Grace Under Pressure

Not dead yet indeed but this series is most certainly not in as rude health as it has been previously. Not Dead Yet just doesn't reach the heights that the better books in this series have managed to scale. There are a number of reasons for this. The story lacks a villain you can really get your teeth into and the process of translating Hollywood onto the South Coast of England doesn't work too well.

On top of that there is the narration. I don't think this series has really found the perfect narrator and I have often found myself wondering just how much more successful it might have been with someone like Steven Pacey at the microphone. It hasn't done too badly as it is of course but I think that it would have been absolutely sensational if that had been nailed from the start.

I really don't think William Gaminara is the worst narrator in the world. The problem is really that he is at his flattest when he renders Grace, Branson and Potting who should be huge characters but are made to sound near anonymous.

Where both story and narrator do both score more highly is in the last couple of hours. The climactic scene of the main storyline I really enjoyed and it gives us some great Roy Grace action. In addition not long after that there is a massive twist that certainly caused me to do a double take that's for sure.

We also get a little bit more of the Sandy storyline but only a little bit. The character back stories do seem fairly glacial in pace but I think that's because the overall series has actually covered a relatively small amount of storyline time for the number of books.

I think this one is worth reading for fans of the series, particularly for a little mystery surrounding the delightful Norman Potting but it certainly won't be near most people's top five Roy Grace novels.

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9 people found this helpful

Not the best but not bad.

Hard to start with this one, its probably the weakest of the 8 I've read so far which is annoying and disappointing. It feels rushed and almost like a filler as there was nothing better to write. Saying this, its really not awful but it is far from the best. Narration isn't bad either with a lot of people complaining but personally i found it ok I marked it down a star as I like consistency and this is (I believe) the 5th different narrator. other than that is good.

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great read

Peter James is a great story teller I enjoy all his Roy Grace books. a master of suspense. thank you. Rob Young

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Plot as good as always, struggled with different narrator

Listening to all audio books in the series in quick succession, I had got used to the main narrator, and even the second one was reasonably easy to believe they were the same characters, but really struggled with William's interpretation of Roy Grace and even more so Glenn. I wouldn't be put off William's narrations again, but preferably not for this series.

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Not Dead Yet

I really enjoyed the plot as it expands on the previous books and starts to unravel the disappearance of Roy Grace's wife.

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Entertaining right from the off

I found Not Dead Yet to be thoroughly entertaining from start to finish. I was pleased to find that it was another Roy Grace tale that you could sit back and immerse yourself in. It has all the favourite characters but off in a different direction, and with unexpected twists.
I was concerned that there may be too much repetition of the regular cast's idiosyncrasies, Bella's crunching Maltesers, etc, as had been commented on the reviews I'd read, but I found nothing untoward or irritating. Even Roy's ex-wife, who previously provoked somewhat tedious raking over of emotions, this time broke the mould.
The only very minor gripe I have is the sometimes inconsistent accents and character voices of the narrator, who otherwise did a sterling job with a plethora of genders and accents.
Overall a thoroughly enjoyable book which will have you laughing out loud one moment then on the edge of your seat the next.

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good story line

Good naration but struggled through the book. The story line is OK. The reader is ok

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I had to decrease the speed

At normal speed it was way too quick. I reduced the speed of narration to 0.9 and it was fine.

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great

yet another fantastic book from this amazing series, thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish completely

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Thoroughly recommend this audiobook

As usual, there are many strands to the story which chop and change throughout the book to keep you in suspense.
Very well narrated and kept my interest throughout the whole book .

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