Want You Dead

by Peter James

Overview

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace knows not every love story has a happy ending. Grace’s wife Sandy is officially declared dead after being missing for a decade, allowing him to marry the mother of his baby son. But Sandy’s disappearance is unexplained for a reason. Bryce Laurent doesn’t want his ex-girlfriend to move on. Terrified by Bryce’s dark side, she seeks police protection. But Bryce will not be stopped, determined to destroy everything and everyone she has ever known and loved—and then her too.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781509898930
Publisher:	Pan Macmillan
Publication date:	04/03/2020
Series:	Roy Grace Series , #10
Pages:	528
Sales rank:	594,566
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Peter James is a UK number one bestselling author, best known for writing crime and thriller novels, and the creator of the much-loved Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. Globally, his books have been translated into thirty-seven languages.

Synonymous with plot-twisting page-turners, Peter has garnered an army of loyal fans throughout his storytelling career – which also included stints writing for TV and producing films. He has won over forty awards for his work, including the WHSmith Best Crime Author of All Time Award, Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger and a BAFTA nomination for The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons for which he was an Executive Producer. Many of Peter’s novels have been adapted for film, TV and stage.

Editorial Reviews

Peter James is one of the best British crime authors” —Lee Child

“Peter James is one of the best crime writers in the business” —Karin Slaughter

From the Publisher

08/04/2014
British author James’s 10th novel featuring Det. Supt. Roy Grace of the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team (after 2013’s Dead Man’s Time) is an adroit study of obsession and revenge. Bryce Laurent, a violent narcissist who can’t bear to see ex-girlfriend Red Westwood dating someone else, rents an apartment nearby, and spies on her using the night-sights of his crossbow and several bugging devices. Shortly after Red’s new boyfriend, Dr. Karl Murphy, fails to show up for a date, the police question her about his disappearance, while also enquiring after Laurent, against whom Red has a restraining order. When a group of golfers discover a badly burned corpse, Grace gets on the case. The author is unflinching in his descriptions of domestic abuse, and paints a vivid picture of Brighton with daily life punctuated by cigarettes, booze, and greasy food. A subplot involving Grace’s vanished wife, Sandy, will please series regulars. Agent: Carole Blake, Blake Friedmann Literary. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

2014-09-13
While he counts down the days till he marries pathology technician Cleo Morey, the mother of his baby son, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace tangles with a dangerously unbalanced jack-of-all-trades who just won't let his ex-lover go. "If I can't have you, no one will," thinks George Clooney look-alike Bryce Laurent about Red Westwood, the flame-haired beauty who dumped him when his over-the-top devotion turned abusive and scary. It's hardly an original concept, but Bryce brings unusual qualifications to the role of the spurned lover-turned-avenger. Though his stories about being an airplane pilot and air traffic controller were piffle, he has expert knowledge of locks (and how to pick them), fires (how to put them out, how to start them) and explosives (guess). He's a classic narcissist who's perfectly prepared to warm up for his planned torture killing of Red by attacking those closest to her, beginning with her current boyfriend, widowed family physician Karl Murphy. As Bryce considers whom to strike next—perhaps Red's best friend, dentist Raquel Evans, or Camilla Westwood, the mother who hired a detective to dig up dirt on Bruce—Grace (Dead Man's Time, 2013, etc.) faces an adversary closer to home: Sandy Lohmann, his wife, who plans to end her secret life in Munich with their son Bruno by interrupting Grace and Cleo's wedding with the news that even though she's been declared legally dead, there's enough life in her yet to ruin their big day. Bryce's ruthless proficiency as an arsonist guarantees the requisite number of pulse-pounding set pieces, but the whole affair feels a bit mechanical, right down to the climactic sequence in which he and Red are locked together inside the panic room she's installed to keep him at bay.

Kirkus Reviews