BOOK REVIEW: Dead Simple (Roy Grace, #1) by Peter James

Dead Simple is the first book I have read by Peter James. It is a pretty straightforward entry in the British police procedural genre, with Detective Chief Superintendent Roy Grace as the main protagonist. DCS Grace is a 39-year-old single man whose beloved wife disappeared nearly 9 years ago without a trace, but whom he has refused to have declared dead. (I've become very familiar with the British police hierarchy of titles over the years. Achieving DCS at age 39 is remarkable. I believe Peter Robinson's Alan Banks didn't get there until he was fifty and characters like Ian Rankin's John Rebus and Stuart MacBride's Logan McRae never have.) Grace’s main sidekick is a fellow police officer, a Black (former) bodybuilder named Glenn Branson with a somewhat complicated home life with wife and young kids. There are other secondary characters who potentially can be given interesting backstories, including a potential (straight) love interest for Grace that I think will likely blossom in the future.

The primary strength of Dead Simple is the thrilling premise. A group of four friends takes a buddy out for a “stag night” (bachelor party in American English) a weekend before his wedding. Michael has played pranks on each of these friends and they decide to get revenge by leaving him in a buried coffin with a walkie-talkie, a bottle of whiskey and a straw for air for a few hours. Unfortunately they get in a horrific car accident which kills all of them except for the best man, leaving Michael trapped in a grave where it appears no one knows he is.

With the clock continually ticking towards a time when Michael will either die by dehydration, starvation or both, the plot becomes more complicated as Michael’s fiancé Ashley and best man & business partner Mark appear to be reacting strangely to Michael’s disappearance. Although it begins as Branson’s case, eventually Grace himself gets involved and there are many surprising plot twists which demonstrate why Peter James is such a bestselling author of suspense thrillers. Dead Simple is simply a top-knotch debut. One slight quibble from me is apparently Grace is a believer in the supernatural and has used (and continues to use) mediums and similar dodgy means to help him make breakthroughs in cases. I can appreciate some “genre crossover” but supernatural is not my favorite blend. (I really love a good sci-fi mystery; some that come immediately to mind are the Last Policeman trilogy by Ben H. Winters, the Children of a Dead Earth series by Patrick Tomlinson and, of course, the classic R. Daneel Olivaw & Elijah Baley series by Isaac Asimov.)

Overall, I was quite impressed with Dead Simple and am definitely interested in going on future adventures with DCS Roy Grace as I read the subsequent books in the series.

Title: Dead Simple.
Author: Peter James.
Paperback: 456 pages.
Publisher: Pan Macmillan.
Date Published: December 14, 2005.
Date Read: July 4, 2020.

GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★½☆  (4.5/5.0).

OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.67/4.0).

PLOT: A.
IMAGERY: B+.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: A.