I love the Roy Grace series and can’t understand why the BBC doesn’t add it to its stable of great TV dramas. This is the 12th book in the series and not one of them is weak. The detective, Roy Grace, is loosely based on a real detective and Love You Dead has its genesis in a real crime so there’s a gritty reality that readers of good British cop novels are sure to find irresistible. Detective Superintendent Grace has his problems; his wife is missing and an old case still plagues him, but the real thing on his mind is a Black Widow in Brighton. Someone is luring elderly men into love and marriage and then killing them and cleaning out their bank accounts. Seems clear enough except that this is no ordinary killer but one with nerve and a thorough knowledge of exotic and untraceable methods of killing. One of James’s best yet.