Roy Grace, creation of the award-winning author Peter James, unearths a powerful criminal network in Find Them Dead.

Ending his secondment to London’s Met Police, Roy Grace gets a tip-off about a county lines drugs mastermind operating out of Brighton. On his first day back in his old job in Sussex, he is called to a seemingly senseless murder.

Separately, Meg Magellan finally has her life back together, five years after the car crash that killed her husband and their son. Her daughter, Laura, now 18, is on her gap year travelling in South America with a friend, and Meg misses her badly. Laura is all she has in the world.

In between jobs, Meg receives a summons for jury service. She’s excited – it might be interesting and will help distract her from constantly worrying about Laura. But when she is selected for the trial of a major Brighton drugs overlord, everything changes.

Gradually, Grace’s investigation draws him increasingly into the sinister sphere of influence of the drug dealer on trial. A man utterly ruthless and evil, prepared to order the death of anyone it takes to enable him to walk free.

Just a few days into jury service, Meg arrives home to find a photograph of Laura, in Ecuador, lying on her kitchen table. Then her phone rings.

A sinister, threatening stranger is on the line. He tells her that if she ever wants to see Laura 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.

Review:

Sharp, engrossing, and unexpected!

In this menacing sixteenth installment in the Roy Grace series, Find Them Dead, DS Roy Grace is just finishing up his post at the London Met when he quickly becomes immersed in the newly commenced, high-stakes, illegal drug smuggling and distribution trial in Sussex of a ruthless defendant that’s not opposed to a little jury coercion and manipulation to get the verdict he’s hoping for.

The writing is taut and fluid. The characters are scheming, callous, and anxious. And the plot, including all the subplots, unravel and intertwine into a mysterious, courtroom drama filled with corruption, deception, manipulation, malevolence, speculation, violence, and murder.

Overall, Find Them Dead is another solid, complex, cunning addition to the Roy Grace series by James that’s a little different than the usual action-packed police procedural we’re used to and more of a tense, crafty, satisfying legal thriller. 

This book is available now.

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