of me was wishing for it to be bad or meh for some reason because maybe my first encounter with it and i was not much into the thriller genre back then. There was a blurb at the back of the book from Mail on Sunday which said
” Peter James has found his own literary niche, somewhere between Stephen King and Michael Crichton”
and after reading this book i can for certain say that is spot on, this books was engaging and thrilling at every edge while some parts of it might sound cliche i would argue that is because we are used to this type of story telling this days and this book was published in 1992, considering the time this is at the top of its game, also helping me get more into contemporary works of fiction.
So taking from the blurb
“Non Omnis Moriar I shall not altogether die A young boy watches his mother die. A sadistic man dies in agony. Drunk students play with a Ouija board in a damp cellar. Can bricks and mortar retain imprints of the emotions experienced within them? Frannie is delighted when a chance meeting with a handsome man and his son leads to a romance. The fact that the relationship is marred by gruesome tragedies, she dismisses as an unsettling coincidence.”
Firs of all how can you read that and say that’s a meh book, but back to the actual review of the book i really want to appreciate Peter James dedication to tell the most accurate facts of even the most niche things from medicine to psychology to occultism through out the book, and while doing that i was mind blow with how descriptive the book was to the point i felt every wind gush, chill and goosebumps following our protagonist. So before reading the book i was watching interviews of Peter James and on one of his interviews he said
“i like to write the way that i like to read and i think like many of us, i’m reading in bed at night and i’m tired so i tend to write short chapters and always with a kind of cliffhanger at the end i just love it when i pick up a book and look at the chapter and it’s not 53 pages long it’s like two pages long and i think we’ll have that next moment it’s oh next chapter is only three pages long and the next thing i know is three in the morning and i’m still reading that’s what i try to do to you”
and he kept his word, each chapter was a minimum of 5 pages long and kept adding a cliffhanger, a thrill to the story which made me not want to let the book down.
The book goes over every imaginable aspect, it even has Jung and synchronicity like Peter really did invest a hefty amount of time in it, and i love that the story being set in modern time did not disrupt its setting and general thematic display, like 1992 science has advanced and we have computers and phones - so our protagonist should be cocky and dismiss the notion of spirits and be then be too late to figure things out. The protagonist of the story Frannie Monsanto has a tad bit of skepticism which then turns to fear - and i loved that because there is no over exaggeration of both those emotions, some stories would go to the extreme and make the character out of touch from reality which sometimes bothers me. Frannie like anyone today dismisses the idea and when things start looking like more of a pattern instead of a coincidence she then starts to believe and delve in and we are running around following her - and the combination of the two majors as well archaeology & mathematics which is quite telling of what is to come which was beautifully executed. Just look at this
“The cold metal bit into her fingers like ice as she pulled. The bogeyman was down there beneath the hatch, waiting for her in his dark, silent lair. He lived in the cellar. The bogeyman who pricked every bone in her body now with sharp needles of terror.”
And one more time i want to praise the attention to detail and articulation in the description of the story because he could have brushed some of those without delving deep and kept focus on other aspect which would have worked well but still he executed both, while i previously said the story sounds a bit cliche - some kids play Ouija and gets haunted and the girl who was skeptical at first learns it goes back and is something spiritual beyond them and saves herself and when she thinks she won actually the spirits played its part perfectly and it was all executed according to plan. Also the prose which was beautifully executed through out the chapters of the story
The story had me gasping and talking to the wall no matter how simple it seems and i would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to pickup and thrilling book, lay back a couple hours and enjoy it.
Somethings that caught my eye…
“He exuded a faint aura of sadness as if there were things about human life that were beyond his comprehension, beyond his ability to change.”
“‘Very good. Indeed we are. Afraid of that Great Unknown. Afraid of what we can’t take with us.’”
“‘The way a civilization views its own mortality tells you a great deal.’”
“Madness was not very far away; just a glass of whisky or a small blue pill separated her from it.”
“man doubts everything that can be doubted and hopes what is left over is the truth”
“Cesare Lombroso said that the ignorant man always adores what he cannot understand.”
“Fear is one of the spices of life, Frannie. How can you respect the past if you don’t fear it? You can’t love anything in life without being afraid of it. Did you not know that?”
” It wasn’t the dead who frightened her, it was the living.”
“‘The French mathematician Laplace said that chance is the expression of man’s ignorance.’”