High hopes for this one, as you know what happens to Sandy later in the Grace series. However, it failed to really grip me like a classic Peter James novel does. One for the fans but as a standalone it doesn't work so well.

I am a huge fan off the Roy Grace series but sadly I was disappointed.
Yes expectations may have been high but I struggled to buy into the story and found myself disenchanted.
Sometimes unbelievable and repetitive I am afraid I am at odds with the many Peter James fans who enjoyed this one

Peter James has done it again and this book is the story of Roy Grace’s wife Sandy .
We discover why she left Roy , what she’s done whilst she’s been away and see life from Sandy’s perspective.
I didn’t find Sandy a likeable character she has numerous issues and addictions and moves on from relationship to relationship.
Even though I didn’t like Sandy , the book is a great read and completes the missing pieces of the Roy Grace series .
An easy to read story Peter James’ writing makes the pages fly by .
Thanks to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan.

Really well written story about the mysterious disappearance of Sandy , Roy Graces wife, who he had spent ten years trying to find through all previous books. There had been a few sightings over the years but nothing was ever found out definitely.
After 10 years Roy applies to have Sandy declared dead , this shocks Sandy now living in Germany under a different name along with her 10 year old son Bruno.Many secrets pour out about Sandy's past , including her involvement with an abusive partner . who goes missing as she is about to leave him. and her reliance on drugs.Don't want to spoil this for readers so keeping it short. An excellent story though keeping all our well loved characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan for my copy of They Thought I Was Dead: Sandy’s Story by Peter James.
I have wondered at times what made Sandy walk away from her Detective husband Roy Grace so was delighted with this book. Until I started reading it. I’m about a third of the way through and it’s just so hard to believe in, I cannot finish it.
I love the Grace books but this left me cold.

I really did not enjoy this book at all. The synopsis sounded great but I really struggled to get into the book. Not sure if that is because if it was written in the first person or because the storyline seemed hard to actually believe what happened was true.

It wasn't the story I thought it was going to be but an enjoyable read. Definitely isn't of the usual Roy Grace style but helps with the background.

Resourceful, miserable and not very likeable, this is Sandy's story. Wife to the wonderful Roy Grace, there is never a dull moment with Sandy. She can be good company but is also her own worst enemy. It's gritty, dark and honest.

I know fans of this series will be as excited for this book as I was and on tenterhooks about what happened. I can't really say much as I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. What I will say is as an avid reader of this series I thought I knew Sandy Grace, I was wrong. I thought I knew what happened to Sandy Grace I was wrong. One page in and I was shocked and the shocks kept coming. I always thought Sandy's disappearance was quite cut and dried but I was SO wrong! I love DI Grace but after reading this I disliked Sandy so much and I'm actually glad she was out of Grace's life early on. Listen to me talking as if they are real people but that's what they actually feel like and that is down to the author's writing skills. Bravo Peter James for writing this book and answering questions about Sandy I didn't even know I had. This book is up there with my favourites of the series throughout the years! It is not often we get the perspective of a missing person and this was an absolute tour de force of a read!

Having enjoyed the entire Peter James’ Roy Grace series, both in book form and on television, there always been the outstanding question of ‘whatever happened to Sandy?’ She disappeared early on with minor mentions from time to time until the appearance at the end of the story before this one. I admit, that I am unsure if this book works for me or not. It is Sandy’s story and it’s not for the faint hearted. She went through a lot that we didn’t know anything about, and her husband was clearly in the dark over 99% of it. I suppose I expected some Roy Grace story to finally show out, but no, it’s Sandy’s story. I suppose I should have read the blurb more. I found Sandy’s story well written but she made so many mistakes I wondered how she even survived. She appears to make wrong decision after wrong choices. What unsettles me is how Roy couldn’t have known what was wrong. He must have been living with blinkers on through their years together. This is a well written answer to the question that titles this book, but if you’re expecting Roy Grace, you won’t get it. I hope there’s more Roy Grace in the future, but wonder how Sandy will fit into that. I’m not convinced that the loose ends were tied up. It left me with more Roy Grace questions than answers.

"They Thought I Was Dead: Sandy's Story" by Peter James is a gripping and revealing tale that dives deep into the mysterious disappearance of Sandy Grace, wife of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace.
As a long-time fan of the Roy Grace series, I wanted answers to the questions surrounding Sandy's vanishing act. James delivers in spectacular fashion, unraveling Sandy's story with twists and turns that kept me guessing until the very end.
While Sandy's decisions may be questionable at times, her resilience in the face of danger is commendable. James expertly weaves together elements of addiction, danger, and suspense, creating a compelling narrative that captivated me from start to finish.
Whether you're a devoted follower of the Roy Grace series or new to Peter James' work, "They Thought I Was Dead" is a must-read that offers insight into the complexities of human nature and the power of resilience. I loved it!

Very grateful to the publisher for this copy, opinions are my own

I really enjoyed this one - it was really interesting to read Sandy's story since we'd only ever gotten Roy's POV. It was such Ann eye-opener since her story turned out to be very complex and full of drama!

Highly recommend for Roy Grace fans!

