‘Dead Simple’ by Peter James

My Review (5 stars out of 5)

What starts off as a stag-night prank ends in tragedy when the groom’s pals are involved in a car accident. Now, the only people who know what they did with Michael are either dead or unable to talk. With only three days to go before the wedding, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace tries to unravel the sequence of events leading up to the car crash. However, Michael’s business partner, who should also have attended the stag party, turned up late to the event and missed all the excitement. But when questioned, he claims not to have known what his pals were planning.

This is the first of the Roy Grace novels and it gets off to a cracking start. Peter James has a knack of creating police procedurals that have a solid background in reality and some of DS Grace’s difficulties with this case are hampered by a series of clashes with those higher up the line – particularly his belief in using a psychic to track possible murder victims.

Knowing the ITV dramatization of the book had already aired on TV, I wanted to read this quickly before comparing the two. Finishing it in two days, the twists and turns and constantly shifting plot kept me gripped right to the end. I also really liked the TV series, which, while it changed a few things around and cut several huge chunks out of the story, did a pretty good job.

A thoroughly absorbing and thrilling read that confirms Peter James as the King of Crime.

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