Dead Like You (Roy Grace)

I enjoy Peter James as an author. I find that his stories normally hold my attention and this one was no exception. I found his two time periods disconcerting at first until I realised how he was building up his story.
A good Roy Grace detective story.

I've enjoyed all of Peter James" Detective Roy Grace series and this one continues the quality trend. Having visited Brighton (a long time ago) his descriptions are great and Grace's character delves between his past (with the missing wife) and today's love interest and police politics.

Women are being assaulted and their shoes stolen. The cases remind Detective Superintendent Roy Grace of unsolved cases from the late 90s. The author skillfully reveals the mindset of three different characters who could be the culprit. Camera footage shows a man dressed as a woman following his

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victims into high-end shoe stores. The "Shoe Man," as he is dubbed, is clever, and although one forensics experts believes all of the attacks are perpetrated by one person, Grace isn't so sure. The author also delves back into Grace's life with his wife, Sandy, who has been missing for ten years. In the previous book he had taken steps to have her declared dead so he can marry his pregnant girlfriend. But in the last book we also discovered that Sandy isn't dead. She did not make a very good cop's wife, constantly harping about the hours he spent away from home. She had appeared needy and self-centered so why she left and what she has been doing is still a mystery. Another great installment in the Roy Grace series.

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Didn't realise there were so many shoe fetishists out there! A good read.

It's New Year Eve in Brighton, England, a time for celebration and good cheer...and for the reappearance of a brutal, bizarre rapist. 12 years ago, 5, or perhaps 6, women were kidnapped and sexually assaulted by the criminal police dubbed the Shoe Man. He was called that because not only would he

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seek out woman who had very recently purchased very expensive designer footwear to wear to a special occasion as his victims but he would also use the shoe itself as an instrument of the attack.

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace soon realizes that the present crimes bear a remarkable similarity to those from years ago. It was a series of assults, including the disappearance and presumed murder of the last victim, that was never solved. Could it be a copycat or has the Shoe Man reappeared to once again terrorize the woman of Brighton?

We are presented with several possible suspects, showered with a number of hints that make one, then another, our number one candidate. In a series of flashbacks from 1997, we enter the twisted, perverted mind of perpetrator...but we also enter the mind and experiences of DS Grace and what happened leading up to the mysterious disappearance of his own wife a decade ago. He may not have been able to ever yet go of the cold case assaults and suspected murder, but it seems that at last he has moved on in his personal life, with a new, very pregnant, girlfriend.
And as I always enjoy, just when we think it is all wrapped up, the author slips in one more, totally surprising twist at the very end. Love it!

All in all, this is a very enjoyable book, the sixth in the series but the first for me and one that easily stands alone. Some very good characters, including the interesting Grace and his very understanding girlfriend Cleo, a riveting plot that holds the reader's interest and, while over 500 pages long, a book that moves along very quickly. I might complain that the 'hints' at times seem a bit overdone and I did have some issue with the flashbacks, for some reason finding them a bit confusing, but it was not a deal breaker. A good, well written story won out.
An engaging, rather disturbing thriller, especially recommended for fans of police procedurals.

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After a New Year's Eve ball, a woman is brutally raped as she returns to her room. A week later, another woman is attacked. Both victims' were wearing very expensive, very high designer heels which are taken by the offender as a grim memento of his crime. . . Detective Superintendent Roy Grace soon

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realises that these new cases bear remarkable similarities to an unsolved series of crimes in the city back in 1997. The perpetrator had been dubbed 'The Shoe Man' and was believed to have raped five women before murdering his sixth victim and vanishing. Could this be a copycat, or has the Shoe Man resurfaced? When more women are assaulted, Grace becomes increasingly certain that they are dealing with the same man. And that by delving back into the past he may find the key to unlocking the current mystery. Soon Grace and his team will find themselves in a desperate race against the clock to identify and save the life of the new sixth victim . . .

This is the 6th in the Roy Grace series by bestselling British author Peter James based on a real-life case that became known as 'The Rotherham Shoe Man'. Between 1983-1986, over twenty women reported that they had been violently raped and their shoes taken. It turned out that the rapist was a 49 year old man, a pillar of the community, happily married with a good job and two children. When investigated, police found 100 pairs of women's high quality shoes in his basement. He is now serving a life sentence.

