THE appeal of author Peter James’ books was evident from the big turn out and the enthusiastic applause at the end of this murder mystery adapted by Shaun McKenna and directed by Ian Talbot.

Like most book adaptations for stage it is a difficult task and this contains the good, the bad and the ugly.

The good bits are the rapport between lead character DS Roy Grace played by Shane Ritchie and his sergeant, Glenn Branson (Michael Quartey). Their dark humour provides welcome breaks to the long explanations about investigative procedures.

Grace, haunted by the disappearance of his wife a decade earlier, is now in a relationship with the pathologist Cleo Morey (Laura Whitmore) and questions are raised about his commitment to her. This could have been developed but Richie, who has bucket loads of charisma, is so limited by the script he literally walks through this performance.

The bad is that these characters never really lift off from the page to stage and, despite investing two hours in them, the standoff with the savage murderer at the end produced no tension whatsoever. The knife-wielding killer was allowed to talk for ages. Surely, a trained policeman like Grace would have jumped the baddie while his attention was focused on addressing the front of the stage.

And the ugly; the denouement was risible.

Despite this, Michael Holt’s four-way split set was interesting, with a permanent mortuary, a police office, an interrogation room and space stage front for passing business. It helped keep the stilted action moving and the final twist was, well, a nice twist.

  • Until Saturday, March 25, 2017. Tickets at theatreroyal.co.uk or 08448 112 121.

Ed Waugh