This is one of the few ongoing sagas that still has me gripped, although the previous outing, Find Them Dead, left me feeling rather dissatisfied as the main character seemed to have been sidelined. So after a very dissapointing last book in the series, I was giving this one a go, perhaps out of having loved the series up to then. about how it’s hard to forget pain, but harder to remember happiness - because we don’t have scars for happiness”.

The novel opens with a recounting of Eden’s disappearance from Niall Paternoster’s point of view and this sets the tone, a relatively straightforward account that seems true until the doubts creep in and the reader is unsure what to believe. The police characters are, as usual, wonderful and professional although, in this story, something terrible happens and someone will suffer a terrible loss.The side plots were really intriguing, introducing new points of view that made for an interesting read. One of the storylines that seemed to be irrelevant might have been because it was a major point in a previous book? Niall is questioned again and again and is eventually arrested for suspicion of murder but later released. Niall Paternoster drops his wife Eden at Tesco in Brighton while he parks and waits in the car and that’s the last he sees of her. The mystery did have me hooked and invested in trying to figure out what was going on, until a conversation about halfway through, that, to me, gave it away immediately.

There's quite a lot going on in the book and Roy and Cleo are going through some tuff personal stuff. 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. Another great addition to this stellar series, it's intelligently plotted, pacy and riveting from first page to last. I'm always eagerly awaiting my yearly dose of Roy Grace ever since I first started reading them during the series infancy - I was always going to be hooked on a crime drama set in my hometown of Brighton.

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. 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! Although a bit long, the short chapters and a riveting plot kept the story moving along at a brisk pace. Battling with a personal tragedy and a repugnant boss, Roy Grace is stretched to his absolute limits.