Peter James – You Are Dead – Roy Grace # 11 ****
Book 50 of 2015
Peter James has written eleven police procedural novels featuring Brighton Detective Superintendent (DS) Roy Grace. The eleventh installment in this series is You Are Dead and the first book that I have read in the series. I can tell you it won’t be the last!! You Are Dead is the 50th book that I have read in 2015. I am now one book away from my goal!!
You Are Dead opens with the abduction of a young woman Logan Somerville, from the parking garage below her apartment block in Brighton. That same day workers refurbishing a 30-year old pathway in the park dig up the body of a young woman who was killed at the time of the initial construction of the pathway. At first it seems that the two crimes can not be connected but soon after another woman with long brown hair like Logan’s and a another body from the past washes ashore Roy Grace is convinced that the two are connected and he is chasing Brighton’s first serial killer in eighty years!
Since I am new to the series I don’t know all the characters but with that said it didn’t take long to get to know Roy and his new wife Cleo and son Nathan along with the members of his Major Crimes Team. While the story stands on its own I know I have to go back and read more books in the series to find out more about them. I especially want to find out more about Roy’s long-lost wife Sandy, who it appears has surfaced in Germany after mysteriously disappearing ten years ago!!
Bottom Line: I don’t read a lot of police procedurals but You Are Dead my just change that. His characters including the serial killer who describes his victims as projects, are all wonderfully drawn and believable and Roy Grace is certainly a character you can admire and root for! The story line was well-woven and kept you wondering about the perpetrator of the crimes and his associates and the final resolutions of both the chase for the serial killer and the resurrection of Sandy left me eagerly waiting for the next installment of the series!! So Check It Out!! I am off to find Dead Simple book number one in the series!! Dead Simple just may kick off my 2016 reading!!!
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Goodreads: You Are Dead.