Peter James Books in Order (Updated September 10, 2026)

Peter James is a British crime and thriller writer best known for Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, the Brighton-based police officer introduced in Dead Simple. James had already written supernatural thrillers, espionage fiction, technological suspense, and standalone crime novels for more than two decades before Roy Grace became the center of his career.

The main reading decision is simple. Roy Grace should be read in publication order because Grace’s missing first wife Sandy, his relationship with Cleo Morey, his children, his friendship with Glenn Branson, his police career, and recurring enemies all develop across the series. The older standalones and the Cold Hill books can be handled separately.

Where to begin depending on the Peter James you want

• For Roy Grace: begin with Dead Simple.
• For supernatural suspense: try Possession, Dreamer, or the Cold Hill books.
• For early espionage: start the Max Flynn pair with Dead Letter Drop.
• For a standalone modern thriller: Perfect People, Absolute Proof, and I Follow You require no Roy Grace background.
• Latest published Roy Grace novel: The Hawk Is Dead.
• Next confirmed Roy Grace novel: Dead in Three Two One, scheduled for October 2026.

Roy Grace from Dead Simple to The Hawk Is Dead

1. Dead Simple (2005): A stag-night prank leaves groom-to-be Michael Harrison buried alive after the friends who know where he is are killed in a road accident, forcing Roy Grace to solve the mystery before Michael runs out of air.
2. Looking Good Dead (2006): Tom Bryce finds a discarded object on a train and unwittingly becomes a witness to a murder streamed through a sinister website, placing his entire family in danger.
3. Not Dead Enough (2007): Socialite Katie Bishop is murdered while her husband appears to have an airtight alibi miles away, leaving Grace to determine whether he is dealing with mistaken identity, deception, or an impossible crime.
4. Dead Man’s Footsteps (2008): A Brighton businessman uses the chaos of September 11 to disappear, and years later a body discovered in a storm drain connects Grace to an international case involving identity, money, and a woman being hunted.
5. Dead Tomorrow (2009): The body of a teenager recovered from the sea is missing vital organs, leading Grace toward an international trafficking operation exploiting desperate families.
6. Dead Like You (2010): A series of sexual assaults in Brighton resembles crimes committed years earlier by an offender known as the Shoe Man, forcing Grace to determine whether the original predator has returned.
7. Dead Man’s Grip (2011): A fatal traffic accident triggers a revenge campaign against the motorists involved, and Grace must protect the final surviving target from a killer closing in on her.
8. Not Dead Yet (2012): International superstar Gaia comes to Brighton to film a movie, and Grace is assigned to protect her after threats suggest an obsessed attacker may already be waiting in the city.
9. Dead Man’s Time (2013): A brutal robbery at a Brighton mansion leaves an elderly woman dying and sends Grace into a family history involving valuable property, revenge, and secrets reaching back decades.
10. Want You Dead (2014): Red Westwood ends a relationship after discovering that charming Bryce Laurent has built their romance on lies, but his obsession turns separation into a campaign of stalking and destruction.
11. You Are Dead (2015): The disappearance of a young woman leads Grace toward a serial killer whose victims and methods may stretch back decades.
12. Love You Dead (2016): Grace hunts a woman who repeatedly marries wealthy men and arranges their deaths, turning the search for a black widow into an increasingly dangerous pursuit.
13. Need You Dead (2017): Lorna Belling hopes an affair will help her escape an abusive marriage, but her death leaves Grace with a case complicated by lies, hidden relationships, and several plausible suspects.
14. Dead If You Don’t (2018): A businessman’s teenage son disappears during a football match, and what first appears to be kidnapping develops into a case involving money, organized crime, and competing threats.
15. Dead at First Sight (2019): Grace investigates an international romance-fraud network after lonely victims discover that the people they trusted online were invented to exploit them.
16. Find Them Dead (2020): A juror in a major drugs trial is threatened into delivering the verdict criminals want, placing Grace inside a case where intimidation reaches directly into the justice system.
17. Left You Dead (2021): A woman disappears during an ordinary shopping trip and her husband becomes the obvious suspect, but Grace finds that the marriage and surrounding evidence are more complicated than they first appear.
18. Picture You Dead (2022): A couple believe they have discovered a valuable old master hidden behind another painting, drawing Grace into a world of art fraud, collectors, organized crime, and murder.
19. Stop Them Dead (2023): Grace investigates violent criminals exploiting the demand for expensive dogs, while illegal breeding, theft, and organized crime create deadly consequences for owners and animals.
20. One of Us Is Dead (2024): A supposedly impossible death inside a wealthy social circle sends Grace into an investigation where friendship, reputation, money, and deception make nearly everyone unreliable.
21. The Hawk Is Dead (2025): A sniper attack connected to the Royal Train brings Grace close to Buckingham Palace, and his suspicion that the apparent target was not the true one puts him at odds with people who want the case interpreted differently.
22. Dead in Three Two One (expected October 2026): During Brighton Pride, Grace oversees a major security operation while an old enemy prepares a revenge plan aimed not just at him but at the people closest to him.

