Long time since I last picked up a Peter James book and now realise what I've been missing. James is an excellent British crime/thriller writer a refreshing change after reading one or two American crime/thriller books. Written in chapters short enough to be able to pick up and put down when on bus journeys or even making dinner. The kind of chapters that are fantastic for a quick bedtime read. I was gripped from the first page and was totally convinced I knew the storyline and was able to plot the ending myself. That is until just after the halfway point in the book and suddenly all my assumptions were wrong! James puts in so many twists and turns you do start to wonder how you came up with your original ending. Loved the characters especially Grace who allows you into her personnal life and you actually feel you get to know her. Would highly recommend this book and have since lent it on to two other people who both loved it!

I’m not sure quite how much I enjoyed this book. It seemed as though in parts I was really enjoying it yet in others I felt as though we could have moved on a bit. As a whole it was an interesting read but I’m unsure whether it was interesting enough for me to go on and read the rest of the series. With that being said, it was a great cliff-hanger keeping you guessing until the very end. Filled with twists that I didn’t see coming, I was curious throughout to find out what was really going on. At one point I felt as though the story was going to really drag out, that they would focus upon one point for the entirety of the book, yet as soon as this thought occurred to me there was another twist added. I will say, however, that part of me was expecting a larger focus upon the psychic element offered up. I thought it would be an interesting thing to add in and found myself disappointed with the way it seemed to be brushed over. Overall, it was a good read yet it doesn’t fall into my top ten crime books, sorry.

Michael Harrison is getting married to Ashley on Saturday. This books starts several nights before the wedding as Michael is out celebrating with a group of friends. It is his Stag night and his friends seriously want to scare Michael to get back for previous pranks he has played on them on their stag nights. One of the group works at his uncle's undertaking business and steals a coffin as a prop for Michaels "surprise". Michael is drunk and is buried underground in the coffin with a torch, a dirty magazine, a bottle of whiskey, a walkie talkie and a breathing tube for company. The plan is to leave him for 2 hours and return but on the way to the nearest pub, his friends are involved in a head on collision and all are killed. Does anyone else know where Michael is buried ? When Michael does not return his fiance Ashley alerts the police and they try to piece together what has happened. This is the first novel featuring Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. D S Grace does not always approach problems in a conventional manner, but he does get results. This is a well paced story which has your attention from page one. There are many twists and turns which you do not see coming. I look forward to reading another novel in the D S Grace series and would recommend this book.

It started off promisingly enough. Very short chapters with an initial hook. I enjoy suspending belief but this took things too far. This is my 1st reading of a Grace novel and I'll probably give another one a go because of the main character. The other characters were very simplistic for me and the twists much too far fetched. I read it to the end but was getting fed up with each subsequent twist and I felt it ran out of steam and drifted to a conclusion.