James Taylor attends a funeral for his old school friend Barnie, who died from eating a poisonous mushroom, and during the service, he sees a friend in the pews who was supposed to have died 2 years prior. The three of them were close due to proximity but very different in morals, judgement, and actions. James takes the following weeks to do what he can to figure out if his eyes were deceiving him, and that leads him down a path of love, adventure, and danger.

At the same moment, local cops are investigating two deaths due to mushroom poisonings in two weeks. Due to the unlikely and suspicious nature of such a rare occurrence, they begin to dive deep into Barnie's past.

Across town, Suzanne is a loner who works for the "good guys" to create AI to troll the dark web for sinister acts while also enjoying dabbling in some herself. She meets a man named Paul Anthony, who is also on that side of the law, and they join up to profit and fall in head over heels for each other.

Paul Anthony lives by a code of his own morals and wherever the money takes him. He finds a soul mate in Suzanne and decides to take the leap into bringing her into his world, but at what cost to both of them?

These story lines are told in tandem, as everything unfolds in chaos, twists, and turns.

*******

As someone new to this series, I struggled greatly to get into it. The point of views, dates, and situations had my head spinning. I could see if these characters and their back stories had been familiar that this would be interesting and gripping, however as someone stepping in on this as a standalone, I had trouble keeping everyone straight until a good 20% into the book. Once getting past that hurdle, the changing storylines and new information and betrayals kept the pacing fast and interesting. I loved the varying viewpoints once I adjusted to who was whom and looked forward to see whose eyes we were going to see out of next in the novel.

The only random plot point that annoyed me and began as a huge issue was dropped, then was mentioned once near the end of the book, which was the paternity issue. Grace let a man almost strangle him to death over it, knowing he's newly out of prison. Then he just let him get away with it. That stood out as so odd to me, especially as people kept pointing out he was seriously injured and asking if he was okay, yet he never sought justice.

Other than that, I enjoyed the book, although the love interest for James Taylor felt a little suspicious throughout the book, and then fell flat in the end. As did the idea that he could be kept away from his son and deeply upset by it, but not be pursuing any legal channels to rectify it. It seemed an odd plot point to include and let simmer. However, maybe this comes about in previous or future novels and was just placed in to be a continuous thread.

Either way, I enjoyed the novel and would definitely read more from the series.

This is book 20 of the Roy Grace series and if you are watching the Grace tv show, the books are several years in the future so do contain spoilers. Often the books get a bit stale by the time the author reaches the teens in a series but Peter James manages to keep things fresh which is nice. It also reads well as a standalone book if you do not follow the series.

This is very much a police procedural rather than mystery. You see things from the various characters POV so know who the murderer is and why people are killed. It does get a little bogged down in the procedure too, following cops to CCTV cameras etc which is realistic but can be a little slow as a reader.

There is still the suspense of whether he will get away with it and how he did some of the things or if Grace can prove them so it is an enjoyable read and I look forward to seeing this one on the show. I think the sociopathic character will play out well on screen.

I am glad it circled back to that earlier scene. This one has very little of Grace’s personal life so it seemed strange that the Cassian scene wasn’t discussed more.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the advance reader copy for review. This book is available on 22 October 2024.

One of Us is Dead continues the much loved series featuring Roy Grace and team.

It is my favourite to date and I could not put the book down. ( apologies to my dog for no walk).

James Taylor is attending a funeral of an old school chum and he is convinced he sees another buddy that he himself gave the eulogy for a few months ago.

Roy and team are investigating suspicious deaths that just don't seem like accidents.

The team does not believe in coincidences.

They are asking themselves is the same person involved in every death and how is that possible.

Peter James leads the reader along with Grace down a path of twists and turns , secrets, lies. some good characters, some you hope with trip up and get caught soon.

A solid case of smart investigation with Grace and Branson keep the pages turning.

The rest of the journey I will leave to the reader and its one you wont forget anytime soon.

One of Us is Dead was the best of the best of Roy Grace.

Thanks to NetGalley and PanMacmillan/Macmillan for the privilege or reading and reviewing one of my all time favourite series.