My Latest Book Review & Writer Tips – You Are Dead, Peter James

I’m here to give you a book review of one of the best fiction books I’ve read this year, in 2020.

Peter James is becoming a firm favourite.

‘You Are Dead!’ it’s a really good book.

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My copy of the book is second hand and I will be keeping it because I’m going to re-read it, and I definitely want it on my bookcase.

I love the branding I think it’s fantastic. No doubt who it is, the colour and well everything.

It’s a really effective marketing technique and the word ‘Dead’ is on all of his series, so that’s even better. It’s really clear what you’re going to get. It’s a thriller. So it’s one of my favourite genres anyway.

I really liked this book, and it’s one of those where you’ve got the characters that you might know from previous books, or you might not, but if you just want to pick this one book up and read it, you can. You’re not going to miss out on any of the story.

There are links to previous books. There are links to the next books. You know? There are hooks that’ll keep you going, and all the usual tropes that are in a thriller.

Very, very, very much a page turner.

This is the type of book where you will turn off your TV, just sit in a corner with a cup of tea. Forget your cup of tea, it’ll go cold because you’ll be reading. Stay up late, one chapter after another, ‘Oh, I just need to read the next chapter!’

What I also love is a tactic Peter James uses – short chapters.

Interspersed between longer ones. I can’t be doing with really long chapters, I think because I tend to read at night a lot, or on the go.

I like hooks that carry me through and the end of each chapter has a hook.

He also uses a tactic that I like, and I’m using in my own work, where different chapters are different viewpoints.

You’ll get the protagonist, then everybody else in different chapters. This sort of thing is a clever way of dragging you through the book, although you definitely don’t need to be dragged through this one because you will be page turning, I can assure you!

At the end is a really good bonus of ‘The House on Cold Hill.’

It’s a short story, but it says it’s just an extract. So I can’t wait to buy that book and see that,  it’s probably out already. And so that’s an added bonus.

And now…I’ll share a few writer tips.

Obviously you know that I’m on an absolute mission to get people writing.

I run a Facebook group [The Independent Freedom Creative] for people who want to be writers, or work / write independently. [Scroll down for more info]

I’ve read Peter James before and similar books, so I’ll put links down below and you can check out my other videos. And if you like my style then, subscribe because then YouTube will know that you like me and hopefully deliver me into your timeline. Fingers crossed.

So seek me out, look at my book reviews. I don’t do spoilers, but I do mention some of the tools that writers have used because, because I’m on a mission to get people writing. I want you to look at, and analyse, books a little bit more. Not spoil all the books, but sort of study them, like study books.

If you want to write a thriller, you can’t get a better example.

And this is quite a big thriller. You can’t get a better example for page turning or hooks, for a really good baddy and a bit of mystery added in, and good characters.

He obviously does his research. You can see his bibliography at the end with the references and there are loads of people mentioned in the credits. He does a lot of police procedural research so if you’re into police procedural or you want to write them, this is a book worth reading.

What you can do is read the book, really enjoy it, and then if you think, ‘Oh, I really want to write a thriller, I’d really like to write something like that,’ it’ll be hard work.

You’ll have to have a lot of practice. This guy’s written a lot of books to get to this level.

If you want to write any sort of book, get the book, read it, have fun, but then read it again and possibly again, again and go through it.

I can’t tell you to write on books, because that’s sacrilege, I can’t do that, but buy some ‘post it notes’ all different colours and go through the book.

If you think, ‘Oh I really love that page‘ think about why you liked that page. What was it that brought you to that page?

Was it the hook on the page before, that made you enjoy this one?

Now grab some ‘post its’ and put them through the book.

You can use sort of different colours for different characters if you like, or different stages of the book because they take you through The Hero’s Journey.

[FREE The Hero’s Journey Novel Planner CLICK HERE]

This is another thing that I teach, well teach is probably the wrong word because it’s a global known phenomenon and theory, which I can let you know about. It’s a standard formula for a lot of books. You can then see where it jumps through the 12 stages. You can put ‘post it’ notes in to indicate where that happens, and study the book.

Think, how will I fit my story around that and then write the story that you love, because you should always do that, and people will come to you.

So Peter James, a brilliant character and writer. There’s a really good twist in this book, towards the end, that’ll definitely carry over to the next book. And that’s another tactic you can use to get people into your series too. It’s another reason I’ll be seeking out his books.

So a brilliant marketing technique as well. But like I say, this book’s really, really good, I won’t read the blurb, jump onto GoodReads  and you can seek out the blurb and everything on there and maybe recommend some books to me through that?

I’m getting back into the men writers again, I’d really like to read more women writers, but for some reason I gravitate to male writers. I’ve no idea why, I can’t justify it. So if you know some really strong women writers, please let me know.

Alright, so please go and read this book, it’s really good! 

Excellent hooks, excellent characters. A really good police procedural from the UK.

I’m in the UK so if you’re outside the UK even more reason, because it’ll help you to know Brighton a little bit.

Read lots, get in touch, subscribe, do all the job lot.

I will be adding more videos into my You Tube channel and I’m expanding it slightly from just book reviews to more booky things and more writery things. OK? So have fun. Have a good day and I will catch you later.

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