When Niall drops his wife at a busy supermarket he expects her to be back in the car within minutes. Eden has only gone for one thing. When he eventually goes in to see what the hold up is, she’s not there. When he reports her as a missing person things take a turn for the worst with police suspecting him of his wife’s murder.
Meanwhile Detective Inspector Roy Grace of Brighton major crimes is living his own nightmare and only the case of Eden’s disappearance is keeping him from breaking down totally.
Can he sore out what has really happened and find out WHERE IS EDEN!!!
Another superb book from Peter Jones for the Roy Grace Series.
#NetGalley #LeftYouDead #PeterJames #RoyGraceSeries

I love Peter James' Roy Grace books, and was very excited to receive this one. However, I found it slightly disappointing. The story is a good one, and all the usual (great) characters are in place but the main story lacks any tension as we pretty much know from the beginning what has happened to Eden. The other storylines all seem a bit too simplistic, and things are resolved very conveniently. I feel that Peter James has lost his enthusiasm for Roy. Hopefully the next book will be better.

Thank you to Pan MacMillan and NetGalley for this ARC of the latest DS Grace book. Arguably one of the best DS Grace novels in a long time. Very gripping and often emotional story, this is a true roller coaster of a story. There are lots of plot twists to keep you guessing all the time. A brilliant addition to this fantastic series.5 stars all the way.

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is back! Eden Poternoster is reported missing by her husband, Niall after popping into a supermarket but fails to return. However, Grace soon suspects this story is a cover up for the fact Niall has murdered Eden and committed the perfect murder - no body, no crime. But nothing is as it seems as the plot then takes another twist.
There is another major storyline that Grace has to deal with, but that would be too much of a spoiler to mention here.
An emotional read, where the crime is not always the main focus. But true as ever, another epic read by Peter James.

The best book in the Roy Grace set! I loved everything about this book – the victimless murder, the twist in Roy’s homelife and the Pew problem – no spoilers here! Starting a Roy Grace book is like sitting down with an old friend. You quickly get back into his life and work as if you were only reading about him yesterday, as opposed to a year ago. This book ties in all the brilliant elements of the series, with a gripping main story, as well as a big storyline about Bruno and other smaller stories which we know will be picked up in the next book. The only downside to this book is that I now have to wait another year for the next one …

Roy Grace #17.

Niall Paternoster drops his wife Eden at Tesco in Brighton while he parks and waits in the car and that’s the last he sees of her. He duly reports her missing the following day. Meanwhile Detective Superintendent Roy Grace visits Ford Prison and obtains some interesting information about his arch nemesis Assistant Chief Constable Cassian Pewe. .

It feels good to be returning to the lovely Brighton area to the well established team led by Grace who now feel very familiar. I’m pleased to report that Norman Potting is still delivering his cringe worthy one liners and DI Glenn Branson is as sartorially elegant as ever. I like the balance between Grace’s home situation and leading an inquiry as when you get this far into a series you want to know how things are progressing and his wife Cleo is a really good character who supportively keeps his feet on the ground. In this one their story is an emotional and moving one which is handled extremely well and also makes you feel something. I like the ongoing war of attrition between Pewe and Grace with Cassian continuing to NOT endear himself and leaving Roy to ponder why he bothered to save his life I’m sure!! The case of the Paternoster’s is an interesting one, it builds well , with plenty of contradictory evidence with several twists in the plotting, one or two I do foresee but it doesn’t spoil the enjoyment. The finale is extremely exciting and in a great setting and I can see that making terrific TV viewing when the filming eventually catches up to this instalment. Peter James always gives you the feeling that the police procedures are very well researched so they feel authentic as the team work through the enquiry. At times there is some repetition and on occasions it’s a bit over burdened with facts and some unnecessary detail. However, overall I did enjoy the latest addition to this long running series. Although it is at 17 it can easily be read as a stand-alone as the author gives sufficient background information so new readers can makes sense of ongoing stories.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Pan McMillan for granting my wish for it arc in return for an honest review.

I love reading books set where I live and to see so many places that I come across in my daily life. Brighton and West Sussex are one of the most beautiful places in England, but that doesn’t mean that crimes are not happening here.

Peter James is a must read author and while his stories are fiction related, they always call for an awareness of what happens around us.

