You Are Dead (Roy Grace, 11)

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I’m not sure where to start. Peter James is a bit of a Legend in my eyes. He is one of those authors that everybody knows; the man is most certainly one of my favourites. The one small problem I have, and have continued to have with the last few books is the ongoing storyline involving his missing wife Sandy. Now for people wanting to start the series from the beginning and haven’t yet got around to it, please don’t carry on reading my review because it will no doubt contain spoilers (this also applies to people who haven’t read the latest book as things mentioned in my review refer to those events, and I HATE a spoiler. Le Prix Cœur Noir at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines festival, Comme Une Tombe (French translation of Dead Simple) Crime writer Peter James to receive honorary doctorate". brighton.ac.uk. 24 July 2009. Archived from the original on 22 February 2012 . Retrieved 4 August 2009.

James is patron of the Sussex Police Charitable Trust, patron of Brighton & Hove Samaritans, patron of the Brighton Greyhound Owners Association Retired Greyhound Trust, patron of Brighton and Hove Independent Mediation Service, patron of Relate in Sussex, patron of Terrys Cross House, patron of Little Green Pig, national co-patron of Neighbourhood Watch, co-patron of Sussex Crimestoppers, honorary patron for the South Mid Sussex Community First Responders, vice-president of The Old Police Cells Museum in Brighton. He is an ambassador for the University of Brighton, and a Martlets Hospice Champion (which he also supports through his annual Peter James Golf Classic). He supports Action Medical Research. [6] He also supports and works with The Reading Agency, a charity with a mission to give everyone an equal chance in life by helping people become confident and enthusiastic readers. The 11th Roy Grace novel is a very good, intriguing and gripping read for the most part. On one night a young woman is abducted and at the same time a decades old skeleton is unearthed. Is Roy correct in his hunches that the abduction and unearthed skeleton are linked? A lot of old faces are here in this tense read which really kept my interest to the end, wanting to know how it would all work out. My heart just went out to poor Norman, grieving for his fiancé Bella and working as hard as possible to try and keep himself busy. However, I have to say that I did realise who the culprit was pretty much as soon as he appeared and even what was going on behind the scenes, so to speak. If you read the book you will realise what I mean by that cryptic comment. On balance I would have liked to have been kept in the dark a bit longer and with an alternative suspect or two to keep my mind working. Your villains are sometimes victims of childhood abuse. Tell us a bit about damaged souls. Do you sympathize with your villains? Roy Grace is a man whose life has not always been easy. With an ex-wife either dead or missing; a wife, Cleo; small son, and a new house, Grace struggles to keep work and personal life balanced. Just as he and Cleo start to settle into a new house, Grace is called in on a missing person’s case. Following lead after lead, Grace starts to suspect that this may be more than the case of a typical fleeing fiancé and begins to find similarities between killings from thirty years ago and recent murders he has seen around town. Young women in their late teens and early twenties are being kidnapped and killed, the words U R DEAD written on their decaying bodies. In the early days I had years of rejection letters as an unpublished author. It was as if there was a wall, like a Berlin wall, on one side of which were the publishers and the published authors, and on the other side were all those desperate to be published authors–and never the twain should meet. I became hugely despondent in my mid-twenties, really believing that the dream I’d held since the age of eight, of being a published author, would never come true. I resigned myself to the fact that I would never be any good at writing novels, that I just did not have what it took.In terms of my writing, I always joke I’m an overnight success that took 25 years! Because that is how long it took before I could start to live my childhood dream, to make a living out of writing novels. The moment I could do this gave me most satisfaction. I’m also immensely proud that I was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Brighton, for (in their words) “Peter James has been made a Doctor of Letters in recognition of his ongoing contribution to the arts and to the status, infrastructure and culture of Brighton and Hove.” And I was awarded Honorary mastership of the Open University this year. To receive these awards was just amazing – particularly as I virtually got thrown out of school on my ear for only getting grade “e” in each of my three A levels! And then earlier this year I was voted by the UK public – readers of WH Smith, our biggest bookstore chain as the Greatest Crime Writer Of All Time. That was a pretty special feeling! Two of my highlights in the film world have been the Royal Premieres of two films I have been involved with. The first was Biggles, when we had Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and the second, Merchant of Venice, when again we had Prince Charles but this time Camilla Parker Bowles. Both ladies were equally charming. There is no apparent connection between the two crimes; but then another young woman, remarkably similar in appearance to the first, goes missing and another body from the past surfaces. Le Grand Prix de littérature policère, shortlisted, La Mort Leur Va Si Bien (French translation of Looking Good Dead)

