Left You Dead: A Realistically Creepy Crime Thriller (Roy Grace Book 17)

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James was educated at Charterhouse and went on to Ravensbourne Film School. For a brief period of time whilst at film school, James worked as Orson Welles's house cleaner. Subsequently, he spent several years in North America, working as a screenwriter and film producer, beginning in Canada in 1970 working first as a gofer, then writer, on the children's television series Polka Dot Door. [1] Personal life [ edit ] The case itself made a welcome distraction as Niall Paternoster becomes the prime suspect in the potential murder of his wife Eden who has gone without a trace. OK, I digress. Once I was past the names, I was on firmer ground with the 17th book in Peter James’ Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series. This is one of the few ongoing sagas that still has me gripped, although the previous outing, Find Them Dead, left me feeling rather dissatisfied as the main character seemed to have been sidelined.

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. Following its world premiere this summer, a stage play of Looking Good Dead, starring Adam Woodyatt in the lead role, is set for a run at Brighton's Theatre Royal in October. His father ran the business as well as an accountant. His sister Genevieve now runs the company along with her husband. He attended Charterhouse School and later attended Ravensbourne Film School. James spent a few years working in North America as a film producer and screenwriter. He got his start in 1970 on the Canadian children’s television show Polka Dot Door as an errand boy and later writer. He cofounded Movision Pictures in the nineties.The next day there is still no trace of Eden and Niall decides to call the police. After a police visit and a few investigations Niall is arrested on suspicion of her murder. DS Roy Grace is called in to investigate and with all his experience he soon realises this case is not all it seems.

Meanwhile, there’s the usual sideshows that we associate with a James novel – his private life with wife Cleo and strange young son Bruno, problems for his loyal supporting cast of hard-working cops, and the malign presence of ACC Cassian Pewe looming over it all.I call it the everyday sinister - I'm more interested in the idea of something happening to any one individual, like you or me." And of course, filming is also due to begin later this year on the second series of ITV's small screen adaptation Grace, with three new 120 minute films based on Peter's novels Not Dead Enough, Dead Man’s Footsteps and Dead Tomorrow.

James became a successful producer of 26 films. The first movie he produced was 1971’s The Corpse Grinders. In addition to Corpse Grinders, Peter James has also produced such movies as Under Milk Wood, Dead of Night, Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things, Spanish Fly, Jericho Mansions, Head in the Clouds, and The Bridge of San Luis Rey. He was the executive producer of 2004’s take on Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. It was actually very interesting to read how modern policing can learn so much about a person’s movements and activities, Mr James does his research well. It’s probably not a good idea to plan to murder someone these days! Yet our cast of characters are not as they seem and many dark secrets are still to come to light.

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

I spent the start of Left You Dead faintly distracted by the names Niall and Eden Paternoster. This may be because of being traumatised for life by an incident getting out of a paternoster (one of those moving series of compartments now outlawed on health and safety grounds) at the University of Leicester … 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. . The writing is effortless and smooth. The characters are devious, astute, and committed. And the plot, including all the subplots, unravel and intertwine into a mysterious tale full of twists, turns, manipulation, deception, desperation, red herrings, police politics, familial drama, and personal tragedy. There is a second plot that explores the deep and emotional theme of organ donation and how vital it is. One of the storylines that seemed to be irrelevant might have been because it was a major point in a previous book? I’m not sure. I haven’t read any of the other books and understood this one could be read as a standalone, but maybe some of the side stories tie into the series as a whole?