Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #194 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-20
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Independent on Sunday
'This is the first in a new crime series which promises to be both fascinating and destined for the bestsellers.'

Synopsis
It was meant to be a harmless stag night prank. A few hours later, four of his best friends are dead and Michael Harrison has disappeared. With only three days to the wedding, Detective Superintendent Grace - a man haunted by the shadow of his own missing wife - is contacted by Michael's beautiful, distraught fiancee, Ashley Harper. Grace discovers that the one man who ought to know Michael Harrison's whereabouts is saying nothing. But then he has a lot to gain - more than anyone realizes. For one man's disaster is another man's fortune..."James has got the gift for turning mind-stretching subjects into novels that are irresistibly readable as well as utterly believable" - Robert Goddard. "A brilliant idea, superbly crafted. A terrific page-turner" - James Herbert. "A page-turner of a book with some terrifying twists...a very satisfying read" - George Baker, Inspector Wexford.

From the Author
Dear Readers,

This brief note is to tell you little bit about my new novel DEAD SIMPLE and a character - drawn from real life police officer I know - who I have been developing for several years.

I have been addicted to stories featuring the great detectives of fiction since I was a child, from Sherlock Holmes and Philip Marlowe through to Morse and Rebus. To me all these great characters are compelling not so much because they are brilliant at solving crimes, but because they succeed despite their flaws. They have weakness and fallibility, just like all of us ordinary folk.

In DEAD SIMPLE my central character, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is such a man. He is brilliant at fighting crimes that happen to others, yet unable to solve the mystery of his wife who vanished into thin air nine years ago. And he is unable to resist resorting to mediums for help in his police work despite the risk to his career prospects from his sceptical chief.

I hope you will enjoy reading the first adventure of Roy Grace as much as I have enjoyed creating him and writing the book.

Very best wishes

Peter James

Customer Reviews

Potiential but too sloppy
In Peter James' "Dead Simple" Michael Harrison ends up in coffin as a stag night prank, his four friends who were supposed to get him out again die in a car crash, and his best man isn't sure he wants him to be found!
He writes well James, but the plot in this crime novel is just way too sloppy.
Like they can't find this guy, but the police doesn't think to check the computers, mobiles of the four friends who planned the stag night (and then the bad guy gets access to them weeks later and deletes everything)
And then he makes a crime novel faux pas (an big no no!) one of the main villains isn't introduced until the last 10% of the book, (oh by the way this guy (who's barely been mentioned or seen for 90% of the story)plays a big relevant part of it too!). t seems like James changes the direction of the plot several times to make it surprising. Instead it becomes incoherent and deus ex machina like. Lots of angles remain unexplored as the author piles more and more of them onto the story.

I like the detective Roy Grace, but the structure of the story just doesnt work. It's way too improbable and badly structured, which is a shame as the writing itself is quite good. We should be hearing more about why Mark and Ashley choose to act like they do, Vic should be in the story much earlier and the bad guy shouldn't be exposed so soon.

disappointed
This was the first Peter james book I have read. I thought the plot interesting, but several things spoilt it for me. One was the policeman's fascination for the occult etc. Another was the policeman's background,i.e. missing wife. A very irritating aspect was the Americanisms, but mostly what has put me off reading any more of Peter James' books is the frequent use of obscenities. The use of these words - whether as expletives or in their proper context - by nearly every character on almost every page indicates a lack of vocabulary on the part of the author.

A bit below par.
A British police procedural introducing Detective Superintendent Roy Grace.

The plot was very interesting - a stag night prank that goes wrong followed by a well-paced escalation of events as many plot twists unfold around an opportunistic business partner and a fiancee that is not all she seems.

The book was a very readable crime thriller but Roy Grace is not as engaging a central character as others in the genre: Rebus (Ian Rankin); Tom Thorne (Mark Billingham).

I found some of the narrative to be a little stilted in parts and was irritated by some faux Americanisms peppered in the dialogue.

Grace's interest in the supernatural and the engagement of mediums and the like somewhat undermined my overall enjoyment of the book.

The use of this particular ploy made for a convenient and rather far fetched ending in my opinion.

I won't be buying into this particular series.