Photo copyright: James Clarke
Peter James
Agent: Isobel Dixon
Assistant: Sian Ellis-Martin
Biography: Peter James is the international bestselling author of many award-winning novels. His Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, set in Brighton – translated into thirty-eight languages with worldwide sales of over twenty-one million copies – has given him nineteen consecutive Sunday Times Number Ones. In 2015 WH Smith customers voted him the Greatest Crime Author of All Time and in 2016 he was awarded the coveted CWA Diamond Dagger, a lifetime achievement award for sustained excellence. In 2018 he received a Specsavers Honorary Platinum Bestseller Award.
The first two Roy Grace novels, DEAD SIMPLE and LOOKING GOOD DEAD, have been adapted for two 90 minute prime-time slots for ITV by screenwriter and Endeavour creator, Russell Lewis, with John Simm starring in the lead role as the tenacious detective, Richie Campbell as Glenn Branson and Rakie Ayola as Alison Vosper. The first film was broadcast on ITV in March 2021 and received widespread praise from the critics.
In addition to his career as a novelist, he has produced several films, including The Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes. He also co-created the hit Channel 4 series Bedsitcom, which was nominated for a Rose d'Or.
Successful nationwide tours of the stage plays of THE PERFECT MURDER (2014) and DEAD SIMPLE (2015) have packed theatres in dozens of British cities, and garnered magnificent reviews and NOT DEAD ENOUGH opened to full houses and acclaim in 2017. January 2019 saw the opening of the stage tour of THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL, with the sequel THE SECRET OF COLD HILL published in October 2019. The stage production of LOOKING GOOD DEAD toured in 2021 and WISH YOU WERE DEAD toured in 2023.
The latest instalment of the Roy Grace series, STOP THEM DEAD, was published in September 2023.
Peter has a long-standing love for animals and in 2021, he became a Patron of the RSPCA branch in Brighton. Peter took part in the launch podcast of the Queen’s Reading Room in January 2024, having had the Grace series featured on the Royal Reading Room previously.
‘Peter James is one of the best crime writers in the business.’ — Karin Slaughter
‘Roy Grace is the very best of the middle aged male British detectives – there’s a whole bunch, but he is the best. What makes his books better than other people’s books is that the ordinary people in these books react in the way they would react. They have absolute emotional credibility.’ — Jeff Park, ‘Front Row’ BBC Radio
‘By the straightforward expedient of using carefully crafted, well honed narratives with a strong sense of place and a sure grasp of character, James has slowly but surely worked his way towards an almost unassailable position as one of Britain's best-loved crime writers.’ — Barry Forshaw
‘The rapid-fire suspense builds to a terrifying, graphic conclusion that leaves tantalizing room for future instalments in the series.’ — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
‘Exceptional, knock-your-socks-off.’ — Washington Post
Visit Peter’s official website.
Follow Peter James on Twitter.
THEY THOUGHT I WAS DEAD
Crime Fiction, 454 pages, Macmillan, May 2024
Some will know how it begins . . .
Her name is Sandy. You might know her as the loving wife of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace.
But there's more to her than meets the eye. A woman with a dubious past, a complicated present and
an uncertain future. Then she was gone.
Some will think they know how it ends . . .
Her disappearance caused a nationwide search. Even the best detective on the force couldn't find her.
They thought she was dead.
But nobody knows this . . .
Where did she go? Why did she run? What would cause a woman to leave her whole life behind and
simply vanish?
PERFECT PEOPLE
Thriller, 508 pages
Macmillan, October 2011
John and Naomi Klaesson are grieving the death of their four-year-old son from a rare genetic disorder. They desperately want another child, but when they find out they are both carriers of a rogue gene, they realize the odds of their next child contracting the disease are high.
Then they hear about geneticist Doctor Leo Dettore. He has methods that can spare them the heartache of ever losing another child to any disease - even if his methods cost more than they can afford.
His clinic is where their nightmare begins.
They should have realized that something was wrong when they saw the list. Choices of eye colour, hair, sporting abilities. They can literally design their child. Now it's too late to turn back. Naomi is pregnant, and already something is badly wrong . . .
STOP THEM DEAD
Crime fiction, 480 pages Macmillan, Sept 2023
A ruthless crime. A race against time.
