-
Dead Before Dying
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $21.04
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
Three men who have nothing in common are found murdered in Cape Town, and the string of vicious killings pushes the city toward panic. Captain Mat Joubert is left scrambling for answers in a case that might be his last chance to prove that his life's slow spiral will not pull him under.
Critic reviews
Featured Article: Worldwide Thrills—The Best International Thriller Audiobooks
Thriller audiobooks are a great escape. They can whisk you around the world and beyond without ever having to leave your home. They can take you to places near and far without having to pack a suitcase. (Oh, and if you are taking a trip, you can bring a book with you—that's two trips in one!) From Havana to Nigeria to Tokyo, these suspense-packed listens will take you on a heart-pounding, journey from the first shocking twist to the final gasp.
More from the same
Author
Related to this topic
-
Dead at Daybreak
- By: Deon Meyer
- Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A South African antiques dealer is murdered with a single bullet from an M-16 assault rifle. The contents of his safe are missing, and the only clues are a scrap of blank paper and the unusual weapon used: a gun that's generally the choice of mercenaries, not burglars. Now ex-cop Zed van Heerden has seven days to fill in the blanks in this dead man's past - a past that appears only to start in 1983.
-
-
Entertaining great narrator
- By Lia on 08-22-10
By: Deon Meyer
-
Blue Monday
- Frieda Klein, Book 1
- By: Nicci French
- Narrated by: Beth Chalmers
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Frieda Klein is a solitary, incisive psychotherapist who spends her sleepless nights walking along the ancient rivers that have been forced underground in modern London. She believes that the world is a messy, uncontrollable place. The abduction of five-year-old Matthew Farraday provokes a national outcry and a desperate police hunt. And when his face is splashed over the newspapers, Frieda cannot ignore the coincidence: one of her patients has been having dreams in which he has a hunger for just such a child.
-
-
Engrossing thriller - an easy "read"
- By Hilary on 08-15-13
By: Nicci French
-
Blind Goddess
- A Hanne Wilhelmsen Novel, Book 1
- By: Tom Geddes - translator, Anne Holt
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A small-time drug dealer is found battered to death on the outskirts of the Norwegian capital, Oslo. A young Dutchman, walking aimlessly in central Oslo covered in blood, is taken into custody but refuses to talk. When he is informed that the woman who discovered the body, Karen Borg, is a lawyer, he demands her as his defender, although her specialty is civil, not criminal, law. The young man is adamant: he will speak to Karen Borg, and to her alone.
-
-
Not Sure Why I Didn't Like It
- By Tracey Rains on 05-28-13
By: Tom Geddes - translator, and others
-
Laguna Heat
- By: T. Jefferson Parker
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Laguna: a place where a crazed killer has turned paradise into a Disneyland of depraved violence - with a fiery vengeance - and where homicide cop Tom Shephard unravels a grisly mystery. It reaches back across 40 years of sordid sex, blackmail, and suicide into the dark corners of his own past.
-
-
Fabulous
- By Stacy on 02-24-09
-
The Ghosts of Belfast
- By: Stuart Neville
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fegan has been a "hard man" - an IRA killer in Northern Ireland. Now that peace has come, he is being haunted day and night by 12 ghosts: a mother and infant, a schoolboy, a butcher, an RUC constable, and seven other of his innocent victims. In order to appease them, he's going to have to kill the men who gave him orders. As he's working his way down the list, he encounters a woman who may offer him redemption; she has borne a child to an RUC officer and is an outsider too.
-
-
don't judge by its cover
- By connie on 01-05-13
By: Stuart Neville
-
Babylon Berlin
- Gereon Rath, Book 1
- By: Volker Kutscher
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Berlin, 1929. Detective Inspector Rath was a successful career officer in the Cologne Homicide Division before a shooting incident in which he inadvertently killed a man. He has been transferred to the vice squad in Berlin, a job he detests even though he finds a new friend in his boss, Chief Inspector Wolter. There is seething unrest in the city, and the Commissioner of Police has ordered the vice squad to ruthlessly enforce the ban on May Day demonstrations.
-
-
It's no Bernie Gunther Mystery ...
