First a confession. Much as I love a series arc story, I have to admit that I got so annoyed with the lack of resolution of "what happened to Sandy" that I actually quit reading the Roy Grace series of books. Each book filled me with hope that I would finally learn the truth, only to have it teased out for just a bit longer... And it annoyed me. That said, I did go back recently and revisit the books I have missed out on. I guess knowing there is no resolution before you start is a great healer... So... why am I boring you with this guff. Well, to set the scene of how much I wanted to know. With this book, which got me so excited, I would finally find out... Hear Sandy's story.
Maybe I was too excited. Maybe I wanted too much. Or maybe the book was indeed too incredible that I gave up counting the number of times I rolled my eyes at something that happened. Skirt credibility...? No the author went far far beyond skirting it. Sorry. I just couldn't buy some of the things that either Sandy did, or that happened to her.
That said, it was a quick, easy read which I read start to finish in a day so there's that on the positive side. And it's (hopefully) all done now... Also it was quite clever insofar as the main story and chronology matched the teasers in the series books....
And, also sadly, it's a reminder of the moral of wanting something so much that when you finally get it, it disappoints.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Having read several of Peter James' twenty or so crime and thriller novels based on Detective Roy Grace, I was looking forward to "They Thought I Was Dead: Sandy's Story" where we were to find out what happened to Roy's wife, Sandy, who disappeared on his 30th birthday.

Maybe I was expecting too much as this book disappointed me in various ways. I found the story repetitive and Sandy completely unlikeable. She kept meeting unsuitable men, falling for them immediately and putting all her trust in them despite them being criminals and often violent. Sandy just got into more and more trouble with various addictions including gambling, alcohol and drugs. It was all very depressing and some of the violence and torture scenes turned my stomach. I wish I hadn’t read them.

My least favourite Peter James book. With thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An enjoyable addition to the Peter James oeuvre and a pleasant enough read. The Roy Grace series is consistently excellent but the story of his wife Sandy was dragged out ad nauseam and I'm not sure the world needs this account from Sandy herself about where she went!

Having read the Roy Grace books this has tied up loose ends. Although has it?
Sandy was married to Roy.
She left him and disappeared.
She died.

What happened in between?

Her name is Sandy. You might know her as the loving wife of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. But there's more to her than meets the eye. A woman with a dubious past, a complicated present and an uncertain future. Then she was gone. Some will think they know how it ends....

From reading all the books in the Roy Grace series, I knew Sandy's story from Roy's perspective. Now, we are getting the chance to hear Sandy's.

It did take me a little while to get into the story, but once I was in, I was hooked. Sandy has made a lot of bad choices in her life. She always wanted what other people had. She's not a likeable character either, but this story tells us where she's been for the years she's been missing. Her story is quite complex, But I'm not going to tell you any more, I'll let Sandy tell you herself when you read her story.

Published 9th May

I would like to thank #NetGalley #PanMacmillan and the author #PeterJames for my ARC of #TheyThoughtIWasDeadSandysStory in exchange for an honest review.

Peter James' Roy Grace series is one of - if not the - bestselling set of crime novels of recent years. Through the course of the series, Grace's life has been chronicled in some detail. Part of that life was his first marriage, to Sandy. This book tells Sandy's side of the story. For James completists, there is a lot here that has not previously been revealed and the book will answer a lot of questions. However, it is really an unnecessary addition to the series, was there any real reason why there couldn't have remained a mystery in Roy's background?

The tale is told in the first person, and as Sandy turns out to not be a particularly likeable character, it is difficult to empathise with her situation - particularly as the majority of readers will already be aware of how her disappearance affected Roy's life over the years. The book also suffers from two glaring errors...and I mean errors of fact, not canon. I won't point them out here but readers will soon find them. There is also an issue of tense.,,some parts of the story are told in the present tense as seems to be the current, temporary, trend, whilst other parts revert to the standard past tense. There does not appear to be any reason as to why tenses switch, sometimes within the same paragraph> This makes total immersion in the story difficult as the reader is abruptly pulled from past to present without warning.

