I listened to this one on audio and thought it was just okay. It worked well enough as a palette cleanser, but it’s not a book that will stick with me. The storyline never really captured my attention, and while it wasn’t bad, it also didn’t stand out in any way. One of those reads you get through and move on from fairly quickly.

Thank you Netgalley, Bolinda Audio and Belinda Bauer for the audio Arc of The Beautiful Dead.
Narrated by Andrew Wincott

The Beautiful Dead is a medium paced serial killer crime novel which grabs you at the very first page and doesn't let you go to the very end. It has a unique feel in which we have a reporter who thrives on reporting crimes live on TV and a local serial Killer. We get drawn into a cat and mouse game in which one tries to get in front and the upper hand over the other, I really enjoyed the dynamics of the main characters and the tension as we are wound up into the storyline.

Andrew Wincott narrated this book and I thoroughly enjoyed his voice which suited both the pacing and feel of this book. This is the first book of Belinda's books and it won't be the last.

4 stars

Every book I have read by this author has been a 5 ⭐️ read and I love the way Belinda writes. So I was so please to receive the audiobook The Beautiful Dead by Belinda Bauer and narrated by Andrew Wincott. I set the day a side to listen to it sitting on my garden n the shade.
However, I was very disappointed with this audiobook!I found the narrator Andrew Wincott, boring and his voice etc monotone, he sent me to sleep in my sun lounger!!! Before I knew it I was on chapter 14!!!!!

As I enjoyed the first few chapters I went onto Amazon and bought this book and it did not disappoint, it was excellent. it was full of great twists and turns that will have you turning the pages to find out what happens next. The storyline and characters were excellent and with an brilliant ending!!!

I highly recommend the book. But, I would not recommend the audiobook.

Really enjoyed this audio book I liked the storyline and the intrigue
This would make a good series I will look out for more books by Belinda Bauer

Exit by Belinda Bauer is still in my top 3 audiobooks ever after listening to it in November 2021, so I was excited to receive an audiobook ARC of The Beautiful Dead. I loved Exit for its uniqueness, humour and sublime narration by Tim McInnerny.

The Beautiful Dead is far more your typical thriller. It was well paced and well written with engaging characters and a touch of Bauer’s black humour. Having cared for a father with Alzheimer’s, I found the telling of Eve’s relationship with her father touching and realistic.

As always the sound recording by Bolinda Audio was excellent. However, and I realise I will be in the minority here, I didn’t enjoy the narration. Andrew Wincott was clear and concise but I didn’t enjoy his ‘female’ voice and his Welsh accent was grating. For once I think I’d have preferred reading rather than listening.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bolinda Audio for an eARC of this book.

A television crime reporter receives an unexpected boost to her flagging career when she begins covering the story of a lifetime, that of a serial killer who likes to stage their victims in a very particular fashion.

She also finds out that this success comes at a very high price - namely, coming way too close to the crime and its perpetrator than she might otherwise want...

This is a compelling and original piece of story telling that breathes life into an otherwise familiar trope. If you want a thriller that will hold your attention effortlessly this might just be it.

When tv crime reporter Eve Singer falls under the obsession of a serial killer she spots an opportunity to see her floundering career take an upward turn, but can she pass over her morals and use the exhibition of a serial killer for her own personal gain?

I had an audiobook version of this story, it took me a long time to get into the narration as I didn’t like the tone for many of the characters. The storyline itself was worth persevering as eventually I was gripped and really enjoyed how the story played out. As with all murder mysteries there’s always bits that are predictable but there was plenty I didn’t predict to keep me wanting to know what was going to happen next.
I felt that the character of Eve was built up well and found myself feeling sorry for her at times, her dad and Joe also felt well thought out and they fitted in to the story perfectly.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys an easy murder mystery with a little humour along the way.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bolinda Audio for offering this ARC in exchange for my personal thoughts.

Having read and really loved Bauer's novel Exit, I was delighted to be given a review copy of The Beautiful Dead, only to listen to the entire thing feeling a little let down. I only found out after listening that it was published seven years before Exit. Aha, I thought, that explains it: her work has evolved. I found Exit to be much more original and clever. The Beautiful Dead is an excellent mystery novel, well written and with engaging characters, but it's pretty standard fare.