The first twenty-one main Roy Grace novels are published through The Hawk Is Dead. Dead in Three Two One is the next confirmed installment and should remain marked Upcoming until its October 2026 release.

Sandy Grace belongs beside the series, but not in the main numbering

• They Thought I Was Dead: Sandy’s Story (2024): Peter James retells the long mystery surrounding Roy Grace’s first wife Sandy from her perspective, revealing what happened after her disappearance and filling gaps deliberately left unresolved through the earlier novels.

This companion novel is particularly spoiler-heavy for the main series. Do not read it before the Roy Grace books have already disclosed the major facts surrounding Sandy.

Wish You Were Dead is a Roy Grace novella

• Wish You Were Dead (2021): Roy, Cleo, and their family travel to France expecting a peaceful holiday, only to discover that the remote property where they are staying is far more threatening than it first appears.

The novella is optional for a novels-only checklist, but it belongs in the Grace world and works best once readers already know Roy and Cleo as a family.

Why Roy Grace should not be read randomly

Each murder investigation has its own solution, but Roy’s private life forms a long serial narrative. His unresolved obsession with Sandy is central to the earliest novels, while Cleo Morey gradually becomes one of the most important people in his life.

Glenn Branson also develops from colleague into one of Roy’s closest friends. Promotions, professional pressures, family changes, and recurring threats make a late-series entry much richer after the earlier books.

The Sandy mystery stretches across years rather than one book

When Dead Simple opens, Sandy Grace has already disappeared. Roy has no reliable answer for whether she left voluntarily, was harmed, or is still alive.

James releases information slowly across the series instead of resolving the mystery immediately. That makes the Sandy storyline one of the clearest reasons to preserve publication order and to postpone They Thought I Was Dead.

The Max Flynn books came long before Roy Grace

1. Dead Letter Drop (1981): Intelligence operative Max Flynn becomes involved in a Cold War espionage operation where secret messages, covert loyalties, and international stakes make information as dangerous as weapons.
2. Atom Bomb Angel (1983): Flynn returns in another espionage thriller involving nuclear danger and a conspiracy whose consequences could extend far beyond one intelligence mission.

These two books form a separate early series and have no continuity with Roy Grace.

Cold Hill is Peter James’s haunted-house sequence

1. The House on Cold Hill (2015): Ollie Harcourt moves his family into a large old Sussex house and gradually discovers that its strange events, disturbing history, and apparent supernatural presence cannot be explained away easily.
2. The Secret of Cold Hill (2019): New homes built on the site of Cold Hill continue the area’s supernatural history, suggesting that demolishing one haunted house did not destroy what was attached to the land.

Read these two in order. The second book deliberately returns to the legacy established in the first.

The supernatural and psychological standalones

1. Billionaire (1983): An ambitious financial thriller centers on extreme wealth, business power, manipulation, and the dangerous consequences of people trying to control fortunes on an enormous scale.
2. Possession (1988): A grieving mother begins experiencing terrifying events after the death of her son and is forced to question whether grief, psychology, or something supernatural is responsible.
3. Dreamer (1989): A woman whose dreams appear to predict tragedy struggles to determine whether frightening visions can actually help her prevent the events she sees.
4. Sweet Heart (1991): A couple’s move into an old house awakens secrets connected to the building’s past and to forces that challenge an ordinary explanation.
5. Twilight (1991): A doctor becomes involved in disturbing questions about death, burial, and whether someone declared dead may not always remain safely beyond reach.
6. Prophecy (1993): A woman discovers that predictions surrounding her life may be connected to a dangerous pattern that seems to be moving toward fulfillment.
7. Host (1994): A scientist’s attempt to preserve human consciousness through technology raises questions about identity, death, computers, and what survives when the body does not.
8. Alchemist (1996): A pharmaceutical and scientific conspiracy places medical ambition, corporate power, and hidden experiments at the center of a large-scale thriller.
9. The Truth (1997): A seemingly fortunate financial agreement becomes a nightmare when the conditions attached to it reveal how far powerful people are willing to go to control another person’s future.
10. Denial (2000): A celebrated actress and the psychologist treating her become central to a psychological thriller involving obsession, celebrity, family, and increasingly unstable behavior.
11. Faith (2000): A woman’s search for answers after a personal tragedy develops into a story about belief, deception, and how far people will go when certainty becomes more important than evidence.
12. Perfect People (2011): A grieving couple use genetic technology in the hope of having healthy children and discover that choosing desirable traits creates consequences far beyond avoiding disease.
13. Absolute Proof (2018): Investigative journalist Ross Hunter receives a claim that someone possesses physical proof of God’s existence and begins a global search while religious, political, and commercial interests compete to control the evidence.
14. I Follow You (2020): A respected doctor becomes dangerously obsessed with a woman he sees while driving, turning professional success and outward normality into the cover for predatory behavior.