Fast-paced, methodical police procedural, with so many twists and turns that have put my imaginations and theories at try. I loved how everything comes together and how there are so many tidbits of psychology throughout the pages. I didn’t trust the husband for one moment. I always felt like something was amiss, and some characters picked my interest quite a bit. Everyone had something to hide, and the detectives unveiled some secrets in the most unexpected way.

Left you dead is another must-read and suspenseful book that many readers will enjoy as much as I did.

Left You Dead by Peter James was a book full of stories and I loved every one of them. Roy Grace is the type of person you’d just love to know, work for, befriend. He’s genuine, empathetic and self aware. This book is about a missing person and suspected murder but it’s also about Grace’s back story, his loss, his family and his current situation, both at home and in work. I can’t believe I’ve missed so many other books about Grace but intend to remedy that. I really got nothing else done once I started the book as I just wanted to keep reading to find out what happened next. The characters were well fleshed out and I felt I got to know their personalities quite well. The story has all the ingredients of anger and domestic violence undertones, deception, mental and physical health issues with workplace bullying and corruption. Grace’s paradigm of looking for the good in people yet never ruling out what people are capable of is used to great effect in keeping you guessing throughout this excellent, and also sad, read. Five stars for this one from me

When a woman goes missing, and blood is found on the floor of the kitchen, suspicion falls on the abusive husband. However, something is off. DS Roy Grace is called in on a possible murder investigation, but he has other things distracting his thoughts.

The book is well thought out, the characters seem real, and the plot keeps the reader guessing till the end.

A clever and well thought out crime drama. What more do you need?

I have long been a fan of Peter James’s Roy Grace series so I felt very lucky to get a sneak peek at his latest. I discovered the books when in hospital around six years ago and I spent a great ten days whipping through the novels one after another. Then came that horrible moment of regret that every bookworm experiences after a binge on one author - reaching the latest in the series then having to wait for them to come out! Luckily, we’re now getting the TV adaptation with the wonderful John Simm as Grace so I can dive into those now I’m up to date again.

We meet Grace at a settled point in life. He and Cleo living out in the country together with their son Noah and Grace’s son Bruno, dog Humphrey and even some chickens. That’s not to say there isn’t the usual everyday dramas, at work and at home. The novel opens as Grace has passed on evidence of police corruption to his friend and colleague from the MET, Alison Vosper. The evidence, if it checks out, should be enough to have his hated boss arrested, never to return. If it doesn’t check out, he will have trusted the word of a criminal to topple a man who isn’t shy about showing his animosity towards Grace. This could end his career in the Sussex force. On the home front Noah is entering the ‘terrible twos’ and both Grace and Cleo are juggling home life with two very demanding jobs. Grace’s most pressing worry though is his older son, who doesn’t seem to be settling and is morbidly curious about such things as Egyptian death rituals. Bruno is his son from his first marriage to Sandy, who disappeared without a trace several years ago leaving Grace facing a possible murder charge. She was hiding out in Munich, after living in several cults and having concealed the fact she’d had a son after leaving him. It’s no surprise that Bruno is mixed-up, but what is the best way to support him?

Our case is equally puzzling. Niall Paternoster reports his wife missing, claiming not to have seen her since the day before when he dropped her at Tesco to buy cat litter. On their way back from visiting a stately home, Eden had reminded him he’d forgotten the previous day. They bickered their way back to Brighton, but finding the car part overrun she suggested he stay in the car and she would pop in. However, she never returned and as the store closed a search failed to find her. Knowing that his wife had stayed with friends after an argument in the past, he hadn’t been worried until 24 hours later. Yet, the usual police enquiries fail to find Eden, she’s not captured on CCTV and in fact there’s no proof she was alive after the Thursday before their stately home day trip. Has Roy Grace found himself landed with the trickiest type of crime to investigate and prosecute - a so called ‘no-body murder’?

One of Peter James’s greatest strengths in this whole series is being able to write about the personal as well as the professional, whether it’s the minutiae of daily living or the deepest tragedies we can face. It’s quite shock when it happens in this novel and the author handles it beautifully, capturing that bewildering mix of emotions from shock, to the rawness of grief as well as the regrets and fears. As always Grace faces this with a copper’s brain - his first response is to think, rather than feel. He questions everything about the circumstances, how it could have happened, then the inevitable why and could he have changed anything? He also deals with it by throwing himself into his work. His grief is so enormous he can’t sit in it for too long, he needs a distraction and luckily Cleo understands this behaviour and lets him cope the way he knows best.