For those who like the genre -- evil serial killer, intrepid journalist on his tail, cat and mouse, high octane finish, yada yada yada -- The Beautiful Dead delivers all the standard components in spades. Pacing is good, dialogue is good. But it's a genre that I am thoroughly bored with. So I guess this is a Marmite book....

I'd give it 2 stars for myself, but up it to 4 stars because it does what it says on the tin.

If you find this review turns you off, hang on a minute - and seek out Exit. That's a cracking good read.

The Beautiful Dead by Belinda Bauer hooked me from the start with its gritty crime story and complex characters. I really appreciated how Bauer blends chilling suspense with deep emotional moments, especially through the flawed detective and the haunting past of the victims. The twists kept me guessing, and the writing felt sharp without overcomplicating things. My only gripe was that some parts dragged a bit, but overall, it’s a solid, gripping thriller that stays with you. In short: a dark, smart crime novel that balances tension and heart.

Because I'd seen this book on my Netgalley app I forgot that it actually needed downloading and missed the archive date by about a week. Apologies for requesting this book and not reading it.

I was given an advanced reader copy of this book in audiobook format via Netgalley free of charge in return for an honest review.

The narration is a bit hit and miss in this book. I had to relisten to several chapters because I missed a change in speakers or a shift in location.

Maybe it was just me but at times it made it hard to enjoy.

That being said the story itself is amazing and very well written. The danger factor kept ramping up and this lead to a story I just couldn't not walk away from.

I had to know if our daring reporter Eve would walk away from this scoop alive.

Pure awesome.

A relentless tale that leaves you gasping for breath.
It is brilliantly crafted and full of thrills and chills in equal measure.
I LOVED it, the narration was sublime and this terrifying story hooked me, reeled me in and didn’t let go until the final chapter.
I thoroughly and highly recommend this audiobook/ book to ALL fans of the genre.
FIVE STARS.

Eve Singer is a reporter, worried about the younger female reporters coming along, she is also worried about her father, he has dementia and Eve moved back home to look after him, but needs to keep her job to pay the bills.
Along with her cameraman Joe, she tries to be first to get to the scene, first to any gruesome shots, first to get the body bag. After reporting on the murder of a young female office worker savagely killed just inches from safety on Oxford Street, Eve is almost home when she hears footsteps. It is dark, late and nobody is about, when she realises she won’t make it, she turns to face her follower, a man with his face covered by a scarf and his hood up, and asks him to see her home. To her surprise he does, and possibly to his surprise too.
Eve starts to get phone calls, allegedly from the killer, and then it is a race against time.
Well written and interesting, with an unexpected ending, I enjoyed this audiobook. My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc.

This was a gripping audiobook which had me rooting for Eve from the off. Her struggles with her father's condition added depth and pathos (as did the insight into Mr Elias's past) and Joe and Emily were great characters too. The pacing was good, with a steady build-up of tension leading to a brilliant final showdown.

Die Hard, Black Doves and now this, an audio entry into the gory story at Christmas genre.

We first meet our serial killer in an office block just off London’s Oxford Street in mid-December and from then on, it’s a grisly advent calendar of killings all the way to Christmas Eve. Our heroine, Eve Singer is a television reporter whose coverage of a serial killer’s activities catch his eye and marks the beginning of a quid pro quo Hannibal Lecter style pact.

If you’re a Belinda fan because you love her black humour, you have to wait a bit longer to get to any of that in this novel. If you like your fictional killings gruesome and bloody you’re in the right place from Chapter One. A bit of a slow burner, it picks up pace quickly to a thrilling and satisfying climax in one of the many central London locations so vividly depicted. Piccadilly Circus tube station will never be the same again!

It did cross my mind that this audiobook, with a woman as the book’s main character, should have been read by a woman, but Andrew Wincott does a good job and makes for a chilling serial killer.

I’m a fan of Belinda Bauer, having read the vast majority of her books so was keen to pick up this one, which was one I’d not previously read.