- By Brian English on 01-28-18
By: Volker Kutscher
-
Dead at Daybreak
- By: Deon Meyer
- Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A South African antiques dealer is murdered with a single bullet from an M-16 assault rifle. The contents of his safe are missing, and the only clues are a scrap of blank paper and the unusual weapon used: a gun that's generally the choice of mercenaries, not burglars. Now ex-cop Zed van Heerden has seven days to fill in the blanks in this dead man's past - a past that appears only to start in 1983.
-
-
Entertaining great narrator
- By Lia on 08-22-10
By: Deon Meyer
-
Blue Monday
- Frieda Klein, Book 1
- By: Nicci French
- Narrated by: Beth Chalmers
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Frieda Klein is a solitary, incisive psychotherapist who spends her sleepless nights walking along the ancient rivers that have been forced underground in modern London. She believes that the world is a messy, uncontrollable place. The abduction of five-year-old Matthew Farraday provokes a national outcry and a desperate police hunt. And when his face is splashed over the newspapers, Frieda cannot ignore the coincidence: one of her patients has been having dreams in which he has a hunger for just such a child.
-
-
Engrossing thriller - an easy "read"
- By Hilary on 08-15-13
By: Nicci French
-
Blind Goddess
- A Hanne Wilhelmsen Novel, Book 1
- By: Tom Geddes - translator, Anne Holt
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A small-time drug dealer is found battered to death on the outskirts of the Norwegian capital, Oslo. A young Dutchman, walking aimlessly in central Oslo covered in blood, is taken into custody but refuses to talk. When he is informed that the woman who discovered the body, Karen Borg, is a lawyer, he demands her as his defender, although her specialty is civil, not criminal, law. The young man is adamant: he will speak to Karen Borg, and to her alone.
-
-
Not Sure Why I Didn't Like It
- By Tracey Rains on 05-28-13
By: Tom Geddes - translator, and others
-
Laguna Heat
- By: T. Jefferson Parker
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Laguna: a place where a crazed killer has turned paradise into a Disneyland of depraved violence - with a fiery vengeance - and where homicide cop Tom Shephard unravels a grisly mystery. It reaches back across 40 years of sordid sex, blackmail, and suicide into the dark corners of his own past.
-
-
Fabulous
- By Stacy on 02-24-09
-
The Ghosts of Belfast
- By: Stuart Neville
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fegan has been a "hard man" - an IRA killer in Northern Ireland. Now that peace has come, he is being haunted day and night by 12 ghosts: a mother and infant, a schoolboy, a butcher, an RUC constable, and seven other of his innocent victims. In order to appease them, he's going to have to kill the men who gave him orders. As he's working his way down the list, he encounters a woman who may offer him redemption; she has borne a child to an RUC officer and is an outsider too.
-
-
don't judge by its cover
- By connie on 01-05-13
By: Stuart Neville
-
Babylon Berlin
- Gereon Rath, Book 1
- By: Volker Kutscher
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Berlin, 1929. Detective Inspector Rath was a successful career officer in the Cologne Homicide Division before a shooting incident in which he inadvertently killed a man. He has been transferred to the vice squad in Berlin, a job he detests even though he finds a new friend in his boss, Chief Inspector Wolter. There is seething unrest in the city, and the Commissioner of Police has ordered the vice squad to ruthlessly enforce the ban on May Day demonstrations.
-
-
It's no Bernie Gunther Mystery ...
- By Brian English on 01-28-18
By: Volker Kutscher
-
Ordinary Thunderstorms
- A Novel
- By: William Boyd
- Narrated by: Gideon Emery
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One May evening in London, Adam Kindred, a young climatologist in town for a job interview, is feeling good about the future as he sits down for a meal at a little Italian bistro. He strikes up a conversation with a solitary diner at the next table, who leaves soon afterward. With horrifying speed, this chance encounter leads to a series of malign accidents, through which Adam loses everything—home, family, friends, job, reputation, passport, credit cards, cell phone—never to get them back.
-
-
Amazing Story Teller
- By Dorothy on 09-07-14
By: William Boyd
-
A Share in Death
- By: Deborah Crombie
- Narrated by: Michael Deehy
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A week's holiday in a luxurious hotel is just what Scotland Yard's Superintendent Duncan Kincaid needs. But his vacation ends dramatically with the discovery of a dead body in the whirlpool bath. Despite a suspicious lack of cooperation from the local constabulary, Kincaid's keen sense of duty won't allow him to ignore the heinous crime, impelling him to send for his enthusiastic young assistant, Sergeant Gemma James. But the stakes are raised significantly when a second murder occurs....
