You Are Dead

A young man has just received an urgent phone call from his girlfriend, complaining about a man in their underground parking garage.  The call ends with her screaming.  Now the police are looking for her.  Meantime, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace and DI Glenn Branson are at the scene of a recently uncovered body.  This one has been dead for quite some time.  Unable to take on both cases at the same time, Geace assigns Branson to the body and takes on the missing person case himself.

The forensic pathologist confirms that the body is female, and that it had been reburied in its current site.  That means that Branson's team is going to have to look through the list of missing persons from quite some time ago.  During the autopsy on the remains, "U R Dead" is found marked on the skull.

The hairstyle of the abductee and another recent missing person are similar as are their hair colour and length.  Could there be a connection?  Surprisingly, Branson informs Grace that his victim's hair matches the other two.  Searching past missing persons, Branson finds documentation of another victim whose partially decomposed body was found with the"U R Dead" tattoo on it.  That victim looked like a dead ringer for the missing person Grace is looking for and the other missing woman!

Shockingly another young woman goes missing shortly afterwards.  And within hours after that, Grace receives information that his victim has been tattooed with "U R Dead"!

The two teams come to the realisation that they have a serial killer on their hands.  A special task force is formed to catch the killer.  The question is, will they get the killer before he strikes again?

Author Peter James' murder mystery is exciting from start to finish.  The reader is left with suspicions throughout, which build as the novel moves on.  An excellent read.