The quality of James' books took a dip in recent years before the author seemingly found his feet again around the time of the pandemic, but this is a disappointing effort from a puzzling writer.

Peter James is one of my favourite authors so was very keen to read this. Such an intriguing thing to do to fill in those gaps about Sandy's story. It was not how I imagined it to be at all, but it was a good read and now we know....

In the first Roy Grace series, his wife Sandy disappears without a trace, but we don’t know why and all the series we wonder where she is. Is she dead or alive and somewhere else. This is her story.
Sandy gets involved with the wrong people and owes money too, Roy is oblivious to her dilemma. The only thing is he is investigating him for several murders. Sandy goes on the run because she thinks she has no choice. But, doing so she gets in worse situations that she was first in. Which includes drugs, gambling and getting people murdered and meeting some unsavoury characters along the way. Not only that. she has a son who she thinks is Roy’s, but he doesn’t know.
You don’t have to have read the whole Roy Grace series to read this. You can read it as a standalone. This is great. intriguing read and couldn’t stop reading which each stage and problem that Sandy faced. But in all she does she still couldn’t think of Roy and what might have been if she stayed with him. It feels like this series is concluding with this book. Or is there more Roy Grace to come. I hope so. 5 stars from me.

I love Roy Grace as a character and always had that lingering doubt about Sandy in each and every novel- so it was nice to find out he is indeed an upstanding and innocent (at least in this case!) chap!
Sandy's story is certainly a whirlwind with lots of danger, especially with a child in tow. She is the queen of poor decision making but in the situations she finds herself in it is no surprise that she is left with only bad choices!
An enjoyable, well -paced read!

I have enjoyed so many of Peter James' books I was very curious to learn the secret of Sandy. Sadly, I really didn't enjoy reading this. From almost the first page Sandy holds no appeal as a character. I am not entirely sure what feelings we are supposed to hold for Sandy, but I suspect disdain and disinterest are the ones James was hoping for. Weak, unpleasant, whinging, manipulative, lazy, often stupid (surely no woman in 2024 is this stupid?!), and greedy. I simply couldn't connect with anything about her or any choice she made.
I suspect the issue lies as much in the writing as the storyline - maybe we're supposed to find her naive and vulnerable, to cheer when she shows a moment's strength, and be proud when she does something (relatively) strong, but nope - instead we get a shallow reading of a shallow person I cannot believe the great detective didn't see through. But then, I did say she was manipulative.
Nobody comes across as real in this book, they are all pastiches of trope drug dealers, gamblers, money lenders and general 'bad guys'.
It's just too bland, boring and frustrating. Each scenario is more unlikely than the next, there is nothing suspenseful, it's all just dull.
The only thing worse than a person blaming all of their life's ills on 'it wasn't my fault' is that same person ruining someone else's life at the same time, while constantly justifying it by saying they had no choice.
The only reason this book scores more than one star is that at least the ending delivers.

Sandy is a very troubled character. She is very gullible especially where men are concerned. When she marries Roy she finally has a good man and a comfortable life but, perhaps because his job is all-consuming and he often has to cancel dates because of work, she is bored and makes a lot of wrong decisions. Her life then spirals out of her control. A clever book that weaves all the snippets we have had in previous books into complex and gripping story.

I have read all of the Roy Grace books and so was pleased to get this Arc to read.
The book is the story of Roy's wife Sandy that went missing over ten years ago we read of Sandy throughout the series and there happy marriage and wonder where she went to and this is the book which tells you where.
Sandy is not the mild loving wife Roy knows and her history is very colourful and upsetting and shows numerous wrong turnings she took whilst missing.
A great story
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC and I give my honest review

The wife of a detective wants more. She spirals into a gambling habit with debts to pay to some very nasty people but is afraid to tell her husband.
She decides to flee and lurches from one relationship to another with disastrous consequences trying to get out of the holes she digs.
Not what a expected as I thought this was a detective novel and though similar follows events from the opposite side.
Well worth a read and shows how quickly you can slide from normality into the unkown.