The dialogue unfortunately really got on my nerves, a lot of it seemed really corny and I couldn’t imagine it coming out of real people’s mouths. There is an endless succession of “My darlings” and on one occasion Roy’s wife Cleo managed to start a sentence with “My darling” and end it with “My love”. Yuk. I am also not at all sure why there were so many references to homicide and not murder in a UK book written by a UK author.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. I think we are fascinated by how the most seemingly normal people often are the most monstrous criminals. You mention the UK’s worst ever serial killer, Dr. Harold Shipman, and he is a classic example, but there are many more. One aspect that particularly fascinates me is just how many of the worst violent criminals are, outwardly, such seemingly innocuous people. Shipman was a much loved family doctor, who just had a penchant for killing his patients, and murder up to 350 of them. Ted Bundy, one of the US’s worst criminals, raped, murdered, and butchered over 35 women, yet was witty, bright, charming, and had worked as a lawyer for the Republican party. The UK’s James Lloyd, who inspired my 6th Roy Grace novel, Dead Like You, brutally raped as many as 126 women, then took their shoes as trophies, yet was a family man, with two children who adored him, a responsible job; he was a Freemason, and a pillar of his community. He is married to Lara James (m. 2015). [2] His first, 19-year marriage was to Georgina Wilkin, from 1979 until 1998. [3] You’ve had a long and varied career, in film, TV, and writing. What was the “made-it” moment for this boy from Sussex? Or is it still to come? James has written 28 novels, including 11 in the wildly successful D.S. Roy Grace series. The latest installment is YOU ARE DEAD, which follows Grace’s harrowing pursuit of a twisted serial killer.

We can understand the motives of many murderers. A partner who kills their loved one in a fit of jealous rage. A ruthless armed robber who shoots out of greed. The terrorist who kills out of warped ideology. The professional hit man who kills for a fee. The husband who buries his wife beneath the kitchen floor because he’s fallen in love with someone else. But it is the serial killer intrigues and chills us the most. The person who kills for sheer pleasure or satisfaction, the gratification derived from the act, driven by a mindset that is sometimes beyond comprehension, sometimes alien – and always repugnant to decent human beings. And the scariest thing about most of these is their cunning. Serial killers who get away with it for years–and sometimes decades–are often highly intelligent chameleons who blend into society, unsuspected by family and friends. and Norman is trying to cope with the grief of losing his fiancé Bella by working all the hours that god sends. In 2017, James wrote the foreword for the UK edition of The Crime Book, with American crime author Cathy Scott writing the foreword for the US edition. [5] The nonfiction book, a volume in the Big Ideas Simply Explained series, was released by Dorling Kindersley ( Penguin Random House) in April 2017 in the UK and May 2017 in the US.

Publication Order of The MatchUp Collection Books

There are certain subjects I won’t touch, for example pedophilia, but in reality there is very little an author can write that is as horrific as some of the real life crimes perpetrated by sadistic murderers and serial killers. I never start out a novel thinking about raising the bar on the level of violence, and whilst I have whatever violence is necessary for my story, I try to limit it. I don’t want to gross out my readers, or having them throwing up! For me it is much more about firing my readers imaginations than presenting them with lurid gory descriptions. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is brought on to the case and grows suspicious when the one friend who wasn’t out celebrating refuses to collaborate on the case. All of a sudden, a motive surfaces, and Michael’s near accident may not be so accidental after all. In Looking Good Dead, published in 2006, Tom Bryce finds an apparently lost cd and decides to try to return it to its owner. But when his mission to return the cd leads to him witnessing a ghastly homicide, his family is threatened if he decides to go to the police. Meanwhile, Roy Grace is still haunted by his missing wife. It’s been nearly ten years since she disappeared. That same afternoon, workmen digging up a park in another part of the city, unearth the remains of a woman in her early twenties, who has been dead for thirty years. There is an element of violence, which is inevitable in a murder mystery but is just sufficient to keep the keenest fan reading on. This is a plus for a story that might otherwise have been a little dull. The scenes of Brighton and the surrounding areas are well described and many of the landscape features are just as they are described.

Peter James novel You Are Dead is another to feature his Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. The character has become familiar and traces a well-worn pattern that finds Roy leading a large task force when a young woman is abducted at the time when skeletal remains are discovered by workmen.In 2005 The Merchant of Venice, directed by Michael Radford and for which James was executive producer, had a royal premiere in the presence of Prince Charles and received a BAFTA Award nomination. In 2006 the film also won the Silver Ribbon for Best Production Design ( Migliore Scenografia) from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists. Peter James was educated at Charterhouse, then at film school. He lived in North America for a number of years, working as a screenwriter and film producer before returning to England. His novels, including the Sunday Times number one bestselling Roy Grace series, have been translated into 36 languages, with worldwide sales of 15 million copies. Three books have been filmed. He has also written a short story collection, A Twist of the Knife. All his novels reflect his deep interest in the world of the police, with whom he does in-depth research, as well as his fascination with science, medicine and the paranormal. He has also produced numerous films, including The Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes. He divides his time between his homes in Notting Hill, London, and near Brighton in Sussex. Millard, Rachel (22 September 2015). "Crime writer's wedding bash goes off with a big bang". The Argus . Retrieved 20 May 2021. Roy Grace's wife, Chloe, is struggling with moving house and looking after baby Noah almost single handed; I enjoyed You Are Dead and whilst I don't think it is one of the best in the series it is certainly an above average read. It starts with with two separate incidents, the discovery of skeletal remains buried under a footpath which was constructed 20 years ago and the potential abduction of a young woman, Logan Somerville. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say the two cases become linked and lead to the hunt for a serial killer.