Dead Simple — Peter James

Michael Harrison had it all: good looks, charm, natural leadership, a wicked sense of humor, and now Ashley, his fiancee. While out celebrating with a group of friends a few nights before the wedding, Michael suddenly and unexpectedly finds himself enclosed in a coffin equipped only with a flashlight, a dirty magazine, a walkie-talkie, and a tiny breathing tube. It's all in good fun -- payback for the grief his buddies had suffered at the hands of his own penchant for tomfoolery -- that is, until his four buddies are killed in a drunk driving accident just moments after leaving Michael buried alive in his coffin.
Detective Superintendent Grace -- himself dealing with the pain of losing a wife -- is brought on to the case when Ashley reports Michael missing. Suspicions are raised when Michael's only friend not at the bachelor party refuses to cooperate and Ashley's faithfulness -- not to mention her increasingly mysterious past -- are suddenly thrown into question. As Superintendent Grace soon discovers, one man's disaster is another man's fortune ...dead simple.