Dead Tomorrow: A Gripping British Crime Thriller
By Peter James
3.5/5
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About this ebook
Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is caught up in the murky world of human trafficking in Dead Tomorrow, by award-winning crime writer Peter James.
'One of the best crime writers in the business' – Karin Slaughter, author of Pretty Girls
The body of a missing boy is dredged from the seabed off the Sussex coast, missing vital organs. Soon after, two more bodies are found . . .
A teenager in Brighton will die if she does not receive an urgent transplant. When the health system threatens to let her down her mother takes drastic action and goes to an online broker in black-market organs. The broker can provide what she wants, but it will come at a price.
As Roy Grace investigates the recovered bodies, he unearths a gang of child traffickers operating from Eastern Europe. Soon Grace and his team will find themselves in a race against time to save the life of a young street kid, while a desperate mother will stop at nothing to save her daughter’s life . . .
Although the Roy Grace novels can be read in any order, Dead Tomorrow is the fifth thrilling title in the bestselling series. Enjoy more of the Brighton detective’s investigations with Dead Like You and Dead Man’s Grip.
Now a major ITV series, Grace, adapted for television by screenwriter Russell Lewis (Endeavour) and starring John Simm (Life on Mars).
Peter James
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.
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Titles in the series (18)
Dead Simple: Now a Major ITV Drama Starring John Simm Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Man's Footsteps: A Gripping Mystery and Suspense Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Like You: A Chilling British Detective Crime Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Tomorrow: A Gripping British Crime Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not Dead Enough: A Chilling Serial Killer Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Looking Good Dead: Now a Major ITV Drama Starring John Simm Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not Dead Yet: Disturbingly Creepy and Sinister Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dead Man's Grip: A Realistically Sinister Crime Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Man's Time: A Gripping British Crime Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Are Dead: A Gripping Serial Killer Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Want You Dead: A 'What If This Happened to You' Crime Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead at First Sight: A Sinister Crime Thriller Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove You Dead: A Realistically Creepy Crime Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Need You Dead: A Creepy British Crime Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead If You Don't: A 'This Could Happen to You' Crime Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Find Them Dead: A Realistically Sinister Crime Thriller Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPicture You Dead: Roy Grace returns in this nerve-shattering case Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Left You Dead: A Realistically Creepy Crime Thriller Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for Dead Tomorrow
167 ratings14 reviews
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Run of the mill detective story about organ trafficking.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A heart-wrenching story about spunky Caitlin Beckett, a fifteen-year-old in need of a liver. Her mother is desperate to try anything. Superintendent Roy Grace is finding bodies with organs missing and fears that someone is trafficking children and selling their organs. Lynn Beckett finds what she thinks is a legitimate organ broker. Caitlin will never survive the hospital’s waiting list and the chances of finding a liver from a donor with her rare blood type is looking dismal. James paints a horrific picture of life on the streets for some kids and what they must go through to survive. They are easy pickings for adults who promise them a new life in America.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A great read but not quite up to the standards of Not Dead Enough or Dead Simple.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A very dark story of human trafficking for organ parts. In order to save the life of one teenage girl needing a liver, another street kid abducted from Romania must die. Detective investigating the case is racing against the clock while juggling his relationship with his pregnant fiance.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An overly dramatic title, a grim cover picture and the fact that this was a seriously hefty hardback (536 pages) were overlooked as I read the blurb for my crime reading group’s latest pick. How far will a mother go to protect her daughter? As a shocking story grips the newspapers in Brighton, Lynn Beckett begins to panic. Her daughter, Caitlin, needs a new liver – now. As the NHS appears unreliable and Caitlin deteriorates, Lynn struggles to disregard the dead bodies discovered, organless, off the coast of Sussex. Surely they have nothing to do with her quest for a black market liver? Meanwhile, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is (somewhat irritatingly) ‘haunted’ by the cadavers and the trail of corruption he uncovers, ‘even more so’ than any other case he has previously pursued. (I get it: he’s a caring guy; now please wind down the drama. It simply cannot be true that every case is more shockingly and emotionally disturbing than the last.) The premise was interesting and, although I had not previously read anything by Peter James, I knew that this was his fifth book in the series following this detective.Initial impressionsMy initial impressions of the book were not brilliant. Each short chapter focused on a different set of characters and, although I could see how they were likely to be linked together, I felt that the catalogue of characters introduced at the start made it a little difficult to find a foothold in the story. There is a lot of ‘set up’; when I was nearly half way through the contact between some of the characters was still yet to be established. However, James’ writing is detailed and his habit of sharing his characters’ inner thoughts helped to make reading more engaging. In fact, some people are perhaps described in an unnecessary amount of detail, in that they are only present in a chapter or three, but this certainly helped me to picture the scene.A gloomy