You Are Dead

Roy Grace, Book 11

By: Peter James

Narrated by: Daniel Weyman

Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Faced with his most disturbing case yet, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace tracks a serial killer in You Are Dead, by award winning crime author Peter James.

A series of young women – all beautiful, all with long brown hair – have been stalked and abducted. Each victim is found with a brand on their body, a marking that reads ‘U R Dead’.

And some of their remains are from thirty years ago.

When Logan Somerville is taken while on the phone to her fiancé, Grace must find a lead, connect the cases and track down the killer before they can strike again . . .

Although the Roy Grace novels can be listened to in any order, You Are Dead is the eleventh thrilling title in the bestselling series. Enjoy more of the Brighton detective’s investigations with Love You Dead and Need You Dead.

Now a major ITV series, Grace, starring John Simm.

©2015 Peter James (P)2015 Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

This series had promise

Soporific redundancy at the hands of greedy publishers and subhuman editors took this batch of somewhat credible characters into the realm of sophomoric tripe.
The development of the black lieutenant (or whatever you Brits call them) was a pregnant opportunity wasted. The mawkish, trite expressions of affection were enough to induce nauseous moments.
I only wish the future of the crime writing genre can transcend this pablum.
I read an author's series to lend them the benefit of the doubt. In this case, I want all my wasted hours (and credits) returned!

Excellent series

Again unpredictable and exciting. Love the unravelling of the Sandi plot which is a thread throughout, and the goulish villains in all the series. Very entertaining indeed.

Narrator is unsteady

The narrator starts out great but varies his style thru out the book. At times his voice is very breathy and scratchy. Other times his voice is solid and well enunciated. Not the 'voices' of characters but during the descriptions. It is really annoying. The story itself can be a little tedious. How many visions of Sandy do you need?

Brilliant Listen

one of my favourite Peter James books, made even more enjoyable by Daniel Weyman's style of oration. I have listened to it a few times and always enjoy it

Hard to put down!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would definetly recommed this to everyone. It has everything in it and parts where you are on the edge of your seat.

Which character – as performed by Daniel Weyman – was your favorite?

No doubt, Glen Branson.

Like watching your favourite soapies

Would you listen to You Are Dead again? Why?

No, but only because I rarely listen/read books more than once.

What did you like best about this story?

I have listened to every other story in this series and it's like watching my favourite soapie as I have grown to love all the characters. As usual, likeable characters with their own personalities and enough twists and turns to keep you totally hooked.

What about Daniel Weyman’s performance did you like?

I associate his voice with Roy Grace. Perfect

Any additional comments?

Definitely read/listen to these books in order or sometimes it could be hard to follow.

Another fantastic read!

Don't know how Peter James does it, his books just get better and better! A great story, love the characters, I always feel like I know them personally. As usual, I can't wait for the next Roy Grace book.

A grisly chiller

Would you listen to You Are Dead again? Why?

Probably not; I rarely revisit books. Too many still to read and never enough time!

What did you like best about this story?

Superb plot and character development. The series goes from strength to strength. I'm interested in the characters and sub plots and want to know about their lives.

What does Daniel Weyman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Great diction and great pace. I was literally breathless towards the end as the final scenes played out.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Grace is a man I think I'd like, along with Cleo. He's fair and has integrity. I care when things don't go well for him.

Any additional comments?

I'm a big fan of Peter James and the Roy Grace series. You Are Dead is number 11 and I was hooked throughout.

Grace is settled with Cleo and his son, Noah and they're about to move home when he's called in to lead on a missing person case. One disappearance leads to another and it soon becomes a major incident. James is excellent at the police procedural aspect. Developments play out in short sharp chapters in what feels like real time, keeping the pace and tension tight. More than that, he also has great psychological insight into his characters. There's a sense of familiarity and continuity as the story picks up from events at the end of the previous book. This book works well as a stand alone, but there are threads throughout the series and sub plots continue to develop.

I felt the plot was particularly well executed. There's a real sense of drama which builds to a literally heart pounding climax. Plus a further twist, but I'll reveal nothing more! The action is firmly rooted in Brighton. The strong sense of location as the story unfolds reinforces both plot and characters.

I'm enjoying the way Grace is changing as a character. He's again troubled by conflict of loyalty and duty, home versus work, present versus past, old rivalries and new beginnings. He's torn on more than one occasion and there's an interesting development in the Sandy story. His work colleagues feature again and I'm interested in how their lives move forward. So all in all, this is yet another first class winner. I enjoyed it and was left wanting more.

My favourite detective

I really enjoyed this - great characters and the story did not fade away. Gripping until the end. Narration excellent.

Better than the last one

Really enjoyed listening to this, good story and at last the sandy thing is coming into the open.

Predictable but enjoyable

A good yarn, but it was obvious right from the start who the killer was. This is a straight story, no red herrings to make you question who is who and who did what, which is a bit of a shame. In effect, I listened the book knowing exactly what was going to happen, but enjoyed the journey along the way. Well narrated but the story is a little one dimensional for my liking.

Brighton Rocks!

Bravo Mr James! Stick to Brighton, add in a touch of the macabre, jolly the Sandy plot line along a bit and you've got another winner. This book starts powerfully and introduces a dual story line of a present day abduction and a death from the not so recent past. The two are drawn together in a not so much whodunit but more a who-survives-it. If you buy into it then it is genuinely exciting.

The Grace series delivers unique plot lines along with a strong back story and well developed characters. True some of the plots have worked rather better than others and it seems some people want to see an end to the story of Sandy, his absent wife but it's still a very good series that is well worth investing time and credits in. And I have to say that to me the Sandy story line is just fine, for the number of books in the series not much time has actually passed so it's more than realistic to have it persist.

Daniel Weyman seems comfortably settled in now as the preferred narrator and produces his usual fine delivery.

If I have one complaint about the author it's the "affectionate" scenes which given the kind of people Grace and Cleo are just feel a little immature in terms of how they are written.

In all though, as far as I am concerned it is onward and upwards to the next one!

Couldn't stop listening

Would you consider the audio edition of You Are Dead to be better than the print version?

Prefer listening, I drive a lot, ideal format for me

What did you like best about this story?

Hooked from the beginning

What does Daniel Weyman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Pleasant voice, easy to listening to

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Definitely

Entertaining

A great listen. Keeps you guessing right till the end. Wish Audible would sort out the faulty chapter 98 though. I've emailed & tweeted but got no response.

Oh dear, this could prove expensive...

I'd seen mentions of Peter James before but never got around to reading or listening to anything of his. This book grabbed my attention in the first paragraph, and I just knew I was going to want to listen all the way through. But - I haven't.

Audible, or their clever marketing team, have played the same trick that got me hooked on the Ruth Galloway novels by Elly Griffiths: a Daily Deal that seemed worth a punt. On that occasion I heard it all, had to buy all the previous books for the back story, then found that my Daily Deal became a spoiler for some of the earlier stories.

I don't intend to make that mistake again. From what I've already heard of this, the police procedure is excellent, clear and well explained, the characters are well drawn and the narrator is excellent. The plot is intriguing but it's obvious there's some serious history to the characters, especially Grace himself. Well, there would be, it's marked as No 11 in the series.

So, Audible, looks like I'm going to have to consider some serious spending - I'm off to download book 1 and, if it bears out the promise of the first few chapters of this book, I have 10 books to work through before I actually find out what will happen to Logan.

Heigh Ho...

Another great grace adventure

Love listening to books when your familiar with the characters, great fast paced book. Took a bit to get over first few chapters then right into story with great twists.

Loved it!