The case becomes more and more intriguing, as surveillance picks up a possible extra-marital relationship on the part of the husband. As well they discover a shallow grave with blood stained clothing and the neighbours describing a terrible argument between the couple. However, something just doesn’t smell right for Grace as they identify the woman having an affair with Eden’s husband is her boss. There’s also the matter of an easily discovered knife, seemingly left in haste. Is this one of those infamous small mistakes that catch a killer or is someone trying to set Niall up? The characters in this triangle are hard to like. Niall is mercenary, abusive and seemingly finds women with money who can support him. Eden’s boss is cold and unfeeling at best, but appears increasingly manipulative and suspicious. We don’t know Eden well, until a staggering twist part way through gives us more background on her character. Luckily we don’t need them to be likeable to be fascinated and compelled by Eden’s disappearance. It felt like being caught in a spider’s web, but not knowing who is the spider.

As always, it’s Grace who is the beating heart of this novel and it’s conscience. If the difficulties he’s facing just coping with his grief aren’t enough, there’s the constant tension surrounding his relationship with the Chief Constable. There are the petty everyday differences they have over the investigation (the CC would have scaled it back) and resources (taking away his surveillance team at a critical point in the investigation). Then, underlying it all, what if Grace has taken the word of a criminal to unmask the CC’s corruption, to find he’s been lied to? Every day that goes by with no news, Grace can see his career disappearing. Once he uncovers some vital paperwork that throws a new light on the Paternoster case, Grace is all business. The build up of tension towards the end of the novel is almost unbearable. The author puts his hero in terrible danger, as on a stormy night in a remote place the whole mystery is uncovered and the real mastermind is revealed. By this point I noticed I was holding my breath! It takes a great writer to make the reader feel real emotions alongside a character. Whether it’s the professional or the personal, I find myself willing him on and hoping that, not only does he solve the case, but that he gets home to Noah and Cleo safe and sound. I felt this, so deeply in this novel, especially as Grace himself ponders how he would cope if he lost anyone else important to him. I raced to the end of the novel, not just to see the case solved, but to see him safely home. Roy Grace is one of those rare characters who has burrowed his way into my heart. I look forward to whatever comes next for him.

This review will appear on my blog this weekend.

Another great read from Peter James!

The 17th book in the Roy Grace does not disappoint, a fast paced book. The writing is of the usual Peter James calibre and the book can be read as a stand alone due to the depth of the back story.
Roy Grace is investigating the disappearance of Eden Paternoster, she is dropped of at a Tesco store by her husband , and hasn’t been since.
The writing is fast paced and the narrative is both humorous and emotional at times. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep you hooked until the conclusion.

An excellent read , highly recommended!

Thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for an advance copy of Left You Dead, the seventeenth novel to feature Detective Roy Grace of the Sussex Police Major Crimes Unit.

Niall Paternoster waits in the car while his wife, Eden, nips into the local supermarket for cat litter, but she never comes back. She has vanished without a trace and the police suspect that Niall has murdered her and the evidence points that way, but, with no body it isn’t enough to charge him.

I thoroughly enjoyed Left You Dead, which is another engrossing read, full of twists and turns. I did guess the direction of the novel early on, but nothing prepared me for the detail, so I felt that I was hit hard by surprise after surprise and each new revelation caused me doubt my hypothesis and speculate even harder about events. It’s probably not very likely but, boy, is it entertaining and absorbing.

The novel opens with a recounting of Eden’s disappearance from Niall Paternoster’s point of view and this sets the tone, a relatively straightforward account that seems true until the doubts creep in and the reader is unsure what to believe. This happens throughout the novel. It’s skilfully done and insidiously clever. Roy Grace’s attention is not wholly on the case as he has some other things going on, offering both heartbreak and potential joy, and yet he’s still the one to connect all the dots. The upshot is that this novel is a rollercoaster. I was continually on edge trying to work out what exactly was going on, then it had me in tears when tragedy strikes and finally I felt uplifted as hope blooms at the last minute, setting up the next novel nicely.

Left You Dead is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

Well here we are on the 17th outing for Roy Grace in his hometown of Brighton. I simply love this series and eagerly await each new episode so unsurprisingly Peter James gets a big thumbs up from me for this intriguing story.

Eden and Niall Paternoster spend their Sunday visiting a National Trust property when on the way home they bicker in part out of habit and more immediately because they need cat litter. Eden jumps out of the car at the local Tesco and vanishes into thin air. When she is reported as a missing person the case ends up on the list for the team.

