Today, on the blog I have the review of the first three books in the Detective Superintendent Roy Grace Mysteries – a series that, with the these three books has made me a fan and one that I plan on continuing in the near future!
Don’t forget to check out my reviews on ALL FIRST THREE BOOKS and do leave your thoughts and/or comments!
It was meant to be a harmless stag-night prank. A few hours later Michael Harrison has disappeared and his friends are dead. With only three days to the wedding, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace—a man haunted by the shadow of his own missing wife—is contacted by Michael’s beautiful, distraught fiancée, Ashley Harper. Grace discovers that the one man who ought to know Michael Harrison’s whereabouts is saying nothing. But then he has a lot more to gain than anyone realizes, For one man’s disaster is another man’s fortune.
Disclaimer: I received a physical copy of the book from Pan Macmillan India in exchange for an honest review! However, the thoughts, opinions expressed in the review are entirely my own.
This is the first book in the Detective Superintendent Roy Grace Mysteries – and is the one that not only introduces the protagonist and several secondary characters but also cements the role of the protagonist as an intuitive investigator with the UK Police (I apologise if I have made mistakes with the structure of the UK policing system – I honestly do not know any better!).
Now, DS Roy Grace is a veteran cop with quite the intriguing personal life – his wife, Sandy disappeared without a trace about 9 years ago – that is, no clues, no evidence was ever found to point in any direction; the case was quite frankly a dead end. Even then, Roy Grace hasn’t exactly given up hope, Sandy’s disappearance is like a background noise in his head and each case he investigates ends up with more possibilities or theories regarding her disappearance.
The current case is however quite a fascinating one – 5 friends and a bachelor party prank gone wrong, ends up with the groom missing and 3 of his friends’ dead in an accident.
Was everything that happened merely a coincidence? What kind of a prank meant that the groom can’t be found? Is there a far sinister motive behind the happenings of that one night?
Like I already said, this is the first book in the Roy Grace Mysteries and as such the author has done a brilliant job of laying the foundation of the protagonist with a case that is not what it seems like, from the start and shows how a veteran cop handles the investigation and the resulting media attention like a human being. Mind you, he is not shown as a superhuman, but someone that a reader will not only empathise with but also applaud his utter humanness in face of some brilliant planning.
What I also loved about this book, was the fact that even though we get the POVs of first suspects and then later the perpetrators in addition to the investigators, it still ended up a twisted and action-packed climax that finally made sure we understood where and just how were the pieces all connected in the puzzle.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ .25
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Tom Bryce did what any decent person would do. But within hours of picking up the CD that had been left behind on the train seat next to him, and attempting to return it to its owner, he is the sole witness to a vicious murder. Then his young family are threatened with their lives if he goes to the police. But supported by his wife, Kellie, he bravely makes a statement to the murder enquiry team headed by Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, a man with demons of his own to contend with. And from that moment the killing of the Bryce family becomes a mere formality—and a grisly attraction. Notice of Kellie and Tom’s deaths has already been posted on the internet. You can log on and see them on a website. They are looking good dead.
Disclaimer: I received a physical copy of the book from Pan Macmillan India in exchange for an honest review! However, the thoughts, opinions expressed in the review are entirely my own.
Second Disclaimer: This is the second book in the Roy Grace Mysteries – and while the case under investigation is a standalone (meaning: it is resolved at the end of this book) the investigators &the protagonists have a foundation that starts in the first book – Dead Simple. The experience of reading this series is absolutely improved by reading it in order.
The case under investigation in Looking Good Dead is a heinous one – a mutilated body of a young girl is found, albeit the body is missing its head, making the task of the investigator a little more difficult when it comes to identifying the victim. On the other side, we have an absolutely normal, middle age man who finds a CD dropped by his fellow passenger and with the intent of returning it to its rightful owner, ends up being the only witness to a crime that doesn’t seem to have been reported.
The reader (yours truly!) rightly suspects that these two incidents are related and not isolated – so it was a brilliant rush to be a part, even peripherally as a neutral witness to the investigation or rather the pure procedural police work that the author puts forward, without being boring, even once.
Like the first book, the author gives us the treat of multiple POVs – we get not only the side of the villains (the who, what and why!), but we also get to enjoy the journey of the investigators working to pick threads to tie them to a perpetrator; a stranger crime that is infinitely harder to solve for there is no personal connection or motive when it comes to choosing the victims.
All through the investigation, we are also shown the progress or say, developments in Roy Grace’s personal life, ones that keep us readers not only invested the plot on a personal level as well.
This is only the second book, and yet I can say with certainty that this series will be one that the reader could end up binge – reading!
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ .25
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On the night Brian Bishop murdered his wife he was 60 miles away, asleep in bed at the time. At least that’s the way it looks to Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, who is called in to investigate the kinky slaying of beautiful socialite Katie Bishop. Roy Grace soon starts coming to the conclusion that Bishop has performed the apparently impossible feat of being in two places at once. Has someone stolen his identity or is he simply a very clever liar? As Roy Grace digs deeper behind the façade of the Bishops’ outwardly respectable lives, it becomes clear that everything is not at all as it first seemed. Then he digs just a little too far, and suddenly the fragile stability of his own troubled world is facing destruction.
Disclaimer: I received a physical copy of the book from Pan Macmillan India in exchange for an honest review! However, the thoughts, opinions expressed in the review are entirely my own.
Second Disclaimer: This is the third book in the Roy Grace Mysteries – and while the case under investigation is a standalone (meaning: it is resolved at the end of this book) the investigators &the protagonists have a foundation that starts in the first book – Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead. The experience of reading this series is absolutely improved by reading it in order.
In Not Dead Enough, things get a whole lot personal and twisted for our protagonist, in a case that hits a lot closer to home than anyone, let alone Roy Grace could have expected himself.
A socialite is found dead in her own home, in mysterious circumstances – a brutal murder that shows an unhealthy obsession that the killer has with sexual kinks. The investigation into this crime, though seems a lot less straightforward when all the clues point to the socialite’s husband, who has an airtight alibi.
Parallel to this investigation, our seasoned detective, DS Roy Grace finally seems to be moving on in his personal life – a new relationship with a wonderful woman, means that he is finally taking the initiative to move on from his wife’s disappearance 9 years ago. And just when everything is hunky dory is in his personal life, a lightning bolt in the form his wife being spotted in another country, sends everything into a tailspin.
And everything comes to a head, when he after finally finding a semblance of a balance, the killers in this current case makes this enmity highly personal; forcing DS Grace to understand his priorities.
Like the previous books, we get multiple PoVs but this time, we do not get the identity of the perpetrator – what we do get is an up and close personal look at his thoughts, his rage and his motive; though it is easy to understand how and why the killings are happening; its far more satisfying to be a part of the journey that ties all the loose threads together.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ .25
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For The Love of Fictional Worlds 