Roy Grace, creation of the award-winning author Peter James, unearths a powerful criminal network in Find Them Dead.
Ending his secondment to London’s Met Police, Roy Grace gets a tip-off about a county lines drugs mastermind operating out of Brighton. On his first day back in his old job in Sussex, he is called to a seemingly senseless murder.
A mouse tells a walnut, Just wait, I’ll crack you eventually.
Separately, Meg Magellan finally has her life back together, five years after the car crash that killed her husband and their son. Her daughter, Laura, now 18, is on her gap year travelling in South America with a friend, and Meg misses her badly. Laura is all she has in the world.
In between jobs, Meg receives a summons for jury service. She’s excited – it might be interesting and will help distract her from constantly worrying about Laura. But when she is selected for the trial of a major Brighton drugs overlord, everything changes.
Gradually, Grace’s investigation draws him increasingly into the sinister sphere of influence of the drug dealer on trial. A man utterly ruthless and evil, prepared to order the death of anyone it takes to enable him to walk free.
Just a few days into jury service, Meg arrives home to find a photograph of Laura, in Ecuador, lying on her kitchen table. Then her phone rings.
A sinister, threatening stranger is on the line. He tells her that if she ever wants to see Laura alive again, it is very simple. At the end of the trial, all she has to do is make sure the jury says just two words . . . Not guilty.
Peter James is a UK number one bestselling author, best known for writing crime and thriller novels, and the creator of the much-loved Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. Globally, his books have been translated into thirty-seven languages.
Synonymous with plot-twisting page-turners, Peter has garnered an army of loyal fans throughout his storytelling career – which also included stints writing for TV and producing films. He has won over forty awards for his work, including the WHSmith Best Crime Author of All Time Award, Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger and a BAFTA nomination for The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons for which he was an Executive Producer. Many of Peter’s novels have been adapted for film, TV and stage.
Another great book by Peter James. Here we catch up with Detective Roy Grace again and his family.
This is different to many other of the Roy Grace books in that it focuses much more heavily on the court case that isn’t his case rather than the detective work that is usually more of a feature. This is due to the nature of the court case taking a long time and the witnesses in the case. While this was enjoyable, I like those types of books as well, it didn’t feel like the normal Roy Grace stories, Grace isn’t in the book very much at all although we do hear about his ongoing issues with Cassian Pewe and a hint that this will lead to more in the next book (I really hope so too!) this made the book less action-packed than normal.
While Grace is on secondment to the Met’s Violent Crime Task Force aiming to address the issues of knife crime and doing a sterling job with it, a major drugs ring is in operation. Following a tip-off, Mickey (also known as Lucky) gets caught bringing a fake Ferrari into the country filled with £6million worth of drugs. On returning from his secondment Grace is pulled into the investigation of a murder believed to be linked to the imported drugs and the ongoing trial of the drug lord, Terry Gready.
As always, this has a great plot. It keeps you entertained throughout and there are twists and turns so you don’t know exactly what is going to happen next. There is some great, high-level tech which helps with the jury nobbling but as mentioned above this book lacks some of the action seen in the other books, it’s less dramatic and fast-paced as some of the other books in the series.
The characters are well developed, the Brighton and Sussex team are a continuation of the characters we have come to know through the other books, and there is a fairly considerable time spent on setting out the new characters.
This was a great read but with a slightly different premise to normal and a slightly slower pace as well.
Thank you to Net Galley, the Publisher and the Author for a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
| Title | Find Them Dead |
| Author | Peter James |
| Series | Roy Grace, Book 16 |
| Format | eARC |
| Page Count | 430 Pages |
| Genre | Crime Thrillers |
| Publisher | Macmillan |
| Release Date | 9th July 2020 |
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