Looking Good Dead (Roy Grace Series #2)

by Peter James

Overview

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace has to solve a disturbing murder whilst protecting an innocent eye witness, in this TV tie-in edition of Looking Good Dead, by award winning crime author Peter James.

Now a major ITV series, Grace, adapted for television by screenwriter Russell Lewis and starring John Simm.

When a young woman’s body is found butchered in Brighton, Roy Grace cannot help but think of his own missing wife and her unsolved fate.

Elsewhere in the city, when Tom Bryce finds a disc left on a train, he simply tries to do the right thing – return it to its owner. But this attempted act of kindness makes him the sole witness to that same vicious murder.

Learning that Tom has made a statement to Grace’s team, the killers have to act. But when they plan the murder of the Bryce family, it’s not just revenge – it’s entertainment.

Although the Roy Grace novels can be read in any order, Looking Good Dead is the second gripping title in the bestselling series. Enjoy more of the Brighton detective’s investigations with Not Dead Enough and Dead Man's Footsteps.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780330462594
Publisher:	Pan Macmillan
Publication date:	09/04/2008
Series:	Roy Grace Series , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	546
Sales rank:	27,652
File size:	729 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Peter James is a UK number one bestselling author, best known for writing crime and thriller novels, and the creator of the much-loved Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. Globally, his books have been translated into thirty-seven languages.

Synonymous with plot-twisting page-turners, Peter has garnered an army of loyal fans throughout his storytelling career – which also included stints writing for TV and producing films. He has won over forty awards for his work, including the WHSmith Best Crime Author of All Time Award, Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger and a BAFTA nomination for The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons for which he was an Executive Producer. Many of Peter’s novels have been adapted for film, TV and stage.

Peter James is a UK No.1 bestselling author, best known for his Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, now a hit ITV drama starring John Simm as the troubled Brighton copper.

Much loved by crime and thriller fans for his fast-paced page-turners full of unexpected plot twists, sinister characters, and accurate portrayal of modern day policing, he has won over 40 awards for his work including the WHSmith Best Crime Author of All Time Award and Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger.

To date, Peter has written an impressive total of 19 Sunday Times No. 1s, sold over 21 million copies worldwide and been translated into 38 languages. His books are also often adapted for the stage – the most recent being Looking Good Dead.

Editorial Reviews

Sharply plotted, suitably sordid.

EBOOK COMMENTARY

British author James dreams up a horrific intersection of extreme perversion and Internet technology in his frightening, expertly constructed second Det. Supt. Roy Grace novel (after 2006's Dead Simple). London marketing exec Tom Bryce makes the mistake of popping a CD he found on the train into his computer: it logs him onto a snuff film Web site, where he watches helplessly as a beautiful woman is butchered. Soon thereafter, Grace and his partner, Det. Sgt. Glenn Branson, find the mutilated body of the victim, Janie Stretton, a law student from Brighton, whose murder reminds him of the unsolved disappearance of his wife, Sandy, nine years earlier. While the lawmen pursue elusive leads, Bryce draws the ire of the twisted criminals behind the Web site and sees his family's comfortable suburban life unravel. The rapid-fire suspense builds to a terrifying, graphic conclusion that leaves tantalizing room for future installments in the series. (Mar.)

Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

In the follow-up to James's best-selling debut, Dead Simple, a businessman going home on the train finds a CD left on the seat and, after popping it into into his computer, witnesses the savage death of a young woman. Despite warnings not to got to the police, the man reports the crime to Brighton Detective Chief Superintendent Roy Grace, with fatal consequences. At the same time Grace's major crimes team must identify the mutilated remains of a woman, whose head is missing. James's complex tale of violence, danger, and nerve-racking suspense is not for the timid. Fans of Quentin Jardine's Bob Skinner police procedurals will appreciate. James lives in London and Sussex.

—Jo Ann Vicarel

Library Journal

Det. Supt. Roy Grace's sophomore case is just as suspenseful as his first (Dead Simple, 2006), and just as wildly improbable. Leaving the commuter train at Brighton, struggling entrepreneur Tom Bryce finds an unlabeled CD where a particularly obnoxious fellow-traveler had been sitting. He takes it home, idly boots it up and discovers in the few moments before it stops playing and begins to erase his hard drive that it's a record of the brutal murder of Janie Stretton, the law student whose mangled body has launched the Sussex CID on a frenzied investigation. In short order, Tom gets an email with a dire warning from Scarab Productions: If he tries to open the program or contact the producers or the police, he'll be killed along with his wife and children. While Tom is agonizing over what to do, Grace is having his own troubles. He's under intense pressure to solve a case with no clues; the gruesome crime details he's trying to keep secret in order to screen out crank callers are promptly splashed across the front page of the local tabloid; and his tentative advances to pathology technician Cleo Morey are thwarted by his grieving for his wife, Sandy, who disappeared without a trace nine years ago. Supported by the surprising compassion of his alcoholic, spendthrift wife, Kellie, Tom inevitably phones the authorities and then watches his life turn from a battle against recalcitrant clients and overdue bills to a battle of life and death. Because Scarab Productions makes special-interest films for a limited market, they approach the prospect of killing the Bryces as a business opportunity. Despite echoes of Thomas Harris, the closer analogue is to Jeffery Deaver's clock-racing thrillers. Andif you can't wait for Deaver's next, James delivers the goods.

Kirkus Reviews

"Frightening, expertly constructed. . . . The rapid-fire suspense builds to a terrifying, graphic conclusion that leaves tantalizing room for future installments in the series." —Publishers Weekly starred review

From the Publisher

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace of Brighton, England, is a wonderful addition to the mystery scene. In this second Grace novel, Tom Bryce finds a CD on his train ride home and takes it, hoping to trace the owner. However, after he views its contents, a snuff film, he and his family find themselves in mortal danger. Narrator David Thorpe expertly recreates Tom's love for his family and his terror at his situation. He does realistic voices for Tom’s family and delivers clear details and description. When Tom's wife is kidnapped, terror mounts. An additional treat is the interview with author James, who comments on his experience of hearing his own book on audio. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

AUG/SEP 07 - AudioFile