First published back in 2016, The Beautiful Dead is releasing in audiobook in 2025 for the first time. We follow Eve, a crime reporter who is drawn into the schemes of a serial killer. Bauer’s usual clever plotting is at work here, as are her well drawn characters. I was well and truly gripped by the story and found myself listening at any moment I could grab. I did feel like I could tell that this was one of Bauer’s earlier works, that’s not said to criticise the book, but I do think her work gets better and better. I would have loved to have read more books featuring Eve and Joe.

The narration was excellent as well. It did take me a little to warm to the narrator at first but he had a real talent for capturing the characters and making his delivery of their dialogue individual.

Recommended for fans of the author’s other works and anyone who enjoys crime fiction.

A dark and chilling, cat-and-mouse thriller.

Featuring a series of murders that are advertised like a public art exhibition, and a TV crime reporter who inadvertently becomes entangled with the serial killer responsible for the gruesome and macabre crimes.

This is a fast-paced, tense, graphic serial killer story. I enjoyed the crime reporter perspective, as well as the realistic portrayal of Eve’s father with Alzheimer’s.

The narration by Andrew Wincott worked very well for the story, and his vocal range kept me hooked into the story.

With thanks to Bolinda Audio and NetGalley for an advanced listening copy of this well-plotted story, in exchange for an honest review.

EXCERPT: Layla was not that fit, but she was young and slim and - without the killer heels - she was nimble. She started to get into a rhythm. She barely touched the stairs now, leaping from five or six treads up onto each landing, grabbing the rail as it turned, using it to slingshot around the blind concrete corners. Somewhere behind her she heard a door slam shut. But it was a long way back.
He wasn't catching her. He wasn't catching her. She was going to make it!
The sobs that had choked her became hysterical glee in her throat. Her stockinged feet skidded and slid, but she used that. She worked it, baby! She had it all under control.
Run jump grab skid turn . . . run jump grab skid turn . . .
It was a helter-skelter without the mats, but with added terror. But that was good, because it was all going to be okay in the end.
With manic laughter bubbling inside her, Layla burst through the door marked G and into the vast, bright lobby with its shiny, polished floor. She turned towards the exit so fast that she skidded over onto her right side with a bang, but was on her feet again before the fall even registered.
The door was right there.
Escape was in sight. More than in sight . . .
Escape was panoramic.
Coldharbour was a new building and the lobby was a sleek and shining glass-walled, marble-floored expanse that still smelled of stone dust, and not yet of people. The front wall was entirely glass - smoked grey and impenetrable from outside; but from inside Layla could see that, just thirty yards away, Oxford Street was teeming with Christmas shoppers beating a path through dirty snow.
She ran to the door, fumbling under her armpit and into her bag, her fingers spreading panic among the random objects, clutching and sifting with unaccustomed urgency.
The keys. The keys!
At weekends they had to let themselves in and keep he doors locked. Something about cutting security costs. The cheap bastards. She'd like to see what they thought about cutting costs after this little episode . . .
A door clicked behind her and she turned and saw the man standing at the entrance to the stairwell.
Not coming for her, not running; just standing, watching her escape.
She cackled at him like a witch.
'F**K you!' she shrilled. 'F**k YOU!'
She turned back to the door. Mentally she was already outside. Already safe.
Where were the keys?
Then she heard them - that wonderful chink of familiar metal - and for a glorious split-second Layla was ON Oxford Street in all its slushy glory. She was stepping out on to the crowded pavement alongside that bottle-blonde woman and her Goth daughter. She was brushing past that young man with the cheap bouquet, who had his back to the glass wall and was looking up and down the road, waiting for someone special. She could already feel the wet city snowflakes melting on her hot cheeks . . .
And then she realised her keys were jangling behind her.
With one clutching hand still in her bag, Layla looked around slowly.
The man had her keys.
Maybe they'd hit him in the head when she'd swung her bag; maybe she'd never put them in her bag and he'd picked them up off her desk.
It didn't matter how he had them.
He had them.
And she didn't.

ABOUT 'THE BEAUTIFUL DEAD': TV crime reporter Eve Singer's career is flagging, but that starts to change when she covers a spate of bizarre murders – each one committed in public and advertised like an art exhibition.