atmosphere is established early on: all the characters are hard working and most of them are miserable. In an effort to accurately depict the strains of working in the police force, James grants one of his characters the misery of a failing marriage. Combine this with a novel following a mother’s fear of losing her daughter and the indignities of the life of Romanian street children, and you have a very dark novel. This is not a criticism, just a warning regarding the style. I felt that the overall tone of the novel, with some exceptions, was rather bleak. This suited the subject matter, as none of the circumstances could be easily resolved.StyleEach chapter heralds a shift in point of view. Sometimes this is Lynn’s, or Detective Superintendent Grace, but often it is someone connected to the case, whether that is a criminal, potential victim or another police officer. Initially I found the dramatic cliffhangers at the end of each chapter irritating (chapter one concludes: “He…pressed the starter button of his beloved motorbike for the last time in his life.”) but I stopped minding after a while. I felt that at least they were properly dramatic and not simply exaggerating. Each characters’ viewpoint is distinct and well expressed through the third person narration. As the chapters are usually only a few pages, the shifts between perspectives help to create a sense of pace, which is vital in the early chapters due to all the scene setting. Even in the early chapters, there is plenty happening, and I was never impatient for the plot to progress; I could simply feel that this was still ‘setting up’ later events, which could possibly irritate some readers.One minor irritation that leapt out at me suggested a certain lack of editing. A description of Grace’s reaction to the physical appearance of a dead man is repeated thirty pages later, word for word – for a whole paragraph. This is a minor criticism, but it did make me feel the overall product was perhaps slightly less polished than it could be.Overall, the style is not literary but nor is it generally clunky. The informally expressed thoughts of the characters help to give the book a certain sense of reality, which is reinforced by references to modern culture. (Although these references will undoubtedly date the books in the years to come.)This is a classic police procedural rather than a tale of ‘brilliant detective saves day’ and I enjoyed it all the more for that. There are countless briefing meetings during which leads and suspects are discussed, which sounds dull but which I found quite interesting. That is not to say that Grace doesn’t have his brilliant moments, and there was an irritating use of chance towards the end of the story, but on the whole the story felt very firmly grounded in reality, which I liked. It is clear that James has done his research (in case you couldn’t tell, he thanks about a million people at the end of the book) but, unlike some authors, I didn’t feel that it was shoe horned into the story. Instead, the background knowledge supported the story that was being told.RomaniaThat said, I was rather surprised to read in an interview with James online that some of the Romanian characters in the book are real. As I read the interview, it became clear that the issues in the story are as important to James as the story itself. Essentially, the story flits between Brighton and Romania, gradually developing the horrific story of what happens to those Romanians promised a bright future in England. I felt that James’ use of setting was very effective. It has kindled a genuine interest in Romania in me and I am already looking for non-fiction works on the subject. To me, this is the mark of a successful story: it has lingered with me after I closed the pages.ConclusionsDefinitely worth a read if you enjoy police procedurals. Fans of the series will be able to see Grace and Celo’s relationship develop, and will also spot a development in the ongoing Sandy storyline. Newcomers will not be disadvantaged by their late entry into the sequence as this does work as a standalone novel. In fact, other than wanting to follow the development of the detective’s personal relationship, the only incentive to read the next in the series is the experience of reading this book. How lovely – a writer who trusts his readership. The conclusion is suitably gritty (absolutely right I thought) and there is an epilogue, although I would have liked a final chapter set in Romania. (That said, it is more fitting that there isn’t one: it leaves the reader uncertain about the characters’ futures, which is more convincing than any follow up could be.) The storyline is not unduly violent, with the notable exception of one episode involving a Romanian girl. Instead, it is consistently dark, with a faint undercurrent of hope. I found it quite compelling as I moved towards the end of the story.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Detective Superintendent Grace comes up against Romanian organ traffickers in this instalment. As usual James' research is detailed and right on the money. There are a lot of complex characters and I occasionally felt this could have benefited from slightly sharper editing. There are a couple of interesting twists in the subplot of Grace's personal life to keep the reader coming back for the next book in the series.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Another good outing in this series, although the book did take a long time to get going. Picked up pace in the second half and this more than made up for it. 4.5 Stars.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lynn Beckett is struggling to cope as a single mother to Caitlin when Caitlin, who hasn’t been well for a long time, has been diagnosed with terminal liver disease.When a liver doesn’t become available for transplant and with Caitlin’s condition deteriorating every day, Lynn becomes desperate for her daughters health and searches the internet for alternative options, finally finding a company that sells human body parts for transplantation but can she raise the money to go ahead with it. Meanwhile, police find three bodies buried off the Brighton coast but who are they and where are they from? Are they connected to the company that Lynn Beckett uses to find her daughter a new liver?Dead tomorrow is the fifth book in the Roy Grace series. I wasn’t really looking forward to reading it with it being the fifth in the series but straight away the story had me hooked, it was fast and pacy, leaving a little teaser at the end of chapters so you had to carry on reading just to find out what happened next.I found the subject of human organ trafficking very interesting, something I’ve never read about before. It also touches upon Grace’s private life which makes the character seem more real rather than just a detective.Thrilling, plenty of suspense, edge of the seat reading are just a few ways I’d use to describe this book. One I’d definately recommend and one which I feel like you could dive in at any point in the series and not start at the beginning like some series.