Looking Good Dead

It's a tricky proposition, changing horses midstream. And with Looking Good Dead, Peter James continues to do just that. The author's reputation as a purveyor of subtly chilling horror and fantasy had been carefully built up over many years, and James had few British peers in this field. But that is not quite the compliment it sounds, for the horror field is in one of its frequent slumps at present, and apart from a few American giants such as Stephen King, some highly talented figures have languished, in some cases even forfeiting their publishers. It's possible that Peter James saw the way the wind was blowing, and decided to move on from his hitherto lucrative horror work, returning to the crime arena (in which he'd worked before) with the adroit Dead Simple, the inaugural book in the series featuring Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. If DS Grace was cut from a familiar cloth (copper struggling with psychological problems), the plotting was innovative and fresh.

And so it's proved to be once again with Looking Good Dead. Tom Bryce picks up a CD which has been left behind on a train seat, but when he attempts to track down the owner, he finds himself the only witness to a savage killing. Reporting the crime to the police has disastrous consequences for Bryce, and the lives of both he and his wife are threatened--by a notification on the Internet, no less. When DS Roy Grace becomes involved, he finds himself up against a malign group of very well organised criminals.

As in Peter James' previous outing for Roy Grace, the plotting here is the thing. James addresses the crime genre as if he had never been away, and although Grace is, to be frank, not strikingly different from any other literary coppers, few people will complain when James' storytelling acumen is as authoritative as it is here.
--Barry Forshaw

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fantastic read!! - Rated
without doubt the most engrossing book i've ever read!Could not put it down, i will be working my way through his other titles post haste.

Another holiday read - Rated
I did read this book through to the end - in a day on the beach - and found it sufficiently interesting. The characters are weak, in general and very stereotyped. The progress of the investigation reads well but the so-called malign criminals, although their acts as described are viscious, they are hardly the worst I've come across in the crime genre. Rather stupid, too but then I guess PC Plod wouldn't have caught them otherwsie. I'll probably pluck up courage to read the next one!

Not looking just as good as I thought! - Rated
I read the first in the series 'Dead Simple' in a couple of days - it was that good! This took me over a week to get through. It wasn't a bad novel by any means just not as nail-biting as the previous outing of Roy Grace. Sexy written scenes made me say Eewwww! as I thought for a long term fan of Mr James work, they were a tad unecessary,'blokey' and really didn't add anything to the story, In My Opinion.

Maybe a bit pulled out in the telling but again a good book with some ideas that I haven't seen before and worth a read. It kept me interested but not worthy of 5 stars. A 5 star book keeps me wanting to read all the time, this was a work break book, not a book to carry everywhere with me!

Not bad - Rated
After reading Peter James' previous books I couldn't wait to read Looking Good Dead, unfortunately it's not quite in the same league. Whilst I like Roy Grace's character I couldn't have cared less about the weak Tom Bryce and his annoying, alcoholic, self centered wife and her eBay addiction. I was actually hoping their time would run out but alas they survived. As mentioned by other reviewers I felt that there was a lot of padding and not enough about the actual main story line. As for the fact that Tom Bryce is kidnapped and somehow manages to keep hold of his Plam Pilot, unbelievable! Wasn't quite sure that a snuff ring would advertise all their 'work' with a signature either. Very stereotypical characters, all the woman are beautiful and sexy; Janie, Cleo, Kellie, Emma Jane, babysitter, teenage girls at bus shelter, all the criminals are heartless Albanians or Russians. I kind of feel Peter James is living some of his fantasies through Roy Grace, with regards to the beautiful Cleo. Overall this is an OK read if a little lacking in places, the ending isn't great, I get the feeling that James wasn't quite sure where to go with it.

Pedestrian pace and far too much padding out - Rated
I have to go with the significant minority here who are critical of this book.

I read just over 200 pages, and what happened in those pages could be summarised in a paragraph (one person has been killed and a possible witness has had a virus on his laptop - that really is about it!). Even padding it out to the level of characterisation and other detail you would normally expect, it would run to no more than 20-30 pages, max.

Every time a character enters a room or gets out of the car etc, you get 2-3 pages explaining the room/street etc in fine detail. It's not just scene-setting, its extreme padding-out at it's worst. One chapter describes one of the characters sitting in his garden during a family barbeque; it describes his wife & daughter dancing to a CD and a neighbour walking past the fence (apparently you can just see the top of his head). This goes on for the entire chapter, and nothing actually happens!