Peter James Books In Order

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Publication Order of Standalone Novels

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Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Akashic Noir Books

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Peter James Biography:

Peter James is a British best selling writer of fictional crime novels. He has written 25 novels that have been translated into over 35 languages. His series featuring Detective Superintendent Roy Grace have sold over 14 million copies world wide. He has had six UK Sunday Times #1 books consecutively due to this series. Peter James was born on August 22, 1948 in Brighton, Sussex, England. His mother Cornelia James was the Queen’s Glovemaker.

His father ran the business as well as an accountant. His sister Genevieve now runs the company along with her husband. He attended Charterhouse School and later attended Ravensbourne Film School. James spent a few years working in North America as a film producer and screenwriter. He got his start in 1970 on the Canadian children’s television show Polka Dot Door as an errand boy and later writer. He cofounded Movision Pictures in the nineties.

James became a successful producer of 26 films. The first movie he produced was 1971’s The Corpse Grinders. In addition to Corpse Grinders, Peter James has also produced such movies as Under Milk Wood, Dead of Night, Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things, Spanish Fly, Jericho Mansions, Head in the Clouds, and The Bridge of San Luis Rey. He was the executive producer of 2004’s take on Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

The movie starred Jeremy Irons as Antonio and Al Pacino as Shylock. Joseph Fiennes played Bassanio. He was a successful film producer, but he gave it all up to write his detective novels about Detective Roy Grace. There are a total of nine books in the Roy Grace Series. The series starts with the first novel Dead Simple. Published in 2005, Dead Simple focuses on charming, everything comes easy, good looking Michael Harrison.

He has everything, including his new fiancée Ashley. What starts out as an innocent, lively night of celebrating out with his guy friends turns potentially serious as Michael finds himself enclosed in a coffin with only a few things to get by. He has a tiny breathing tube and a flashlight, but his friends are coming back to get him. Just a little good pay back. Until their truck is hit by a drunk driver, and all four of Michael’s friends end up fatally injured.

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is brought on to the case and grows suspicious when the one friend who wasn’t out celebrating refuses to collaborate on the case. All of a sudden, a motive surfaces, and Michael’s near accident may not be so accidental after all. In Looking Good Dead, published in 2006, Tom Bryce finds an apparently lost cd and decides to try to return it to its owner. But when his mission to return the cd leads to him witnessing a ghastly homicide, his family is threatened if he decides to go to the police. Meanwhile, Roy Grace is still haunted by his missing wife. It’s been nearly ten years since she disappeared.

Furthermore he messed up in his last case and now has a supervisor on his every move and risks getting transferred. Bryce musters up the courage to make a statement to the police regardless of blackmail. However, when someone threatens to murder you, you had better pay attention. Peter James is developing Dead Simple into a feature length film. Hugh Bonneville of the PBS period drama Downton Abbey has signed on to play the widowed Detective.

His books were going to be adapted for tv but James cancelled the option after development stretched on too long. James is producing with James Simpson with Daniel Eckhart bringing the detective’s story to the big screen. Peter James’ first novel was published in 1981 with Dead Letter Drop. Dead Letter Drop follows a British agent named Max Flynn who finds out he is meant to go undercover to spy on his comrades.

While he doesn’t want to, it appears someone else shares these wishes. They may even be willing to kill to make them come true. He has also written Atom Bomb Angel, where terrorists plot to detonate a nuclear power plant in Britain. Then there’s Billionaire, Traveling Man, Possession, Dreamer, Sweet Heart, Host, Alchemist, Getting Wired, The Truth, Denial, Faith, The Perfect Murder, Perfect People, and Short Shockers and the Roy Grace novel Dead Man’s Time, both of which were published in 2013.

Dead Man’s Time calls Roy Grace in once more. This time it’s for a burglary that has taken over a million pounds worth of loot. It has also left an elderly man who lives there dying. As Grace shows up on the scene, it’s clear that the family does not care so much about the valuables so much as one valuable in particular. They will do anything to get it. They don’t care about breaking the law and Grace is thrown into a hot pursuit that takes him through Europe and eventually all the way to New York.

Host was adapted into a made for tv movie by the US Network in 1998. Dr. Joe Messenger, played by Peter Gallagher, gives into the seduction of a terminally ill woman. He later finds that she has uploaded herself into a computer. Now she threatens to destroy his family from beyond the grave. ITV made Prophecy into a feature in 1995. A Ouija Board, an archaeologist, and a widower with his son are all connected.

Then they begin to remember one night in the basement with the Ouija Board, and are faced with the prospect that maybe the prophecies are coming true. Britain’s Channel Five adapted James’ The Alchemists into a made for tv miniseries. Connor Molloy sets out to prove that the company Bentik Lange Pharmaceuticals murdered his father. James’ novels may deal with scandal, violence, danger, and intrigue, but the drama doesn’t always stay on the page.

A woman in her thirties has been stalking Peter James for ten years, following him across the country. “She is everywhere I go,” James said. “[She] is unhinged. She genuinely believes she has ownership of me.” James receives constant emails of threatening tone and long length and she states that she cannot live without James.

He has admitted that he looks for her when he does signings and worries that his writing will one day upset her and she will do something irrational. Peter James spends his time at his house in Sussex and his apartment in Notting Hill, London.

8 Responses to “Peter James”

1. Steven Pritchett: 10 months ago

   I have accumulated all your Roy Grace novels in hardcover including your latest They thought I was dead by his former wife Sandy
   Can’t wait for the next later this year !!
   Keep them coming

   Reply
   • Ivan Longmore: 6 months ago

     Just love all of your books,they keep me on the edge of my seat.I look foreward to every publication.Kind regards.Ivan.

     Reply
2. Mae Peck: 1 year ago

   I love your books and am currently reading “A twist of the knife. Fantastic. Sending me to bed terrified!
   I was introduced to your books by someone I met whilst on holiday, Sir David Phillips who had been very high up in the police service. he said you were the only author who had got all the detail regarding police correct. Keep them coming, please !

   Reply
3. Eddy Trivett: 2 years ago

   I have read all the Grace books up to Picture You Dead and will now order the latest in the series Stop Them Dead. These books keep you gripped to the last page, and it was great to see the series coming to TV.
   I love the sub stories that Peter writes, and the ending in each chapter makes you want to read the next.
   Brilliant writer, just hate it when there aren’t anymore in the series available and I have to hunt around for another author in the same genre. I have found some which I also enjoy.

   Reply
4. peter sales: 3 years ago

   I was given a Roy grace in2011 I was reading James Patterson and Michael Connelly books and since 2011 I try to buy all your books .must say I did not the cold hill books keep writing I will keep reading

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5. Elizabeth Petersen: 3 years ago

   I have found a treasure. I started reading Nancy Drew mysteries in 4th grade and was sure I had found every gem of an author over the past 61 years of reading. I was so wrong. I happened upon Peter James on Twitter. What a treat. I can not wait from one book to the next to see what fascinating plot will occupy Roy Grace next. Such well-rounded characters to follow from case to case. I love Brighton Hove and now travel there on the internet. The whole enchilada. Great.

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6. Kaethe: 4 years ago

   Love all the characters in this series. Got hooked after reading Dead Like You,then went back to read previous books and now waiting to read the latest. I’ve even travelled to Brighton to visit the places mentioned. What a great seaside town to spend time in .

   Reply
7. Charlotte Lazaro: 4 years ago

   i read dead simple and i was HOOKED. i am impatient tho i read his last and wait too long for the next grace book, so inbetween i reads i read pete’s other stuff and it is pretty good too especially perfect people. oh well get that FIND THEM DEAD ON SALE . PLEASE

   Reply