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eine Mutter, deren Tochter unheilbar krank ist und dringend eine Lebertransplantation benötigt. Leichen von Teenagern, die im Ärmelkanal gefunden werden und denen die Organe entnommen worden waren. Ein rumänischer Gangster, der in Brighton gut lebt. Roy Grace, der endlich mit Sandy abgeschlossen hat und sich mit Cleo auf ein neues Leben einlässt.Das sind die Zutaten dieses Krimis, der sich sehr eindrucksvoll mit dem Thema des Organhandels befasst. Vor allem, da er so sehr die Perspektive von Lynn, der Mutter, zeigt, wird man zum Nachdenken angeregt: Was würdest du tun? Kannst du es verstehen?Ist das Leben eines englischen Mädchens mehr wert als das eines rumänischen Strassenkindes?Das Buch ist also ethisch sehr interessant. Leider ist es nicht immer spannend, oft zieht es sich ganz schön. Die letzten 10 Tracks auf der CD sind aber dafür extrem nervenaufreibend.Gelesen ist das Hörbuch sehr gut.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5This gets one star for a serviceable if unoriginal plot and some decent pacing, but other than that there is nothing to commend this book. The characters are lazily drawn, the dialogue is wooden and unnatural, and quite frankly I'm surprised I got to the end of this as I didn't care what happened to any of the characters.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5“Dead Tomorrow”, the 5th in the series about Chief Superintendent Roy Grace of the Brighton CID, is – at well over 500 pages – Peter James' most convoluted novel yet. Roy Grace has moved on from his decade long search for wife Sandy and wants to marry his pregnant girlfriend Cleo: he is over his head in a case involving black market organ harvesting, people trafficking, and cynically manipulative and misleading salesmanship. Lynn Beckett, desperate to save her daughter Caitlin, doomed without an immediate liver transplant, buys a black market organ, not realizing a Romanian street child will be murdered for it. Moral assumptions are questioned in this bleak but well-written thriller
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of the aspects of writing crime fiction that is obviously very important to Peter James, indeed one of the issues that he emphasised in panel sessions and during an in depth interview at CrimeFest 2011, is the depth and accuracy of his research. This is borne out in his novels.DEAD TOMORROW shows James is an authority not only on British police procedures but also on the several topics that the novel touches on. Minute details add authority to his writing, to the point where the reader thinks "I am learning something important here."James uses all this background detail to create another world for us to temporarily to become part of: one where we get to know a complement of characters to the point where we actually care what happens to them.DEAD TOMORROW is #5 in Peter James' Roy Grace series set in Brighton. (#7 has just been published). Grace's wife Sandy disappeared nearly 10 years ago and until now Grace has wanted to believe she is still alive. Her has searched assiduously and even consulted seances. There has been a supposed sighting in Germany but his search has continued throughout the series. But now he has a new love in his life, Cleo, and he wants to move on.I'd like to comment too on a couple of characteristics of James' writing that i find both unusual and well done.The author often reveals that he has fore-knowledge of future events that will embroil a character. There are severale.g. As he headed jauntily along the quay, towards her black hull and orange superstructure, he was happily unaware of the cargo that would accompany them back from his next voyage, scheduled to start in just a couple of hours’ time, and the trauma it would bring to his own life.Peter James seems to introduce each character rather systematically. He devotes quite a bit of space to background details for each, but once characters have been introduced, the reader knows their paths will converge somewhere sooner or later.As a detective Roy Grace has some defining characteristics. For example one of the tricks he has taught members of his team is to watch what a person's eyes do during an interview. They refer to it as a lie detection test.Here is another extract I found interesting. [Roy Grace believes in occasionally going back to the basics, by referring to a definitive tome on his shelves called the Murder Investigation Manual.] Updated regularly, it contained every procedure for every aspect of a murder investigation, including a well-mapped-out Murder Investigation Model, which he turned to now. The Fast Track Menu, which he read through again now to refresh himself, contained ten points which were ingrained in every homicide detective’s brain – and precisely because they were so familiar, some of them could easily be overlooked.Grace uses the manual as a personal check list to ensure that he is covering all aspects the investigation should encompass.DEAD TOMORROW is a long novel, one in which the reader certainly gets their money's worth. Partly the length is generated by the fact that there are a large number of characters, and part it comes through detailed descriptive passages. But it is held together by a strong narrative, and the length does not grate.Highly recommended.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Part of a continuing series, Dead Tomorrow by Peter James is the fifth in the series that features D.I. Roy Grace. This was a good police procedural that advances the personal story of Roy Grace a lot. The case was a heartbreaking one of Romanian homeless teens being lured to England and being killed for their internal organs. Grace has finally reached the decision to proceed with having his wife, missing for nine years, declared dead. He is also ready to pop the question to his girlfriend, Cleo and try to get his life back on track. At the same time, his best friend, Glen, another detective, is going through having his own marriage breakup.A plot that keeps the pages turning peopled with characters that I have grown to care about, Dead Tomorrow is a well plotted procedural that was hard to put down.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A good read. Not afraid to dive into the dark underbelly of society.