Dead Like You

This is a capable enough police procedural and certainly an easy read. The focus on the various suspects felt a little overdone and times and almost bordered on the exploitative. I think I'd have preferred something half as long that focussed only on the cops side of the story. I probably have a weakness for the Grace books because of their Brighton setting. Can't help finding him a little lacklustre as a 'tec. He seems to stumble across things rather than really investigating or making great leaps of intuitive understanding.
An entertaining enough read despite all those criticisms though.

This book is so full of stereotypes, misogyny and thinly veiled prejudice that it feels like someone puked a chewed copy of the Daily Mail on to a printer. The book structure is painting by numbers. In way both of these are a real shame because the plot is interesting.

From Amazon:

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is forever haunted by the unexplained disappearance of his wife, Sandy, nearly ten years ago. Ever since she went missing, he's been consumed with finding out what happened to her. Finally, he may be moving on. He has fallen in love and is going to marry his girlfriend, Cleo, who is pregnant with their child. But his life is put on hold when, after a wild New Year's Eve ball, a woman is brutally raped as she returns to her hotel room. A week later, another woman is attacked. Both victims' shoes are taken by their attacker. Grace soon realizes that these new cases bear remarkable similarities to an unsolved series of crimes in the city back in 1997. The perpetrator had been dubbed "Shoe Man" show more and was believed to have raped four women before murdering his fifth victim and vanishing. Could this be a copycat, or has Shoe Man resurfaced? When more women are assaulted, Grace becomes increasingly certain that they are dealing with the same man. By delving back into the past--a time when Sandy was still in his life--he may find the key to unlocking the current mystery. Soon Grace and his team find themselves in a desperate race against the clock to identify and save the life of the new sixth victim, as he struggles with a chapter in his life he thought he had put behind him at last.

My Thoughts:

We find DCI Roy Grace with two rapes occurring in the present time and the team following the clues that may lead to an individual dubbed "The Shoeman". From there the chase is on to find and stop him before another woman is taken and tortured. There are a number of credible suspects... who if not guilty of the rapes...are certainly up to something no good. The narration alternates between action in 1997 and the present day... which I initially found a bit confusing, but I got into the rhythm of it. All the police procedural aspects of the story are first rate and drive the narrative in a realistic way. The suspense builds credibly throughout with the book culminating in the last few chapters with Grace and his team attempting to locate and liberate the most recent victim. Dead Like You is brimming over with red herrings and false trails. The book gripped me from beginning to end... and it's always rather nice when every loose thread isn't entirely tied up. Gives the reader food for thought. Overall...an excellent read by a fantastic author. show less

Number six in the Roy Grace series. It’s taken me a while to warm up to this series. I find the books are a little bit long with way too much information that really isn’t tantamount to the story in some ways. I also find them extremely readable because I like the characters quite a bit. This book is a little different than the others in the series, where we go back-and-forth between two different timelines and that I find a little bit difficult to follow sometimes. I’m not really a big fan of two timeline books. And the other thing that brought this down a little bit for me is the ending where a lot of it is left up in the air. We have a partial solution by the end of the book, but it certainly isn’t, by any means, a full show more solution. Another thing that gave me pause is the graphic descriptions of the crimes that were committed. It was tough to get through some of them, and the subject matter was, to say the least, off-putting. But in spite of all of these caveats, I did find the book moved along at a wonderful pace and kept my interest throughout.. Unfortunately, part of the storyline is getting a bit repetitive, like Branson’s marriage woes, and Grace’s missing wife who’s been missing for nine years. It’s time the author made a resolution with these two hanging threads. I certainly will read more books in this series as this one really did hold my interest. The writing is exceptional, and the processes followed in investigations are so well-depicted that it feels like you’re actually right there trying to solve this case with the cops, it was a good addition to this series. show less

One of my favorite series, Dead Like You is the sixth book in Peter James’ series featuring DS Roy Grace of Brighton. This book has Grace tracking down a serial rapist that appears to have become active again after a more than 10 year gap. In 1997, this rapist was believed to have viciously raped four women before actually murdering his fifth victim and vanishing. Is this a copycat or has this rapist returned?

As more women fall victim, DS Grace becomes certain that this is the same man. Digging back into the past also brings Roy Grace full circle back into the time when his wife Sandy disappeared. He is finally very happy in his personal life, he is very much in love and he and his partner , Cleo, are expecting a baby, they are just show more waiting for the paperwork declaring his first wife legally dead before they get married. Somehow I am sure Sandy will eventually come back into the story.

I enjoyed this one, the action is full on , leaving me feeling like I just took a roller coaster ride. Well plotted with great story development, the reader feels very involved with the case. These exciting storylines are what keeps this series fresh and interesting. show less

Roy Grace book #6

This police procedural mystery follows “Dead Tomorrow”. At this point, Roy is still haunted by the unexplained disappearance of his wife Sandy many years ago and since then he has been consumed with finding out what happened to her, although he seems to be moving on and going to marry his pregnant girlfriend. His professional life is hectic as always this time Roy is faced with sexual attack on a woman at a New Year’s Eve ball and another a week later. These attacks very similar to unsolved crimes back in 1997 where victims shoes where taken...The perpetrator dubbed “Shoe Man” appears to have resurfaced and was believed to have raped four other women and murdering his fifth victim...

The chase is on.

It has been show more some time since I last read “Dead Tomorrow” and so glad to be catching up with Roy’s personal life while reading that his professional life gave challenging cases for our delight. I find Roy’s character to be pretty good and quite likeable.

The plot is interesting and moved quickly through its twists and turns. The story is intriguing and from the opening page till the conclusion it is not certain who from the long list of criminal characters is the Shoe Man. This is much more traditional crime fiction where we have a rapist, a murderer on the loose and a selection of possible suspects. But.. Always a but: if this book had been half the length it could have been a far more enjoyable police procedural. No doubts the author certainly can write a good, involving storyline.

However, “Dead Like You” is so bloated with voyeurism depicting terrified women and fetishes....shoes. 500 pages around designer shoes......give me a break. This story is hard to follow at times it skips different time frames back to 1997 and then forward and hops between characters. Some may say this creates some cliff-hangers to keeps us going just a tiny bit longer...ok.

Even with the minor niggles it is still a good mystery show less

In the sixth book of the DS Roy Grace series by Peter James, things are starting to look more positive for Roy. Even though he's still haunted by the unexplained disappearance of his wife, Sandy, ten years ago, he's engaged to his new love, Cleo. They are expecting their first child and Roy seems as happy as we've ever seen him.

Our story really begins in 1997, when a 29-year-old Grace begins his investigation of a serial rapist, known as the Shoe Man, who was believed to have raped at least five women and in all likelihood raped and killed a sixth victim whose body has never been found. Flash forward to the present where a woman is attacked and viciously raped in Brighton with one of her high-heeled, designer shoes. Grace now realizes show more that the attack is almost identical to the Shoe Man case he worked on in 1997. As the pattern begins to repeat, Grace and his team find themselves in a furious hunt to find a dangerous man.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was that it switched back and forth between the police, several suspect rapists, and victims, giving readers insight into these crimes. The characters were all well written and there were a couple of interesting twists at the end. This is a very enjoyable series and I look forward to continuing it. show less