It’s just as well that Grace has some distraction from the murder of Lorna Belling, because the more deeply his team digs into the case, the more likely it seems that the killer was someone inside the Sussex Police.

bestselling author, best known for his Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, now a hit ITV drama starring John Simm as the troubled Brighton copper. Meanwhile, Grace is faced with bringing back home the body of his dead first wife for burial, along with his previously unknown 10-year-old son he is now charged with rearing. What kind of bloke brings his long lost son home, after his mother has committed suicide and then works all weekend? DISCLOSURE: I own my copy of Need You Dead by Peter James, published by MacMillan, thanks to my husband who gave me this copy for Christmas. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.He is a father figure to many, as he portrays the image of a confidante and yet also of a strong and trusted colleague. Such a possibility betrays the trust implicit in the job in which each policeman relies on all the others to watch his back.

There is the very human story of Roy Grace being united for the first time with his son, while at the same time there is the horrific discovery of a woman’s body. There appears to be some animosity between himself and one of his superior officers, which I’m sure has an interesting backstory, but the one feature that does stand out in this book is his absolute concern for his co-workers. Peter James has long demonstrated how a police procedural can not only be intriguing but well written. Hours after learning that Greg, her married lover who was about to divorce his wife and rescue her from her controlling husband, isn’t really about to divorce his wife and isn’t even named Greg, hairdresser Lorna Belling’s unexpectedly violent final confrontation with the faithless adulterer leaves her dead and her killer working feverishly to erase all traces of his involvement with her. There was no need for graphic descriptions of the horrific event, all it took was a telephone conversation and my own imagination.

Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man.

Peter’s novella, ‘ The Perfect Murder’ (2010) went straight in at No 1 in the iBooks chart and spent 40 consecutive weeks in the iBooks Top 10. I'm a huge fan of Peter James and have also read a few of his 'non-Roy Grace' books (he has written horror/thrillers as stand-alone) and they are also brilliant so keep your eyes peeled for this author. From the off Roy seems a little unbalanced, however it totally makes sense as he is just getting closure after the death of Sandy his wife who disappeared many years before.

Its a stressful time for Roy so he can be forgiven for maybe not being totally on the ball with the Lorna Belling case.