More edge of  your seat stuff as Roy Grace returns to the stage in the latest adaptation of one of Peter James's best selling crime thrillers. 

I knew a shock was coming at any moment, but I still jumped out of my seat and screamed when it came, as did everyone around me. 

It wasn't quite what I expected, which of course is the beauty of any gripping thriller, and it wasn't the only time there were audible gasps from the appreciative audience. 

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There are twists and turns aplenty in Picture You Dead, which gets underway in the home of an ordinary couple who are slightly down on their luck before they pay £20 for a picture frame at a car boot sale, not realising it contains a multi-million pound masterpiece. 

Verified during an appearance on Antiques Roadshow, they become targets in a murky plot involving deep fakes, an extremely talented forger and a rather eccentric collector.

For me, these were the stand out performances among a talented cast. Peter Ash, who departed Coronation Street in dramatic fashion last year, shone as the loveable rogue able to perfectly replicate any Lowry, Monet or Picasso, while Nicholas Maude was dripping with sarcasm and underlying nastiness as the wealthy art aficionado willing to do anything to complete his collection

Picture You Dead is the best of the four of five Peter James stage adaptations I've seen here in Southampton.

(Image: Alastair Muir) Dead Simple will live long in the memory, mainly because of the nightmare flashbacks to the stag who was buried alive, but this is a more gentle tale, as murder plots go.

It kept us gripped for the whole 2 hours 15 minutes and filled the stage beautifully. I always think that's an impressive feat for a play in such a large theatre more used to staging huge West End musicals with casts of dozens.

Designer Adrian Linford also deserves special mention for a simple split set which allowed us to move from place to place as the detectives sought answers in various locations. I particularly liked the studio filled with drying works of art. 

Picture James' Picture You Dead runs until Saturday night. 

Tickets from mayflower.org.uk

(Image: Alastair Muir)