Left You Dead

Finished February 22

Left You Dead by Peter James

This is the seventeenth book in the series featuring Roy Grace, a police officer in Lewes, Sussex. Grace gets a case that seems straightforward, but he keeps feeling that something isn't quite right. Niall and Eden Paternoster are returning from a visit to a country house. She likes to look at them, and he feels that this is the life that he will someday be living. Niall is currently unemployed, picking up a few shifts for a friend that has a taxi, usually ones in the middle of the night. Eden has a good job, and it's one that she enjoys. 

Niall wants to get home to watch some live sports on TV, but Eden reminds him that they need cat litter and he keeps forgetting. So they stop at a local grocery, and she gets out to run into the store, and never comes back. 

At first Niall thinks that maybe she got distracted, but when he goes in, he doesn't see her anywhere. When he goes home, she isn't there. He figures that she's gone to a friend's place in an effort to teach him a lesson. So he waits until morning to start making enquiries and comes up empty-handed. 

This is when the police get called in, and they start asking some questions as well. The police suspicions, based on what they see and find, place Niall in the suspect box, and he isn't sure what's going on. 

As the story progresses, we see things from a variety of viewpoints, Niall's, Grace's and others. We get insight into the relationship between the couple and into the dynamics of the police hierarchy as well. There are side stories here as well as the main story of the missing woman, and we learn more about Grace as a person as well. 

I enjoyed this book and will definitely look for others in this series.