I have not read any books by Peter James before this one and now will definitely go back to the first Roy Grace novel, Dead Simple and its follow-ups, Looking Good Dead, Not Dead Enough, Dead Man's Footsteps and Dead Tomorrow. All have raced up the UK bestseller charts, been nominated for every major UK award and translated into 30 languages, with world sales of over four million.

Here, he creates a classic mystery writer's smokescreen, introducing a number of potential suspects and maintains the whodunnit element right to a climactic finale. The story itself is written over two time periods. The further in to the investigation Inspector Roy goes, the more of the past you get to see. We see him working two crime scenes both in the present and the past. It’s written cleverly and isn’t made too complicated. He never forgets that it's people and plot that make a first-rate crime novel, not simply an interesting backdrop.

The sense of horror he creates in his victims prompts urgency and almost desperation in the police officers attempting to apprehend a rapist they begin to understand is following a fixed pattern with pre-ordained dates which ratchets up the tension still further. We also inhabit the "mind of the rapist" as he/she identifies likely victims and tracks them down making for chilling reading!

James is renowned for his in depth research into the inner workings of police investigations. He works on a regular basis with the Sussex police and has over the years experienced the range of duties expected of an officer on the front line, including attending autopsies and going out with armed response teams. This makes for a really authentic police procedural novel.

He certainly knows how to create pace and suspense through a complex couple of plots. Although a long book, the story really flies - yet the ultimate twist is saved until the very end!

A word of warning, the victims all use Facebook and Twitter to broadcast their movements in full detail. You never know who could be reading those posts and waiting to ambush you when you are alone......

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Love the Roy Grace series, and this is another fab book

The length of this recording requires some dedicated listening, and has actually taken he-who-listens-with-me and myself about 3 weeks of listening on longish car trips, which also provides reviewing challenges. While I am familiar with the writing of Peter James and the Roy Grace series in

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particular (see links below for my other reviews), my fellow listener was not.

My fellow listener dislikes books that jump between time frames as DEAD LIKE YOU does. It has two main time frames: 1997 and 2007. The times of the year are similar - both around Christmas, New Year - and there are similarities between the crimes committed, making Roy Grace fear that the "Shoe Man", believed to have raped 5 women and murdered a sixth in 1997, has returned. The alternative is that there is a copycat occurring, someone who admired and followed the exploits of "Shoe Man" a decade before.

Back in 1997 the investigation into the rapes took place just before Roy Grace's wife Sandy disappeared. Sandy has never been found despite a number of reported sightings and so her disappearance continues to be a theme as in earlier titles in the series. But Grace is preparing to have her declared dead and now has a happy relationship with Chloe who works as a pathologist.

There's plenty to think about as the action jumps backwards and forwards between the past and the present, and we discover that there is more than one possible perpetrator of the current rapes. DEAD LIKE YOU is a satisfyingly complex novel.
If I have one criticism, it is its length: the trade paperback version is 548 pages. It is a very detailed book, again showing considerable evidence that Peter James knows what he is talking about, that his research has been profound. But there were times when I wanted the detailed descriptions to be less, and for the action to proceed a bit faster. There are times too when the reader knows that Grace and his team are ignoring vital evidence, making false assumptions and going down the wrong path.

So, does it work as a stand-alone, if you haven't read earlier titles in the series? The answer is "yes". James ensures that you get to know all the background that you need. So go for it! Peter James is a master story teller.

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This is the sixth Roy Grace novel and my first, and I thought it was excellent. A killer-rapist who apparently went into hibernation 12 years ago has resurfaced, selecting his victims once again as a result of a particular fetish he has. I liked the characters, good plot, the pacing was excellent.

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I had some difficulty initially with the flip-flopping back and forth from 12 years ago, but became comfortable with it eventually and even felt it was critical to the success of the story. Tip to other readers: Consider searching for Brighton on both Flickr and Google Earth and you will be rewarded with views of a very different city/beach town, scenes that were not shared in the descriptive detail of the book. I do intend to go to book 1 in the series and read the first five books.

