Primo libro di una serie già corposa che vede come protagonista un ex giornalista che, abbandonata la professione per seguire la moglie gravemente malata, si occupa di rintracciare persone scomparse.
Una storia che, sebbene ben scritta, non mi ha del tutto soddisfatto perché l’ho trovata eccessiva sotto molti profili a cominciare dalla trama e le situazioni raccontate.
Nel complesso risulta anche molto, anzi, troppo cruenta, con descrizioni talmente particolari che rasentano a tratti l’assurdo.
Al bel colpo di scena finale si contrappongono di contro la descrizione di fatti e situazioni talmente prolungate ed estreme da risultare del tutto surreali.
In sostanza una storia per lo più eccessiva ma che mi ha lasciato con la curiosità di scoprire come saranno i libri a seguire.
Effettive tre stelle e mezzo.
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This was Tim Weaver’s first novel. I came to it after reading a positive review of his third novel “Vanished”. I’m sure his is a name that will become prominent in British crime fiction.

What I enjoyed most about “Chasing the Dead” was the strong sense of place, the willingness to confront the seedy and unpleasant without wallowing in it and mastery of pace shown in the writing and the plotting.

The novel is centred around a big secret. This is a plus for page turning appeal but requires more than a little effort to suspend disbelief.

The big secret generates violence that escalates and becomes increasingly and disturbingly intimate as the story progresses. The violence is graphically and skillfully described. It’s not the kind of gratuitous “serial killer porn” violence that has stopped me reading Val McDermid, but it is very unpleasant. This made the book harder to read and, by the end, harder to believe. Our hero is subjected to treatment that would put someone in hospital for weeks and perhaps cripple them physically and emotionally for life and still puts up a fight. I found this implausible.

Nevertheless, the book is well written, well plotted and has a strong central character. It’s easy to see the sequels following thick and fast.
( )

I wanted to like this book. I really did. I got to Chapter 28, page 127 before I finally gave up.

The premise of this book does sound intriguing which is what drew it to me. However, it just left me so confused. I didn't know what was going on besides teeth being pulled out and something about hands missing. It just dragged. The pacing was so slow, and it just didn't feel like it could actually happen. I found myself not caring about any of the characters. David, the main character, wasn't fleshed out enough, and even he was just boring. It's a shame the author didn't write from Alex's prospective as well. I just couldn't muster up the interest to care about what really happened to Alex.

I wouldn't recommend this one. It just drags on and on, and it's just really confusing. Sorry. ( )

It has been some time since I was drawn into the world of thrillers and found that for a thriller to be a good thriller, it must have in it some things: fascinating and sweeping story and characters, stress, original descriptions and many more. Unfortunately, in this book things exist, but at a lower level, not enough.

The main character is David, who in his profession is a former journalist and lost his wife to cancer. A friend comes to him and asks him to locate her dead son whom she claims she saw on the street, and that's where the plot begins. He meets people who hide a huge secret from him and is told repeatedly to stop questioning because he gets into something he won't be able to cope with, but David doesn't stop and continues until he reveals the secret, even if it can kill him.

I think the book could have been arranged differently to make it more readable. In my opinion, the story has lost some of its credibility and the plot has become in the course of the book delusional. ( )

Un libro avvincente, un giornalista con la vocazione dell'investigatore. Anche la storia è molto originale.Questo autore è stata una scoperta per me. Ho acquistato anche gli altri tre. ( )