When the killer contacts Eve about her coverage of his crimes, she is suddenly on the inside of the biggest murder investigation of the decade. But as the killer becomes increasingly obsessed with her, Eve realises there's a thin line between inside information and becoming an accomplice to murder – possibly her own.

MY THOUGHTS: I really liked The Beautiful Dead by Belinda Bauer the first time I read it. I didn't love it. Which is saying something as I absolutely loved the other two books I have read by this author. But then I was offered the audiobook narrated by Andrew Wincott and like morphed into
L💖ve.

Right up until the very last second, Layla Martin didn't believe that she would - or could - be murdered. She knew that something would save her. It didn't.

Eve Singer needs death. With her career as a TV crime reporter flagging, she’ll do anything to satisfy her ghoulish audience.

The killer needs death too. He even advertises his macabre public performances, where he hopes to show the whole world the beauty of dying.

When he contacts Eve, she welcomes the chance to be first with the news from every gory scene. Until she realizes that the killer has two obsessions.

One is public murder.

And the other one is her . . .'

Listening to The Beautiful Dead had my heart pounding, and I was holding my breath as I listened, it was so tense. I found the tension and suspense to be much more palpable in the audiobook than other formats and it increased inexorably as the novel progressed.

Eve is not always bright about what she is doing - she is desperate. Pressured from all sides. Her father has Alzheimers; her boss is always threatening to replace her with someone younger, prettier; her finances are tight; the race for the edge on whatever the current crime story is, even tighter.

This is the story of a woman juggling her life - career and family, no time for love - set against a backdrop of death by murder and the race for TV ratings.

There are some humorous moments scattered in amongst the death......Eve's father has Alzheimer's, and his antics are responsible for most of these moments; Joe, Eve's cameraman, for a few others.

The book is not a bad read. But it wasn't the compelling 'can't put stop listening, go away, don't disturb me' experience that I had with the audiobook.

I rated the book 3.5 stars (upgraded to 4 because I love Bauer), but the audio experience is a definite 4.5 stars thanks in part to the superb narration of Andrew Wincott.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

#TheBeautifulDead #NetGalley

MEET THE AUTHOR - BELINDA BAUER grew up in England and South Africa and now lives in Wales. She worked as a journalist and a screenwriter before finally writing a book to appease her nagging mother.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to both Grove Atlantic for providing an e-ARC and Bolinda Audio for providing an audiobook narrated by Andrew Wincott via NetGalley for review of The Beautiful Dead by Belinda Bauer. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

I listened to this on NetGalley Shelf and it was absolutely fantastic. The story was absolutely gripping and very graphic and gory. The story starts with a reporter Eve who reports on the death of a young girl and when walking home senses that she is being followed so turns and asks the man to see her home safely, which he does. What she doesn’t know at that time is that he is a serial killer. The murders start to stack up and the killer seems to feel he has a bond with Eve. The story gathers pace very quickly and has a fantastic ending.

The narrator does a brilliant job and is a joy to listen to.

Anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers or any of this author’s previous novels, you won’t be disappointed.

This is an excellent psychological thriller, even though personally, not my favourite category, where the killer is known from the outset and the murders are described with shades of the horror genre. The story is expounded from the perspective of a journalist and the killer. The journalist is a sympathetic character who is under the constant pressure of having to find the next "live" news story. She is unable to devote herself wholly to the demands of her job all the while she is unwilling to face the fact that she can no longer cope with her Father's dementia at home.
The killer is... creepy and deranged.
The ending featured the ultimate cliff-hanger of suspense (literally as well as metaphorically), and I found it very satisfying that what might have been an unlikely resolution was rendered completely credible with factors referenced - though obscure at the time - earlier in the novel.
I had some reservations about the choice of narrator, Andrew Wincott; he's an excellent actor and read very clearly, but with a degree of formal solemnity that I felt did not suit all of the verbal exchanges. I wonder if a male and female sharing the reading might have been better.
However, overall it was a good read (or listen) containing all the required elements of detection and suspense.