Detective Roy Grace was desperately in love with his beautiful young wife, Sandy. Then one day, on his thirtieth birthday, she simply vanished, never to be heard from again. That was eleven years ago. This is the book in which we finally get to know what happened to her. So many readers have been waiting for so long…. as author Peter James says, he really owed his loyal readers this book! I am not going to tell you what happened to her, apart from saying it’s a lot. You’ll just have to read the book to find out. They Thought I was Dead: Sandy’s story is packed full of action, suspense, drama and horror. It answers all the questions that have remained unanswered over the years. I, for one, had never imagined this….

I love the Roy Grace series and when I saw this book, I just had to read it.
Sandy disappeared from Roy’s life suddenly and with no explanation. For years throughout the crime series she has been in the back of his mind and it’s great to finally find out what happened.
I won’t say too much here as you need to discover for yourselves what happened and the issues she faced, but it’s definitely an eye opener.
This is a great insight into Sandy’s life.
Thanks to Pan MacMillan and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

There is no one like Peter James for telling a story that is a compelling read. This is for everyone who wondered what had happened to Roy Grace’s first wife. Sandy is not a likeable character, but she has great inner strength and that is what the reader admires. I wonder if the author had this back story in his head while he was writing the Grace series.

Ever since I began this series, many moons ago, I, like everyone else, I have been curious about what really happened to Sandy. That's not to say when I realised that we were about to find out, that I didn't have some reservations about whether it would match up to this much loved series. The outcome is that I'm glad I read it but I have mixed feelings not least because some of the action is set on the little island where I live and this brings about unexpected feelings.

On the whole though, Peter James can't really go wrong, even with the most demanding of readers and he has formulated a story that fits the known facts but despite this, it isn't the story I wanted to read, That's not the author's fault it is just that I had wanted something different, but now we know!

The first book in this series, Dead Simple, was the book that got me hooked on police procedurals, thrillers and more gritty reads back in 2005. After losing my reading my mojo due to having my children (not enough hours in the day where I still had more than one active brain cell left) I had finally put a toe back in the water with some chick-lit, light reads but was finding them lacking somehow. With this very different genre Peter James changed all that, and the rest, as they say, is history.
As the followers of the series will know, Sandy Grace's character has been a presence from the start - or should I say an absence? Nobody has known what happened to her, least of all her detective husband Roy. She just vanished as if into thin air. If anyone had the resources available to find her it would be a leading detective, but sadly for Roy this just didn't happen - there were several potential sightings over the years, but no evidence to back these up. But now, in this latest novel, we all get to find out what happened, together with all the whys and hows that go with the facts from Sandy's point of view. I think this is a very well-timed novel, having spoken to several people who have invested in the series they are ready to have their questions answered.
I think it's safe to say that having now read Sandy's story she really wasn't the person Roy thought she was. There are some pretty unsavoury characters involved here, so it was just a matter of time before Sandy got her fingers burned. It's very much a tale of the grass being greener on the other side however some of the decisions Sandy made had me shouting at the pages at her naivety. As the wife of a detective whose job it was to catch these people, she really should have known better. I love that Peter James has blended some of the characters from Roy's investigations into Sandy's story, which helped with the strands of story in previous books where there were possible sightings of her.
By the end of the story, I was torn between my loyalty to Roy but wanting a decent outcome for Sandy after all she'd gone through. I don't think she really knew what she was looking for, but the people she encountered on her search for a happy life certainly made it an eventful journey.
Overall I found this book tied up a lot of loose ends, but it didn't (except for a couple of sections) get my heart racing as much as I expected. I'll be interested to see how the Dead series either continues or concludes now we have a lot of the answers.

Those who are familiar with Peter James' Roy Grace series will know that there's an ongoing background story related to Detective Grace's own life drama—the mysterious and unexpected disappearance of his wife, Sandy, prior to the events of the first book—and that he tries everything and follows every lead to find out what happened to her.
I've been immersed in Roy Grace's universe for 16 years, and although some of the latest novels gave us glimpses of Sandy's new life after mysteriously vanishing from Roy's life, nothing could have foreseen the big mess her life had turned into. Bad decision after bad decision, addiction after addiction, and a shocking penchant for relating to dangerous people—having access to her messed-up mind and thoughts made me ponder how this could be the woman Roy was so in love with. Through the glimpses we got in the past, I already had a strong feeling she was not going to be as nice a character as Cleo, Roy's new wife, but I was not expecting such a dark character. That being said, I've found this book a very good read. Yes, I felt shocked and frustrated with most decisions made by this very unrelatable character but it was a rather engaging story that always kept me wondering how in hell she would get away from each mess she got herself into. 4 solid stars from me!

I actually enjoyed this spin off - It was good to read of Sandy's story and the writing style reminded me of Peter's earlier work. Sandy as a very complicated character and her story went some way to explaining why she left Roy and how Bruno's earlier life and his personality became formed. Thank you for an advance copy.

It doesn’t really need saying as this is a Peter James book, but obviously excellently written.

This books filled in the gaps in Sandy’s story from the Roy Grace novels

Highly enjoyable