Throughout the Roy Grace series by Peter James, the burning question for me has been where is Sandy? I wondered if she had left of her own free will, and if so, why? If not, what happened to her? Did Roy kill her and get away with it? As each new book came out I eagerly read it, in the hopes of having that question answered.
There was closure of sorts eventually, but no backstory, no insights into why Sandy did what she did. Until now.
They Thought I Was Dead is very much Sandy's story, and it's not a pretty one. It's a story of bad choices, followed by more bad choices. It's the story of someone who believes that the grass is greener on their neighbours side of the fence, only to discover when it's too late that this is not the case.
I devoured this book. Although Sandy is not a very likeable person, her story was still interesting and engaging. There are plenty of twists and turns, and one or two "oh my god!" moments.
You don't have to have read the Roy Grace series before reading They Thought I Was Dead, but it adds context.
Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the digital ARC in exchange for this review.

There is just one thing I didn't like about the book: after finishing it, I felt I had to re-read the whole Roy Grace series again. Immediately. Frustratingly I have so many books on my TBR shelf I will have not time for this in the foreseeable future. And some of the earlier books I only read in Dutch so I would have to buy the original ones first.
This is how I felt after reading this very, very interesting story about Sandy. It's not just about Sanday of course. It's also about Roy but it is also about people making bad decisions without being able to pinpoint why they made them. Gambling, drugs? It's easy to say 'this will never happen to me' but are you sure? Sandy was safe in a loving marriage and it happened to her too. Sometimes I wanted to shake some sense in her, sometimes I wanted to hold her and comfort her.
I'm happy Peter James decided to write this book. Although it can be read as a stand-alone it is a part of Roy's story too, a part that explains a lot about him.
Some of the characters are rather creepy and unfortunately the nice characters don't play a big role in Sandy's life but I admired her in the places where she tried to stick to her resolves - even at the terrible costs.

Thanks to PanMacMilland and Netgalley for this review copy.

This certainly ‘ puts the meat on the bones’ of Sandy’s tortured character drawing together the hints cast along the way in the series of Grace novels. An interesting and compelling read bringing Sandy to the forefront

I really enjoy the Roy Grace books by Peter James but I’m afraid this one didn’t work for me in the same way. I found Sandy’s character to be utterly infuriating, making the same mistakes repeatedly and the story just felt repetitive – meets unsuitable man, instant attraction, acts impulsively, huge mistake over and over. It’s difficult to make a complicated character stay sympathetic and this book didn’t quite manage it for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

The most anticipated book in my opinion. Sandy has always held intrigue in the Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series. Why did she disappear, why move to Germany, is Bruno Roy’s son? The book finally put some meat on bones, providing detail and reasoning behind a lot of unanswered questions.
Sandy’s life is complex and full of secrets which all catch up with her. With several white knights that aren’t all as they seem, she has not had an easy time of things.
5 stars to Peter James and thank you for finally giving us the story we have all wanted!

Wow, what a read. Really binge worthy. Love the amazing concept to tell your readers what really happened to Sandy. I am sure I was not alone in never really worrying about her, it was just a fact that she vanished without trace, and was always a back story. This really gave the reader why she left, and how she managed it without a trace. So clever the way her history was filled in. I thoroughly enjoyed it and struggled to put it down.

I am a huge fan of the Roy Grace series, so was really excited to see that Peter James had written this book. When we first meet police officer Roy Grace, he is still desperately trying to find out what happened to his wife Sandy, who disappeared suddenly and without trace. Throughout the series we have been given little scraps of Sandy's story, but this is the complete picture and I really loved it!! I also found it very sad, as Sandy seemed to always be looking for something in life and never seemed completely happy. We already knew how it ended but it was good to get all the gaps filled in.
Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
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