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Another crime thriller in the Roy Grace series. A rather nasty tale of rape and murder overlaid by the ongoing personal developments in Grace's life and that of his colleagues. There are one or two parts of the story which are left open which one assumes will form the basis of some later books in

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the Grace series.

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This is the first Peter James book I’ve read, and it lands, I think, five books into a series following detective Roy Grace. In Dead Like You, Grace is after a brutal rapist whose M.O. begins to look very much like that of an number of unresolved cold cases that are sitting on his desk for

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review; those of the ‘Shoe Man’.

There’s a lot of acclaim for the series, the author, and this book (four star ratings and good reviews on most of the reading-related sites I’ve checked), so I was very surprised not to be immersed in a higher quality of writing. The book is well-plotted, decently paced and interesting enough to keep me engaged and reading to the end, all of which fulfils the criteria for ‘decent, readable, crime fiction’, but I have to admit I found the author’s talent as a writer just above adequate; not all good storytellers are good writers, or vice versa, but given the length of his title list to date, and the apparently good reception by his readers to Dead like You, I was disappointed.

So, flaws; James’ dialogue is clunky and functional, his characters very average for the genre, most of the police force being lost in a general mire of household dysfunction and interview regurgitation for exposition sake (maybe these characters had more build up in the earlier books?), and he would rather tell than show (although, crime fiction sometimes needs that to maintain pace)… there’s nothing that lifts Dead Like You out of the ordinary. On the other hand, if you’re a fan of crime fiction, as I am, you’re often simply content to be intrigued by the mystery and firmly behind the investigator catching the sick killer or rapist (or both in this instance), and James has a good handle on keeping the reader invested.

I can’t make up my mind if the rather lazy writing is the result of being mid-series, the earlier books therefore being worth a read, or if I should – if I read anything else by James at all – try the next instalment in the hope that he is improving with experience. He’s not bad enough to write off entirely, but there are so many really good writers of crime fiction out there, that it’s hard to be enthusiastic.

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This was an excellent book. It started out just a little bit difficult to follow, as people were being introduced, and it was bouncing back between two 12 year periods. Once everybody was introduced the book just flew by. It was well written, the characters were well developed, and the story line

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was very interesting. It was a real page turner, because the intrigue of who had done what along with the the development of the characters that made you care for them wouldn't allow me to put it down for very long

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Don't imagine for one moment that I'm not watching you. . . The Metropole Hotel, Brighton. After a heady New Year's Eve ball, a woman is brutally raped as she returns to her room. A week later, another woman is attacked. Both victims' shoes are taken by the offender . . . Detective Superintendent

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Roy Grace soon realises 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' and was believed to have raped five women before murdering his sixth 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. And that by delving back into the past - a time in which we see Grace and his missing wife Sandy still apparently happy together - he may find the key to unlocking the current mystery. Soon Grace and his team will find themselves in a desperate race against the clock to identify and save the life of the new sixth victim . . .

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A fascinating, gripping mystery that keeps you guessing with every chapter. The reader is kept on pins and needles as more and more details are revealed about each of three likely suspects.

I highly recommend Dead Like You to fans of mysteries, especially the British variety.

I won my copy through

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First Reads.

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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

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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 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.

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This was my first stab at Peter James. I wanted to like it. The setting in Brighton is a place I have fondness for and James has such a great reputation. I put it down, though, after about 150 pages. It wasn't bad but I wasn't willing to go the whole distance of well over 400 pages with its large

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cast of characters and constant scene shifting.

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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

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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 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.

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4.5 Stars. Another excellent read I. This series. These are police procedural so i. The real sense of the world, including the meetings they have at the beginning and end of each day to discuss the case and what the various members of the team have found out, and tasks are given. I like this

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feature a lot. We also have an interesting group of characters who interrelate well. A key strength is also being with the murderer and suspect at various points in the story which adds significantly to the story. There are plenty of twists and red herrings. I worked out who the murderer was quite early in the story but this was still a very enjoyable book despite this. Although there is also a key twist towards the end!

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Another break from long fantasy series. Enjoyed this one more than the previous in the series where it got too long winded at times.