-
-
series readers, start here
- By connie on 02-09-13
By: Deborah Crombie
-
Falling Off Air
- By: Catherine Sampson
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robin Ballantyne's life is finally coming together. After learning she was pregnant with twins and being abandoned by her irresponsible boyfriend, Adam, she's settling into life as a single mother. But one night, after putting the children to bed, she hears an argument and suddenly, a body falls past her window. Running outside, she finds the body of Paula Carmichael, a renowned activist.
-
-
Rich, developed and unusual
- By Hannah Coale on 02-02-05
-
The Blue Hour
- Merci Rayborn, Book 1
- By: T. Jefferson Parker
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tim Hess is a semiretired veteran cop staring at a death sentence - his own. Detective Merci Rayborn, young enough to be his daughter, is brash, impatient, and not someone from whom Hess wants to be taking orders. He certainly isn't planning on falling in love with her. Together, they must track down a psychopathic killer who's been abducting beautiful young women from the malls of Orange County.
-
-
Outstanding book, exceptional reader
- By Jan on 03-24-10
-
Nightfall
- A Jack Nightingale Supernatural Thriller
- By: Stephen Leather
- Narrated by: Paul Thornley
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“You’re going to hell, Jack Nightingale”: They are words that ended his police career. Now Jack’s a struggling private detective – and the chilling words come back to haunt him. Nightingale’s life is turned upside down the day that he inherits a mansion from a man who claims to be his father. It comes with a warning that Nightingale’s soul was sold at birth and a devil will come to claim it on his 33rd birthday – just three weeks away.
-
-
Kept my attention
- By Deziderata on 08-12-10
By: Stephen Leather
-
Jar City
- By: Arnaldur Indridason
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gold Dagger Award winner Arnaldur Indridason’s novels featuring Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson became international sensations on their way to selling millions of copies worldwide. The debut of morose detective Sveinsson finds the inspector and his team delving into the murder of a retiree with horrifying secrets.
-
-
Cerebral Police Procedural
- By Aaron on 09-14-13
-
The Cleaner
- By: Elisabeth Herrmann
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pools of blood, scenes of carnage, signs of agonising death - who deals with the aftermath of violence once the bodies have been taken away? Judith Kepler has seen it all. She is a crime-scene specialist. She turns crime scenes back into habitable spaces. She is a cleaner. It is at the home of a woman who has been brutally murdered that she is suddenly confronted with her own past. The murder victim knew Judith's secret: as a child Judith was sent to an orphanage under mysterious circumstances - parentage unknown.
-
-
Reader was very distracting
- By Merry Unbirthday on 10-16-17
-
The Big Over Easy
- A Nursery Crime
- By: Jasper Fforde
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's Easter in Reading, a bad time for eggs, and no one can remember the last sunny day. Ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, minor baronet, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. All the evidence points to his ex-wife, who has conveniently shot herself.
-
-
Total Whimsy
- By Bruce Sabin on 08-10-05
By: Jasper Fforde
-
The Broken Shore
- By: Peter Temple
- Narrated by: Peter Hosking
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shaken by a scrape with death, big-city detective Joe Cashin is posted away from the homicide squad to the quiet town on the South Australian coast where he grew up. Carrying physical scars and not a little guilt, he spends his time playing the country cop, walking his dogs and thinking about how it all was before. But when a prominent local is attacked and left for dead in his own home, Cashin is thrust into what becomes a murder investigation.
-
-
Taut, Complex in Every Way Fantastic Listen
- By Kathleen on 07-18-09
By: Peter Temple
-
Field of Blood
- By: Denise Mina
- Narrated by: Heather O'Neill
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Little Brian Wilcox's murder is the hottest story in Scotland. Every major newspaper crowds its pages with stories examining the crime from every angle. If only Paddy Meehan could get a scoop on the case. A nationally syndicated story would surely launch her fledgling journalism career out of the free local rag she's been working at.
