You Are Dead

Starred review from August 24, 2015
At the start of James’s superior 11th procedural featuring Det. Supt. Roy Grace (after 2014’s Want You Dead), Jamie Ball is talking with his fiancée, Logan Somerville, on his cell phone when he hears her scream. Logan was just pulling into the underground garage of their apartment building in Brighton, England. That same day in Brighton, workers discover a woman’s skeleton that was buried more than 30 years earlier under a park’s asphalt sidewalk. The new and the old cases appear to be unrelated, until Grace and his Sussex Major Crime Team find a common link in the disappearances of young women through the years. As the detectives deal with the caseload, they also cope with a favorite colleague’s death. Despite Roy’s second marriage and five-month-old son, he’s still haunted by the unsolved 10-year disappearance of Sandy, his first wife, especially when a friend mentions that she may be living in Germany. Carefully crafted, realistic characters make this entry a standout. Agent: Carole Blake, Blake Friedmann Literary (U.K.).