Worse Than Dead cover art

Worse Than Dead

Inspector Drake, Book 2

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Worse Than Dead

By: Stephen Puleston
Narrated by: Richard Elfyn
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About this listen

A car ferry leaves Dublin. The chief engineer lies dead. Can DI Drake catch the killer before the passengers disembark?

Dealing with the fallout from a difficult case, Welsh Inspector Ian Drake faces a deadly foe as well as counselling for his OCD. When a ferry arrives in port, he knows a killer is on board. Unable to trace the killer after the ship berths, he fears the worse.

Tension mounts when two more members of the crew are killed. When Drake’s cousin gets involved and he faces the implications of his father’s treatment for cancer, he struggles to face the challenges of tracking the killer. And links to a well-known criminal family make the inquiry even more demanding.

Can he catch the killer and avert more deaths?

Worse than Dead is the second book in the dynamic Inspector Drake crime series. If you like police procedurals, clever mysteries, and gripping thrillers, then you’ll love Stephen Puleston’s unnerving whodunit.

©2014 Stephen Puleston (P)2019 Stephen Puleston Crime Fiction Fiction International Mystery & Crime Mystery Traditional Detectives Crime Detective Exciting

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Inspector Drake has OCD behavioral issues which he strives to be able to control. His father has cancer, which is pushing Drake deeper into depression and his home life is suffering because of his extreme dedication to his job. Now to make matters worse there is a new Superintendent who seems to enjoy complicating Drake’s life.

When a man is killed on board a Cross Channel ferry, you would think finding the murderer would be easy, all the passengers and crew are still on board, so the killer must be too. But things are never as simple as you would expect and complications arise making this supposedly simple murder much more difficult to solve. Complications involving several more deaths, drug smuggling, and political corruption as well as money laundering, as Drake tries to solve this one with his hands seemingly tied behind his back.

Drake is a complicated, tragic figure, who you can't help but feel empathy towards which just goes to show the talent of this author. All the characters in this story are well drawn and interesting, even the minor ones. Stephen Puleston gives us information about the lives of the criminals as well as the police officers involved in the case.

The narration was very well done and added to my overall enjoyment of this book.

I was given this audiobook as a gift and am voluntarily writing my review



Compelling

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This is the second Inspector Drake story. I thought this would be a locked room murder at the start as it takes place on a ferry but it soon becomes much more. A thoroughly enjoyable plot with a very satisfying denoument.
This book does stand alone but if you want to see how Drake's demons are catching up with him you need to read Brass in Pocket as well.
Great to see welsh places and names being pronounced correctly. Really looking forward to book 3.

This series goes from.strength to strength

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Another complex case for DI Drake when a crew member is murdered on the Holyhead ferry. All crew and passengers are potential suspects and witnesses but Drake is under pressure from above to solve the murder quickly without disrupting the ferry business - whilst also struggling with family problems and his OCD.

Lots of twists in the plot and interesting characters.

Richard Elfyn's narration is excellent.

Murder on the Holyhead ferry

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Having listened to many hundreds of audio books over the years, a good many of which are detective novels, i was really pleased to discover this book and the DI Drake series. The storyline was engaging from the start, the characters totally believable and the twists and turns throughout the book kept me totally involved. The narration was superb and I look forward to listening to all the books in this series.

Excellent and engaging.

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This was a good listen, enough to keep you engrossed all the way through to the end. Highly recommended.

A good thriller

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This book takes to the water and bounces about countries but it was so well written that it was easy to follow.

From the very beginning it is interesting and exciting, the mystery begins to unravel that keeps you guessing from beginning to end.

I loved the locations, flirting between Wales and Ireland you think things are settled in one place and something more interesting happens in the other , and I’m left thinking “oh what now?”.

Each of the main characters I grow to love every book I listen to, the growth and progression is both personally and professionally is brilliant and so well thought out.

I love the dark and gritty cover of this which is fast becoming a hallmark of this fine series

Will poor drake ever catch a break as he not only as to deal with work issues but when his family becomes a priority

I enjoyed the how the mix of business and personal gets so intertwined but good ole drake comes through and out the other side.

and a warm welcome back to Richard Elfyn who has become the voice of this series and again brings the characters and places to life and does an excellent job.

this is definitely a series worth getting into if you want some good British detective goodness, highly recommend it.

A great second outing

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Another great story from Stephen, which I enjoyed immensely. the narration was superb. Highly recommended, well worth a listen.

A fantastic listen

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This is the second book in the series and i loved it. You don't need to have read or listened to book 1 first but it would help with backgrounds.
This one follows drake as he is sent to investigate the mysterious death of a man on a boat, which is made harder by the arrogant man who runs the docks as he wants the boat back out again ASAP.

There are loads of twists in this book which kept me guessing all the way through and i loved it.

Brilliant series

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I enjoyed the first Inspector Drake novel, Brass in Pocket, and the prequel, Devil's Kitchen, so I was looking forward to this next episode. Unfortunately, I think I would have been better off reading it than listening, as I found the number of characters just too confusing to keep up with in audio format.

Ian Drake is an interesting character, with his compulsions and obsessive habits. In some ways I can see these traits actually contributing to his effectiveness as a police officer. His side-kick, Ceren, is his total opposite, but they seem to work well together. Along with two male officers, who we get to know better with each novel, they form a team that looks set to take us through a good few cases.

In Worse Than Dead, we have a dead crewman on a ferry. This would imply that the murderer was also there, in front of our eyes. The ferry manager, however, is pressing to get the ferry out on the water again and Drake is thwarted in his attempt to gather information.
As more and more people were added to the mix, I quite literally lost the plot, which was very frustrating. I kept with it, in the hope of some resolution, but I had obviously missed too much detail by then.

I should put in a mention for the excellent narrator, Richard Elfyn I loved his Welsh accents and correct pronunciation of the Welsh place names. He did a pretty good job with the Irish characters too. My failure to stick with the narrative was in no way a reflection of his narration.

Murder on the car ferry.

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The story is too complicated for an audiobook. I had to keep backtracking when I picked it up again otherwise I couldn't follow it. I do have this as a kindle book as will give it a try to see if reading it is easier to follow.

Complicated

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