Left You Dead: A Realistically Creepy Crime Thriller (Roy Grace Book 17)

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At times there is some repetition and on occasions it’s a bit over burdened with facts and some unnecessary detail.

I was continually on edge trying to work out what exactly was going on, then it had me in tears when tragedy strikes and finally I felt uplifted as hope blooms at the last minute, setting up the next novel nicely. I'm all for organ donation, but as long as a person is alive, their dignity and rights are inalienable and they should never be downgraded to the status of a resource to be wheeled off and mined. Battling with a personal tragedy and a repugnant boss, Roy Grace is stretched to his absolute limits. I found the Bruno storyline slightly random and bizarre as if Peter James had run out of ideas about what to do with him.Roy Grace’s attention is not wholly on the case as he has some other things going on, offering both heartbreak and potential joy, and yet he’s still the one to connect all the dots. Suffice to say I rarely get teary in books, most certainly not crime fiction, but I’ll admit to some sniffles in this one. And on the personal front there is a punch in the gut moment part way through that has left me not being able to decide whether it’s a genius bit of drama or a dirty great cop-out! I like my detectives complicated and enjoy hearing some of their stories apart from the investigation. There’s two main plot lines at play in Left You Dead - the police investigation and a secondary plot that strikes the core of Grace’s family.

Left You Dead is the seventeenth instalment in the Roy Grace series and is Detective Superintendent Grace's most challenging case to date as he investigates the file of a missing woman in Brighton. Niall is questioned again and again and is eventually arrested for suspicion of murder but later released. Peter James is a global bestselling author, best known for writing crime and thriller novels, and the creator of the much-loved Detective Superintendent Roy Grace.What follows is an, as expected, police procedural as the team question Niall Paternoster and gather information from various sources.

She wasn’t home either so Niall finally went to bed thinking she’d gone off in a huff as she had done once before. This book sees Grace investigating the disappearance of Eden Paternoster, who drops in to Tesco for kitty litter while her husband Niall waits outside. Cassian Pewe continues to rub Grace up the wrong way, and I shall be interested to see where the storyline goes for my favourite character, Norman Potting.There are so many things happening for Roy Grace in this latest book, but I daren’t mention too much about them as I really wouldn’t want to spoil it for you! For me Peter seems to waffle on and on about names, back history and police and hospital procedures, filling out a book with unecessary mundane writing that I find myself skim reading. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, creation of the CWA Diamond Dagger award-winning author Peter James, faces his most engrossing case yet in Left You Dead. Niall and Eden Paternoster start their Sunday the same way they always do – with a long drive, a visit to a country house and a quick stop at the local supermarket on the way home.

I’m pleased to report that Norman Potting is still delivering his cringe worthy one liners and DI Glenn Branson is as sartorially elegant as ever. All the regular characters are there with all the backstories that had additional interest to the series. James is back to his imperious best in Left You Dead, with a plot that will keep you on your toes, plus a decent balance of the other ingredients that have made this series one of the strongest and most reliable police procedurals around. I really like from the outset that we see the married couple bickering about the most mundane issue of cat litter.Certainly not one of the best in this series which I feel is gradually drifting down to the ordinary.