With Want You Dead, Peter James reaches the tenth novel of his Brighton-based novels featuring Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. James has managed to maintain the same high standard throughout, his portrayal of the police at work – clearly the result of personal contact and deep research – is superb. Grace is a less assertive, less combative cop than most of his fictional brethren: he keeps his demons within, not least the mystery of his adored wife, who suddenly disappeared and has never been traced.
In Want You Dead, he tries to save a woman whose wonderful lover, acquired online, turns out to be a psychopathic killer. As with all Peter James’s novels, it is not just an individual cop or storyline that impresses, but the excellence of the ensemble.
Marcel Berlins