So as always we have a well-plotted story for the team, and on the other we have an equally absorbing storyline that follows the detectives, There are changes afoot for many of the team with a mixed bag of good and bad news.

Although I did manage to work out some of the investigation, if anything I preferred it to the last novel which moved away from the more personal aspects that I love in this series.

A real page-turner with plenty of excitement and twists to keep you hooked.

I really enjoy James Patterson’s writing. It’s so cinematic in its depth of description and quality of character development. I’m new to the Roy Grace series but even so, I knew James would leave me out! There’s enough backstory in this book for a newbie like me to quickly catch up and run with the plot.

The plot is perhaps the hardest thing for me to review because after a ‘certain’ book became famous a couple of years ago, all books following a similar premise become less twisty/shocking. This for me, was very obvious from the start what had happened but the ins and outs of how it occurred were still obscured.

In this book another storyline runs in tandem with that of the synopsis and is given almost equal weighting. Whilst interesting and sad to read I did feel that at times it took over too much content and got in the way of the main story.

Grace is obviously a fan of facts/sayings and history as there’s a lot of interesting content peppered throughout.

Overall a fab read and one fans will certainly enjoy but, for me, it wasn’t my favourite as I felt the similarities to another book spoilt the ‘big reveal’.

Thanks to NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Left You Dead is the 17th book in Peter James' incredibly popular Roy Grace series and regular fans won't be disappointed.

Niall and Eden Paternoster enjoy their Sunday morning with a visit to a country house. On the way home Eden remembers that they need some cat litter so they stop off at their local Tesco on the way home. Niall waits in the car while Eden nips into the store. He waits some more,he waits a bit longer and eventually he decides to check to see why Eden is taking so long. Thee's no sign of her in the shop,none of the staff remember seeing her and she doesn't appear on the store CCTV. Thinking she might have found her way home Niall returns to the house,no sign of her there either and after checking with friends and family he calls the police the next day.

Niall's not the most convincing witness and appears to be hiding something so he's arrested and charged with murder despite no body having been found. Grace and the regular crew then investigate a case where nothing is as it first appears and a very tangled web has been weaved.
While Grace is investigating the murder he receives devastating news which forms a backstory to the murder investigation, I thought this dragged on a bit but it does play a big part in Grace's life.

All the old favourites are here, Glenn Branson , Norman Potting,Cleo and of course Humphrey amongst others . Grace's nemesis Cassian Pewe also appears doing his regular "Flashman in a police uniform" bit .
This is an easy read that can be read as a standalone but as ever as part of a very popular series those who have been following from Book 1 will get a lot more out of it. It's quite a complex tale with plenty of good twists and some story threads that move Grace's personal story along and hint at interesting things in the next book.

Back to a 'good yarn' after what I felt had been two less exciting books in the Roy Grace series. Lots of twists and turns in this story which starts as a girlfriend going missing in a Tesco car park. There's quickly a murder enquiry but is all as it seems? There's plenty of alternate interpretations. Also plenty in Roy's personal life to get into as well; a heartbreaking family story which can only be borne by Roy throwing himself into the latest case - to be faced at a later date.
His arch-enemy Cassian Pewe of course is here - Has Roy finally got the ammunition to cause his downfall? There's always that promotion to the Met if things go wrong... Super cliff-hanger near the end, too. Thoroughly enjoyed this.

I have been a follower of this author for a few years now and I thoroughly enjoy all his books especially the Roy Grace Series. This was no exception and I really enjoyed the storyline which kept me on the edge of my seat throughout and I loved every page.

The story was well written as usual with a great plot and I enjoy the friendship between between Grace and Branson. I can thoroughly recommend this book and thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I really enjoyed this books more twists and turns than a country road lots of different strands that all come together I could not put it down

Peter's latest book is always eagerly anticipated and this one did not disappoint. Such brilliant writing, very emotive and totally convincing on police procedure and a joy to read. My only complaint was that I read it far too quickly! When's the next one coming out?!

This is an enjoyable story if not the most exciting one in the series. Here Roy is tasked with searching for a missing woman, if she is indeed missing. He has to wade through lie after misdirection, no-one seems to be telling the truth. At the same time his personal life is imploding, work is all that is keeping him sane. And on top of this the odious Cassion Pewe is endeavouring, as always, to make his life a misery.
I found myself shifting between emotions throughout the book, from frustration to confusion to sorrow but was left with a wry smile on my face along with a sense of schadenfreude.