Peter James

Peter James is a British crime novelist best known for the Roy Grace series, following a Brighton-based detective superintendent whose cases are complicated by his own long-running personal mystery — the unexplained disappearance of his first wife years before the series begins. Starting with Dead Simple in 2005, the series has grown into one of the UK's best-selling crime lines, praised for combining tightly plotted procedural mysteries with deep, research-driven engagement with real Sussex Police practices; James has spent extensive time embedded with actual detectives to keep the investigative detail authentic. The series was adapted for ITV as Grace, starring John Simm as Roy Grace.

Before turning primarily to crime fiction, James wrote supernatural thrillers and worked as a film producer, experience that shows in the propulsive, cinematic pacing of his later work. He has also written standalone thrillers and the Detective Superintendent Grace short-story spin-offs. New readers should start with Dead Simple, since Roy Grace's personal life — including the eventual resolution of his missing wife's fate — develops across the series in sequence, though each book is built around a self-contained case. James continues to publish new Roy Grace novels regularly and remains one of the UK's most consistently bestselling crime writers.