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Douglas Johnstone

The Dead Beat Kindle Edition

by Doug Johnstone (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Meet Martha. It's the first day of her new job as intern at Edinburgh'sThe Standard. But all's not well at the ailing newspaper, and Martha is carrying some serious baggage of her own.

Put straight onto the obituary page, she takes a call from a former employee who seems to commit suicide while on the phone, something which echoes with her own troubled past.

Setting in motion a frantic race around modern-day Edinburgh,The Dead Beat traces Martha's desperate search for answers to the dark mystery of her parents' past. Soundtracked by and interspersed with a series of gigs from the alternative music scene of her parents' generation in the early '90s, Doug Johnstone's latest page-turner is a wild ride of a thriller, and a perfect follow-on to his #1 Kindle bestseller, Hit & Run.

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Faber & Faber
Publication date

29 April 2014
File size

529 KB
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Product description

Book Description

Soundtracked by and interspersed with a series of gigs from the alternative music scene of the early '90s, Doug Johnstone's pause-resister is a wild ride of a thriller and a perfect follow-on to his number-one best seller, Hit & Run. --This text refers to the audioCD edition.

About the Author

Doug Johnstone is the author of five novels, most recently the acclaimed Gone Again. He is also a freelance journalist, a songwriter and musician, and has a PhD in nuclear physics. He lives in Edinburgh. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00ILZ6XSE
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Faber & Faber; Main edition (29 April 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 529 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 272 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 515,657 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 18,512 in Suspense Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- 21,599 in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Action Fiction (Books)
- 26,880 in Suspense Thrillers (Books)

Customer Reviews:
96 ratings

About the author

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Douglas Johnstone

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Doug Johnstone is the author of thirteen novels, most recently The Great Silence (2021). His previous book, The Big Chill (2020), was longlisted for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year. Several of his books have been bestsellers and three, A Dark Matter (2020), Breakers (2019) and The Jump (2015), were shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year. He’s taught creative writing and been writer in residence at various institutions over the last two decades including festivals, libraries, universities, schools, prisons and a funeral directors.

Doug is a Royal Literary Fund Consultant Fellow and works as a mentor and manuscript assessor for many organisations, including The Literary Consultancy, Scottish Book Trust and New Writing North. He's been an arts journalist for over twenty years and has also written many short stories and screenplays. He is a songwriter and musician with six albums and three EPs released, and plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club.

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3 star		14%
2 star		2%
1 star		6%

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Keith Smith

Glad I read Hit and Run before reading The Dead ...

Reviewed in Australia on 18 March 2015

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Glad I read Hit and Run before reading The Dead Beat, so many of the flawed characters were already established and understood. An entertaining and undemanding read with some surprising twists,

Reviewed in Australia on 3 December 2014

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Really good read. Totally enjoyed these flawed interesting characters

2 people found this helpful

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Sarah H.

Another great read by someone who is fast becoming one of my favourite Scottish authors.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 July 2016

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4.5 stars.

Hit & Run is my favourite novel by this author so was over the moon to see Billy the main character from it pop up in this stand alone novel, The Dead Beat.

You don't have to have read Hit & Run but believe me you will want to as Billy's story well and truly gripped me. The Standard which is an Edinburgh newspaper is what links both books as Billy already works there and Martha has just started.

Right from the start it is obvious that Martha has a lot of issues and to be honest I felt even more sorry for her when her first day at the paper finds her working on the obituaries. Like her, I expected it to be a very boring job but after answering her very fist phone call, well her whole world just seems to spiral out of control.

The authors books always make for quite a dark reading experience, with topics such as depression and mental health issues they certainly are not the lightest of reads yet they are so compelling. I literally can not get enough of them.

Every character in this novel is damaged in some way or another. They all seem to be fighting their own battles and demons. For most, what is in the past is better off staying there, but Martha is determined to delve into the past which drags up some shocking discoveries.

The Dead Beat is a compelling read that is steeped in darkness. It had me hooked all the way through and didn't disappoint. If you haven't read any of this authors books yet, you really should.

sevenpin

Family Secrets Uncovered!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 October 2015

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This is a story about family secrets, suicides, murder and mental health issues. I chose to read it because of its location, Edinburgh. And so it is, I now know which are the best possible choices to commit suicide in the city! Running through the novel is the alternative music scene presented in a retro manner through a cassette tape walkman.

Martha's father has recently committed suicide and she is beginning her first day as a trainee obituary writer. On her first day, she takes a call where the actual obituary writer phones in his own obituary and then shoots himself. This leads Martha to follow up a trail which leads to her own family. We find murder disguised as suicides. Martha's mother, Elaine, has her story interwoven in the tale.

The characters that inhabit this novel are superb from Martha who has electric shock treatment for her depression, to Cal, Billy, and V, the female wrestler. It was a superb read. However, not for the fainthearted.

2 people found this helpful

McDroll

Twisty Runs Around Edinburgh

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 June 2014

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I enjoyed the plot in this new novel from Doug Johnstone with lots of mystery and intrigue keeping the pages turning. Great characters and links to previous novels, which I always enjoy. Enjoyed the craziness of the ending - won't spoil it for you but I don't think I'll be walking under any bridges in Edinburgh in the near future. Interesting to have a young female main character - Johnstone made her believable and managed to avoid a 'girly' stereotype.
Johnstone's books always give you a reliable good read and you won't be disappointed in this one.

6 people found this helpful

J. Griffiths

Good story and well written

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 July 2014

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Good story and well written. I enjoyed the Edinburgh setting. The third person narrative was from the pov of a trainee female reporter and parts of it - particularly the references to sex/sexual matters - came over as a bit too laddish. Some of the characters/references relate to Johnstone's earlier novel - 'Hit and Run' - and although this book stands perfectly well alone, it might have been more satisfying had I read that one first.

Luke Doswell

Gig life!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 June 2017

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Well written and very descriptive as always by Doug Johnstone. This book grabs you in from the start which makes it very hard to put down, waiting for where the next twist is going to take you. If you enjoyed hit and run you'll also the dead beat. Its not as fast paced in my opinion but still very good. Thanks Doug, on to the next one.

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Douglas Johnstone

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