These novels do not form one shared continuity. Similar supernatural or technological themes do not make them hidden installments of the Cold Hill or Roy Grace series.

The Perfect Murder is short but important in James’s wider career

• The Perfect Murder (2010): Victor Smiley and his wife Joan each imagine life would be easier without the other, and their failing marriage becomes the basis for a darkly comic crime story about competing plans and unintended consequences.

This novella is separate from Roy Grace and was later adapted successfully for the stage.

Short-story collections for completionists

1. Short Shockers: Collection One (2013): A group of compact suspense and horror stories showing James working with supernatural unease, crime, and sudden reversals outside novel length.
2. Short Shockers: Collection Two (2013): A second collection continues the same short-form approach with independent tales of danger, fear, and unexpected consequences.
3. A Twist of the Knife (2014): This larger collection gathers many of James’s short stories into one volume and demonstrates the range between crime, dark humor, supernatural suspense, and psychological threat.

None of these needs to be inserted between Roy Grace novels for the main series to make sense.

A career-order route through Peter James

1. Dead Letter Drop: Begin with James’s early espionage period.
2. Possession: Move into the supernatural suspense that shaped much of his pre-Grace career.
3. Host: Sample his interest in technology and mortality.
4. Dead Simple: Enter Roy Grace in 2005.
5. Continue Roy Grace in publication order: Let Sandy, Cleo, Glenn, and Roy’s police career unfold naturally.
6. The House on Cold Hill: Return to supernatural fiction while Grace continues as a separate series.
7. Perfect People and Absolute Proof: Add major modern standalones whenever you want a break from Grace.

What is published, and what is next?

The Hawk Is Dead, published in October 2025, is the latest available main Roy Grace novel as of September 10, 2026.

Dead in Three Two One is the next confirmed Roy Grace book and is scheduled for October 2026. Its Brighton Pride setting and revenge plot bring danger directly toward Grace’s family and personal circle.

Do not confuse preorder availability with publication. Until the scheduled release date arrives, The Hawk Is Dead remains the current endpoint for someone reading only available novels.

Questions that matter when arranging a Peter James shelf

What is the first Roy Grace book?

Dead Simple, published in 2005, introduces Roy Grace.

How many main Roy Grace novels are published?

Twenty-one main novels are published through The Hawk Is Dead. Companion books such as Wish You Were Dead and They Thought I Was Dead are usually listed separately from that main count.

What comes after The Hawk Is Dead?

Dead in Three Two One is the next announced Roy Grace novel and is scheduled for October 2026.

Should They Thought I Was Dead be read early?

No. It explains Sandy Grace’s disappearance and contains information designed to answer mysteries built across the main series.

What is Peter James’s first published novel?

Dead Letter Drop, published in 1981, began his novel career and introduced Max Flynn.

Are the Cold Hill books connected?

Yes. Read The House on Cold Hill before The Secret of Cold Hill.

Is Perfect People a Roy Grace novel?

No. It is a standalone genetic-engineering thriller.

Does the Grace television series change the book order?

No. The novels should still be read in their original publication sequence regardless of the order in which television adaptations are broadcast.

The most reliable Peter James reading plan

For Roy Grace, begin with Dead Simple and continue straight through The Hawk Is Dead. Add Wish You Were Dead as optional family-centered Grace material and save They Thought I Was Dead until the Sandy mystery has already unfolded through the main books.

Keep Max Flynn, Cold Hill, and the standalone novels separate. When Dead in Three Two One is published in October 2026, place it directly after The Hawk Is Dead as the next main Roy Grace installment.