Dead at First Sight by Peter James

4 Stars from me

I feel kinda mean giving 4 Stars as it is such an accomplished book in a super popular and much loved series… Almost a bit like a teacher never giving the really good kid, who always gets on with their work, any merits – so please note that it is a really solid and well deserved four stars.

I have loved following the Roy Grace series and greatly enjoy reading the latest updates in his life – what’s going on with Glen, what’s going on with him and Cleo, what’s going on with Bruno (who will surely murder them all in their beds in one book, right?), whether Cassian Pewe is still a prick etc.

As an added bonus, Dead at First Sight also has a fab and very current storyline as it focuses on romance fraud ‘cat fishing’ scams.

I felt so so sorry for the characters in the story who were tricked by the scammers – Sakawa Boys – as they suffered financially and emotionally in the process. Often too ashamed to even admit the extent of what happened. Losing all – or most – of their hard earning savings and losing the person they believed to be the love of their life in one fell swoop felt so devastating; even worse to consider that this happens all the time in real life. I can’t bear the idea of a war hero, or even just an average Joe, who has lived a good honest life yet and thinks they have met someone special to share their savings and twilight years with – just to have the whole lot unceremoniously snatched away from them. Some people are just so unscrupulous.

Dead at First Sight is a good, solid, thought-provoking thriller from Peter James.

Blurb: A man waits at London Airport for Ingrid Ostermann, the love of his life, to arrive. Across the Atlantic, a retired NYPD cop waits in a bar in Florida’s Key West for his first date with the lady who is, without question, his soulmate. The two men are about to discover they’ve been scammed out of almost every penny they have—and that neither woman exists. Meanwhile, a wealthy divorcée plunges, in suspicious circumstances, from an apartment block in Munich. In the same week, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is called to investigate the suicide of a woman in Brighton, that is clearly not what it seems. As his investigations continue, a handsome Brighton motivational speaker comes forward. He’d discovered his identity is being used to scam 11 different women, online. Roy Grace realizes he is looking at the tip of an iceberg. A global empire built on clever, cruel internet scams and the murder of anyone who threatens to expose them.