Sometimes pranks can lead to serious consequences that are hard to deal with. Michael Harrison, a successful young businessman, is planning to get married and decides to throw a bachelor party with four close friends, intending to have fun together. But the friends decide to get back at him for past pranks and come up with an unusual joke: Michael must spend a few hours in a coffin buried in the ground. The prank might have seemed funny to him, if not for fate’s interference. Soon after the prank begins, his friends die in an accident. Now Michael is trapped, and no one knows where to find him. But he still has a chance to be saved.
Superintendent Roy Grace takes on the investigation of Michael’s mysterious disappearance, fully immersing himself in the case, because he too survived a tragedy—his wife Sandy disappeared nine years ago. The novel has been translated anew, and in 2021 ITV began airing the British series “Grace,” based on Peter James’s books, starring John Simm in the title role. The series received a 7.40 rating on IMDb.