Customer Reviews

Looking Good Dead

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Peter James is the author of several very successful thrillers, two of which have been made into successful TV films. More are in production now. He was born in 1948 and educated at Charterhouse. He lives in Sussex near Lewes.

I had forgotten how refreshing it was to read a crime thriller by a British author with British people and British places. I am a little tired of reading about New York `cops' or small American towns that have no meaning to the average British reader.

Tom Brice was doing what he assumed any other law abiding citizen would do, trying to return someone's lost property to them. The CD had been left on the train seat next to his own and in attempting to return it to its rightful owner he becomes the sole witness to a vicious murder. Worse it yet to come his young family are threatened with violence of the worst kind if he goes to the police. But supported by his wife, Kellie, he bravely makes a statement to the murder inquiry team that is headed by Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. The police make all the right noises, but could this be the worst mistake Tom has ever made . . .

I think that this may be the last Peter James detective novel that I attempt to read. Although his work gets quite good reviews from fans, I don't find them to be my cup of tea. This is my second attempt at a Roy Grace book, and the second time that I've wound up disappointed.

It *was* reasonably entertaining. I often found the prose awkward, but that's not so unusual in detective novels. Unfortunately, I found the plot sadly predictable, and that's much more difficult for me to forgive. James is a reasonable hand at character, which is the only reason that I'm wavering on giving up on his books. Can anyone recommend a Roy Grace book by him that they really like?

A great 'do-as-they-say-and-protect-my-family-OR-do-what-is-right-and-inform-the-police' storyline.

I wondered if it was going to be a bit 'waffly' with it being over 500 pages but it wasn't and I absolutely flew through it.

The murders were shocking enough to satisfy the gruesome but realistic enough to be scary and believable. How anonymous the Internet can be...and how your computer can both access information yet also have it's hard drive destroyed in seconds.

There is also a subplot where Detective Tom Bryce is contemplating a new relationship..ten years after his wife Sandy disappeared. This was nicely done and I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops in his next novel.

If you can suspend disbelief and enjoy an entertaining yarn there is nothing wrong with this at all. It's well written, informed and right up-to-date. A gripping tale of ordinary people caught up, by chance, in a technological nightmare. Be careful of the websites you visit! Only the over-the-top ending prevented it earning 5 stars. Good fun.

Peter James's "Looking Good Dead" is a grisly page-turner with some creative twists. Tom Bryce is a struggling British businessman who has a beautiful but troubled wife and two adorable kids. His life takes a horrendous turn when he looks at a CD that a fellow commuter accidentally leaves behind on a train. When Tom plays the disk in his computer, he is horrified to see a beautiful woman being slashed to death. This scene couldn't possibly be real, Tom hopes. Much to his dismay, he learns that not only has he witnessed a woman's murder, but that he has also inadvertently placed himself and his family in grave danger.

Thirty-eight year old Detective Superintendant Roy Grace, the Senior Investigating Officer for the Sussex CID, has a great deal on his plate. He has still not come to terms with the mysterious disappearance of his wife, Sandy, who went missing nine years earlier. In addition, his job is on the line, since his superiors have not been satisfied with his performance of late. Another black mark on Grace's record is habit of visiting mediums in an effort to find out what happened to Sandy, and to give him tips that will help him solve difficult crimes. Now, he is in charge of investigating the homicide of a woman whose mutilated torso was found by a dog-walker. There are few promising leads, and as the days go by, Grace fears that the case will become impossible to break. The only bright spot in his life is his upcoming date with Cleo Morey, a Senior Pathology Technician who seems to reciprocate his interest. Grace has been intensely lonely for years, and he desperately wants a satisfying relationship with this desirable woman.

"Looking Good Dead" is an engrossing police procedural that explores a dark underworld populated by sadists and sociopaths. To identify and apprehend these individuals, Grace and his team face many hours of door-to-door canvassing, phone calls, viewing tapes from closed-circuit television cameras, and other time-consuming tasks that deprive them of free time to spend with their loved ones. Marriages are strained to the breaking point as the police desperately try to unmask a killer whose signature is a scarab (a beetle with arcane symbolic significance).

James presents a realistic look at how frustrating and plodding detective work can be. Grace faces pressure from his bosses, from the media (who are only too happy to crucify the police when they fail to arrest a suspect swiftly) and from himself. He fears that what happened to this young woman may have happened to Sandy. What if someone savagely butchered his wife and dumped her body somewhere, never to be seen again? For the sake of all the unfortunate victims, Grace tirelessly drives the men and women who work with him to get results, but as time passes, there is little to show for their efforts.

Let the reader beware. This book is not for the faint-hearted; it contains coarse language, graphic sexuality, and scenes of explicit violence. For those who like timely thrillers with an edge, however, "Looking Good Dead" offers sharp dialogue, a lively and varied cast of characters (including some monstrous villains), and an engrossing and suspenseful plot that focuses on the use of technology to commit heinous crimes. Although Peter James breaks little new ground in a genre already dominated by such prolific authors as Peter Robinson, Val McDermid, and Ian Rankin, his Roy Grace mysteries may soon earn him a place in their exalted ranks.

LOVING the Roy Grace series!! Peter James is a master storyteller! He never fails to disappoint. Read it in one go!

I really enjoyed the story and was completely engrossed.....up until the point where the characters are drinking alcohol!!! Please don`t add to the text "Sho whats happening,I`m sho tired" no!!!!!! please, people don`t talk like that. Great stories, but I can`t put up with any more. Its not just me, my wife thinks the same, and she apparantly knows everything.

I strongly recommend this author I have recently discovered. I've read his book Dead Simple and really enjoyed it. I ran to buy Looking Good Dead and, honestly, I don't want to finish it before buying a third story of James's detective Roy Grace.

Excellent criminal thrillers, intelligent plots, gripping character -Roy Grace-... The pleasure of reading!

Gabriela Keselman

Picking up immediately after the events of _Dead Simple_, this book was a lot more thrilling. Many of the details that bogged down the first book were absent in this installment, making it a much faster-paced read. My only real complaint has not to do with the book itself, but with the rather faulty description on the back of the book. The back of the book heavily implies some actions in the book that do not happen... So, I really do NOT recommend reading that description first. It caused me to disconnect from some characters because of this description. I certainly will avoid reading any future descriptions put out by this publisher! Also, this series is very hard to find in the States, and while I would like to read the rest of the series, I fear it will be a slow process!

Tom Bryce decided to do a good deed by trying to return a CD left by a passenger on the commuter train. The CD was unmarked so Tom decides to pop it into his computer to see if he can figure out to whom to return it. Big mistake. Now Tom and his family are in danger by a group of particularly nasty people.

This is a second novel in what seems to be a series. I didn't read the first and felt no need to. All the characters are adequately explained. The main character of Detective Superintendent is an especially intriguing and sympathetic man. Nine years earlier on his thirtieth birthday, his wife Sandy disappeared. He is just now beginning to date again. The object of his affection is the beautiful Cleo Morey who is the Chief Mortician. The scenes leading up to and including his dates with Cleo are some of my favorites in the story. I felt these were particularly strong. The plot was a rather cookie cutter with a bit more graphic violence than usual. I didn't find it particularly suspenseful or thrilling, but where the plot let me down, the characterizations more than made up for it.

3.5 Stars