Stop Them Dead: New crimes, new villains, Roy Grace returns...

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In the dead of night, a gang of thieves steal a litter of puppies. The owner is killed as they drive off. Roy Grace and his team investigate the murder and discover that criminals have realised that there is a lucrative trade in dogs. As the team dig deeper into the illegal trade, things hit close to home for Grace. The only ‘bad’ part I could really say about this book, & some others, is it felt very cut short & I was a little disappointed that the Bluebell side was not completed a little more, perhaps by a trip to the airport…

The main villain is seen infrequently until the final pig slurry fight. The second killer is seen once waking up in bed. We are treated to some great pieces of detective work by Grace and his team, and it was fun to have all the usual team together for this case – my favourite still must be Norman Potting who was there with his usual drole wit! I also loved the storyline of Bluebell, a young girl whose parents brought her a puppy. This was a sad turn to the case, but interesting watching it unfold. Although the novel features ongoing characters, and their lives, there’s enough detail here for new readers to know what’s going on with them. You could step into the series here and start reading with no problems; you just might take a bit longer to engage with some characters.Stop Them Dead” is the latest novel in the long running Roy Grace series by Peter James. Offering very much the same as earlier novels in the series, this will please ongoing readers. It’s also very accessible to readers new to the series.

A new Peter James will always jump straight to the top of my reading list, I love the Grace series and have enjoyed them all; I am always engrossed by the imaginative storylines and the criminal acts that he can dream up. Sitting in the jury is Meg Magellan, whose daughter's life is being threatened by a stranger who tells her that if she ever wants to see her alive again, it is very simple. At the end of the trial, all she has to do is make sure the jury says just two words . . . Not guilty. Discover the darkness that lurks around every corner in the latest instalment of the award-winning Grace series, now a major ITV series. A ruthless crime. A race against time. In the dead of night, a farmer hears a suspicious noise. It's everyone's worst nightmare: a break-in. When he confronts the intruders, he has no idea that just minutes later he will be left lying in a pool of blood.As will Sandy, I don’t know if there’s a forgiveness for what she did, but it appears we are going to be given a chance to find out, as at the end of this book, it’s said ‘Sandy’s story’ will be the next book to come out. At the scene of the crime, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace soon realises this is no isolated robbery gone wrong but the tip of the iceberg of a nationwide crime wave, in which ruthless organised gangs are making more money from the illegal trade in dogs than drugs. A farmer is killed when confronting intruders who complete the successful robbery of some unusual items. Organised criminal gangs have identified a new market and are willing to do what it takes to make money. Roy Grace is determined to stop it. When a young farmer confronts intruders in the middle of the night he has no idea that just minutes later he will be left dying in a pool of blood. What’s more chilling is what the perpetrators were willing to kill for. The style rarely moves away from sounding like a report except where it sounds like a newspaper article.

Never happy when a real life person supposedly interacts with the fictional. Not likely to be responsible for the outcome of treatment because the patient lives in the imagination of the author. So filler. Cassian Pewe, or as I have renamed him, Cats Spewe, is the baddie you love to hate, he will never be a redeemable character, as many bad ones can be, his callousness & disregard for anyone else have proven that. The range of different crimes covered are nothing new, but the way in which they are all brought together is done well and is a timely reminder to people about some of the dubious practises criminals are involved in. We see the myriad of ways in which the unsuspecting and trusting public can be conned.

Featured Reviews

Discover the darkness that lurks around every corner in the latest instalment of the award-winning Grace series, now a major ITV series. A trade which pits him against some ruthless people who will kill anyone who gets in their way, because where there is greed, there is murder.” I love the Roy Grace books and have read every single one. This latest instalment was a great read and had me hooked from the very beginning. We have a couple of storylines running parallel to each other, with the investigation into the murder of a farmer who was trying to prevent his puppies being stolen, the subsequent trail into who was illegally importing puppies from abroad and the sad hospitalisation of a young girl. The storylines were gripping and, whilst it wasn’t really a “whodunnit”, I was kept on edge wondering how it was all going to end.