-
-
Wrong Accent
- By Amazon Customer on 04-01-14
By: Denise Mina
-
The Anderson Tapes
- By: Lawrence Sanders
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser, Marc Vietor, Mark Boyett, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This novel represents the first appearance of Lawrence Sanders' most famous character, Edward X. Delaney, and the masterpiece of murder and suspense that launched Sanders' career. This suspenseful classic is brought to life by a full cast, including L. J. Ganser, Marc Vietor, Mark Boyett, Zoe Hunter, Gabra Zackman, Lauren Fortgang, Kevin T. Collins, Josh Hurley and Peter Ganim.
-
-
Poorly Suited to Audio Format
- By Dave Cole on 04-30-12
By: Lawrence Sanders
-
The Ritual Bath
- The First Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus Novel
- By: Faye Kellerman
- Narrated by: Mitchell Greenberg
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detective Peter Decker of the LAPD is stunned when he gets the report. Someone has shattered the sanctuary of a remote yeshiva community in the California hills with an unimaginable crime. One of the women was brutally raped as she returned from the mikvah, the bathhouse where the cleansing ritual is performed.
-
-
Good Read
- By Eva Gannon on 08-21-08
By: Faye Kellerman
What listeners say about Dead Before Dying
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kathleen
- 09-29-12
South African mystery, very good.
Captain Matt Joulbert of the Capetown Police heads an investigation trying to figure out why several men, with seemingly no connection, are being murdered in the same exact way. While some people think it is a serial killer, Matt doesn’t think so. He is searching for, and finally finds, a connection between the victims which leads to finding the murderer. This may be Matt’s last case to prove that he hasn’t lost his touch as a top investigator. His wife died two years ago while on duty, and his life has been in a downward spiral ever since. In this book he is finally going to a therapist who may be able to help him pull his life together. These books about South Africa and Capetown are for the current period of time. They give us great scenic descriptions of South Africa and are also good police procedurals.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dennis
- 04-29-13
Crafted well, content limiting
Deon Meyer is a decent writer, and I like the fact that his books focus on a different person in the police department from one book to the next, yet still involve most of the subsequent co-workers in the storyline. The protagonist in this story carries the angst of loosing his wife in a murder while she was on the job, also as a police officer. As he tries to pull his life together he works out the clues to a tough case and faces a new and difficult boss. All of this with the backdrop of South African politics and culture. The book is fine, not great. It seems it takes a lot of lines of text to get from place to place in this book, nothing much happens for long stretches during which we are bludgeoned with the introspection of the main character. The ending as a bit of change up and so I will not spoil it here but it is worth the slog to get there.
If you like the genre, or are a Meyer fan go ahead with this one, but the story tends to be fairly grey for long stretches.
Recommended with caution
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bruce
- 06-06-20
Another great Deon Meyer book with Simon Vance A+
I must admit I did not listen to the Benny Griessel books in order, but it didn't matter. Meyer is a gifted author and Simon Vance adds so much to any book he performs, it is always a pleasure to listen to him.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Paul
- 10-17-19
Murder in South Africa
My first Deon Meyer novel. It was a unique experience. It was a solid police procedural. The characters are all flawed which works to its advantage and disadvantage. It works because it makes the characters more human, but it does seem to rely on them as one-trick ponies. I'm the fat guy who smokes. Now i need to clean my act up. I'm the drunk, I need to get sober. I'm the new leader, i will flex my muscles etc.
The central mystery of whodunit is pretty good. I think the officers are interesting flaws and all. I happen to think the villain is a left-field curve ball that while justified feels shoehorned in and really didn't work for me. I like the police work and the rest, but the villain and the motivations while genuine seemed like a last minute fix.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chefette
- 12-05-19
Simon Vance should steer clear of South African accents
I have enjoyed many of Simon Vance’s narrations of other books but his awful attempt at doing the South African accent, which admittedly is a difficult one to master, and terrible mispronunciations of the names of people and places really ruined this audio book for me. Fortunately the storyline and it’s sub plots is so riveting that I managed to listen to the end. I regret having purchased another Deon Meyer audible book narrated by Mr Vance before listening to this one ... surely an actual South African with a grasp of South African accents would have been a far better choice !!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Fred
- 06-19-22
It is a good quick read
it took a while to get going but it ended strong. overall a good quick read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Warren Breckman
- 07-27-22
Annoying voice and predictable characters
Gave up at chapter 6. The voice makes this unbearable, and the main detective seems like s clone of a dozen heartbroken in-bad-shape detectives before him. Will try Benny Griessel series instead.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!