When a young farmer confronts intruders in the middle of the night he has no idea that just minutes later he will be left dying in a pool of blood. What’s more chilling is what the perpetrators were willing to kill for.
At the scene of the crime, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace soon realises this is no isolated robbery gone wrong but the tip of the iceberg of a nationwide crime wave, in which ruthless organised gangs are making more money from the illegal trade in dogs than drugs. A trade which pits him against some ruthless people who will kill anyone who gets in their way, because where there is greed, there is murder.
I FOLLOW YOU
Psychological thriller, 400 pages
Macmillan, October 2020
To the outside world, suave, charming and confident doctor Marcus Valentine has it all. A loving wife, three kids, a great job. But there’s something missing, there always has been. . . . or rather, someone . . .
Driving to work one morning, his mind elsewhere and not on the road, he almost mows down a female jogger on a crossing. As she runs on, Marcus is transfixed. Infatuated. She is the spitting image of a girl he was crazy about in his teens. A girl he has never been able to get out of his mind.
Lynette had dumped him harshly. For years he has fantasized about seeing her again and rekindling their flame. Might that jogger possibly be her all these years later? Could this be the most incredible coincidence?
Despite all his attempts to resist, he is consumed by cravings for this woman. And when events take a tragically unexpected turn, his obsession threatens to destroy both their worlds. But still he won’t stop. Can’t stop.
PICTURE YOU DEAD
Crime fiction, 464 pages
Macmillan, September 2022
Harry and Freya, an ordinary couple, dreamed for years of finding something priceless buried amongst the tat in a car boot sale.
It was a dream they knew in their hearts would never come true – until the day it did…
They buy the drab portrait for a few pounds, for its beautiful frame, planning to cut the painting out. Then studying it back at home there seems to be another picture beneath, of a stunning landscape. Could it be a long-lost masterpiece from 1770? If genuine, it could be worth millions.
One collector is certain it is genuine. Someone who uses any method he can to get want he wants and will stop at nothing.
Detective Superintendent Roy Grace finds himself plunged into an unfamiliar and rarefied world of fine art. Outwardly it appears respectable, gentlemanly, above reproach. But beneath the veneer, he rapidly finds that greed, deception and violence walk hand-in-hand. And Harry and Freya Kipling are about to discover that their dream is turning into their worst nightmare. . .
THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL
Horror, 352 pages Macmillan, June 2016
Moving from the heart of the city of Brighton and Hove to the Sussex countryside is a big undertaking for born townies, Ollie Harcourt, his wife, Caro, and their twelve-year-old daughter, Jade. But when they view Cold Hill House – a huge, dilapidated, Georgian mansion – they are filled with excitement. Despite the financial strain of the move, Ollie has dreamed of living in the country since he was a child, and with its acres of land, he sees Cold Hill House as a paradise for his animal-loving daughter, a base for his web-design business and a terrific long-term investment. Caro is less certain, and Jade is grumpy about being removed from all her friends.
But within days of moving in, it soon becomes apparent that the Harcourt family aren't the only residents in the house. At first it is only a friend of Jade, talking to her on Facetime, who sees a spectral woman standing behind her. Then there are more sightings of her, as well as increasingly disturbing occurrences in the house. Two weeks after moving in, Caro, out in the garden, is startled to see faces staring out of an upstairs window of the house.
The window of a room which holds the secret to the house's dark history . . . a room which does not appear to exist . . .
DEAD SIMPLE
Crime Fiction, 480 pages Macmillan, May 2005
Now a major ITV series, adapted for television by screenwriter Russell Lewis and starring John Simm as Roy Grace. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace's first major case is one he'll never forget.It was meant to be a harmless stag-night prank. But a few hours later, the groom has disappearedand his friends are dead.With only three days to the wedding, Grace is contacted by the man’s distraught fiancée to unearth what happened on that fateful night.Grace discovers that the one man who ought to know of the groom’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 . . .
ABSOLUTE PROOF
Thriller, 400 Pages
Macmillan, October 2018
What would it take to prove the existence of God? And what would be the consequences?
This question and its answer lie at the heart of Absolute Proof, an international thriller from bestselling author Peter James.
The false faith of a billionaire evangelist, the life’s work of a famous atheist, and the credibility of each of the world’s major religions are all under threat. If Ross Hunter can survive long enough to present the evidence . . .