What do You think about Looking Good Dead (2007)?
Having discovered two copies of this book on my bookshelf I figured it may be a good idea to read one of them! I have come to the Roy Grace series by Peter James a book late apparently, this being the second in the series although Looking Good Dead seems a perfectly good stand alone read, as the references to DS Grace's marriage and disappeared wife are referred to enough times throughout to know his background. Even though I did kind of enjoy this book, a have a lot of gripes about it as well. The first being (view spoiler)[ is it just me or is it about time that writers come up with something else apart from the 'meaningful object/clue' being inserted into any one of a number of the bodies orifice's to be discovered during the autopsy of victim??? It seems that it has got to the stage that everyone is trying to outdo themselves with the goriest or nastiest descriptions possible and I think enough is enough, surely - there is no shock value with it as it has been done to death (pardon the pun) (hide spoiler)]
—Sharon
I got this book recommended by a friend and I have quite enjoyed it, but after his previous recommendations, I have to admit, my expectations were greater.Basically, a man finds a CD on a train, puts it in a computer at home to see if he can find who it belongs to and return it, and then all hell breaks loose – murder, threats, another murder and more threats. But to make things worse, people actually pay to watch these murders live on the internet. Every second is important for DS Grace to prevent more deaths.The book is good, but not amazing. Thumbs up for the plot, which I found original and well-handled and, surprisingly, not as unbelievable as I would’ve thought. The beginning is a bit slow and the end, in turn, comes and goes in a few dozen pages, but I suppose that is kind of common practice to increase the tension in the crucial moments anyway.I thought DS Grace’s interest in occultism was an interesting touch as that, for me, was new in a character of a police investigator, quite surprising and unusual distinguishing detail.However, in general, I am not very fond of James’s characters. Somehow, they seem to lack enough depth to feel real, to make you empathise with them, or to make you think of them as actual people, rather than characters in a book. Most of them seem to have a leading characteristic that overshadows other personal features and pretty much determines the character. Also, I was a bit disappointed with the stereotyped villains.To mention one more cliché, everything just happens to happen at the right time, that is, the last possible second. At the last possible second you find the location you are looking for, at the last possible second you leave the danger… Some parts just seem to be a tiny bit too far-fetched.On the same note, some things seem to happen just for the sake of the storyline. By this I mean that they just appear out of a sudden when they are needed and they are immediately dropped after they’ve played their role, although some of them felt like they needed more explaining or being followed further.At the same time, I have to contradict myself, because some of these aspects that seem to be dropped too suddenly or to be just a little bit too convenient, come up again in the end and turn out to be something else than what they first looked like. Basically, the errors of the investigators. And this, in turn, I appreciated, as I am a bit tired of the superhero detectives who know it all from the start and are never wrong. I thought this made DS Grace more human.All in all, despite a few minor let downs, I did enjoy this book. In the end, I found myself unable to stop reading and just had to finish the book, although that meant depriving myself of several hours of sleep. So would I recommend it? Yes, it is worth the read.
—Misha
Tom Bryce finds a CD on a train and inserts it into his laptop. Then the trouble starts and Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is on the trail to solve a murder and more. This novel is set around Brighton and has a good plot with a plausible background. This entertaining story gives a nice insight into the work of the Police High Tech Crime Unit and how criminals may use computers. Looking Good Dead is another crime thriller in the DS Roy Grace series. Although the main character in this series is DS Roy Grace, it is all about networking and working as a team. Lots of favours are asked between various people, who respond and together save the day. There is a nice dry gallows humour between the Police Officers...A good choice of location for a safe house, Grace thought, except for one minor detail that appeared to have been overlooked. Who in their right bloody mind would put a paedophile in a house a few hundred yards away from a school playing field? He shook his head. Didn't anybody ever think?'Is Mr D'Eath expecting us?' Nicholl asked.'With morning coffee and a box of Under Eights I expect.' Norman Potting said, following this with a throaty chuckle....This book is a brilliant illustration of the wonders of team work. Without the flagging and passing on of tiny bits of information between many Police Officers, these crimes would not have been solved. Peter James is very good on police procedures in this book of 519 pages which was published in 2006. Looking Good Dead is a good story and I vote it 4 stars. This is a stand-alone novel, although reading it straight after Dead Simple, it is a seamless follow-on. I am a little disappointed at how much appeared to be brought over from Dead Simple, which is quite lazy as this was not new content. There is another dramatic ending in the style of an action hero movie. Looking Good Dead shows how ordinary acting and looking people could be involved in the darker side of society, without anyone suspecting.
—Stephen Clynes
