This one really sounded good but it ultimately failed to make sense and keep me interested. Calvert, suffers from a rare disease and he thinks he is dead. He struggles to get through the days with memories of his past. There is also a murder, one of many and a journalist steps into the picture to try to solve the cases.

Thank you Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for this advance listener copy in exchange for my honest review.

I had to DNF at 25%. I just couldn't get in to this one. Almost too much of a focus on characters with little story. At 25% I really didn't have any feel for where it was going. A good premise, just not a good delivery.

There will be an audience for this book, it's just not me.

I will not be reviewing on Goodreads as I did not finish the book.

The challenging give-and-takes relationship between cops and reporters is often featured on TV crime dramas and true crime documentaries. But the audio edition of Half Dead by Brandon Graham gives the relationship a new, familial twist—and puts the cop and the detective in the middle of a deadly investigation with a troubled man...

Full review published on NightsAndWeekends.com and aired on Shelf Discovery

This book is just “meh” for me. It’s considerably longer than it needed to be. So many weird storylines that have nothing to do with the main story. While technically they were all connected, it felt unnecessary.

The narrator is fantastic. I really enjoyed the listening experience. Would I recommend this? No probably not. It had potential - lacked in execution.

I started this one with mixed feelings and the longer I listened the more I enjoyed it. There is a serial killer on the loose and when they strike out and assault a barista and Calvert Green stops them in the act there is a survivor. Who is Calvert? He is a man who was in an accident and now suffers from a rare brain condition that leaves him thinking he is dead. The detective on the case is a rookie and he just wants to make sure he gets the right man. Mo is the journalist and cousin of the detective and she is chasing clues or conspiracies? So many different angles but they all merge together eventually. This one kept me guessing right up until the killer was revealed. Definitely glad I kept listening.

This is a book I wanted to love and just didn’t. The premise sounded interesting, but it took a long time for the threads of the story to connect and I didn’t really feel too invested in the characters or the story until close to the end. The ending was good and wrapped up the characters’ stories nicely, but I wasn’t hooked the whole time.

I did listen to the audiobook, so I may have enjoyed it more if I had read it myself. This is not a knock to the narrator, who I thoroughly enjoy and have listened to before, but more a comment on my ability to connect threads and characters on audio alone.

This is one I would be interested in revisiting in the future to see if my opinion would change, but as it stands right now, this was just okay for me.

I am giving feedback on the portion of the audio I could listen to before the archive date was up (Less than a week). The chapters with the detectives were a bit harder to follow after listening to the main character and how he thinks and acts. I do feel like his chapters were more of an analyses of character - which I actually enjoyed due to my background in healthcare. It was unique and refreshing to hear thought processes and actions from someone who is not normally a character in a series. While I didn't fully finish - I feel that this type of book/audio is truly for someone who enjoys character driven plot devices.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

I was really excited when I was approved to receive an audio copy of this book! The idea of someone who thinks they are dead was really interesting to me!

Unfortunately, for me, this read as two confused stories jumbled together. I enjoyed the mystery part of the book, but the main character just did not grab me and it felt like a separate story from the mystery. I honestly couldn't follow his side of the story from the other and I do not feel that his part of the book was complete and full like the mystery was.

More like 2.5 Stars. Not good, but not bad. Honestly I was expecting more good. I think if I read the book rather than listened to it I wouldn't have finished it. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to review the book.

This book seemed like it would be good but as it went on, it felt like I was listening to a textbook versus a fictional crime book. I easily lost interest.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an AudioARC in exchange for an honest review.

Half Dead is a mystery thriller which involves three points of view. Detective Whistler Diaz is on his very first homicide case and is looking to prove a new serial killer is on the loose. Moe is a reporter looking to get her first investigate reporting in the books and make a name for herself. Calvert Green is a man who believes he is dead after suffering brain damage in a car crash. He believes he is somehow strangely still animated, but will begin decomposing any moment. How are these three connected and will it aide them in stopping these crimes?

This was a nice quick thrilling read. It did jump around POV quite a bit, but once comfortable with who everyone was and what surrounded them it made it easy to listen too. The narrator used different voices for the characters surrounding our mains, so it made it easy to transition. The story was interestingly woven, with reveals along the way that aren't unique, but we'll guarded. The killer and their motives were a bit hard to swallow, so I'm giving this a 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.

I recommend this for anyone 18+ as I don't think it has enough to keep you get readers interested. This moved at an intricate but slow pace that is required for a mystery like this. 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.

Half Dead
Brandon Graham
Calvert Green and his wife were in a car accident; she did not survive. Calvert has Cotard’s Disease, a unusual physiological disorder that makes him imagine he is dead. The formally admired Russian literature academic has also lost his memory. He believes there is something suspicious about his accident and begins to search for answers. He ends up in the middle of a murder spree where he becomes the primary suspect. Whistler Diaz is the officer in charge of the case; journalist Moe, Whistler’s cousin, doesn’t believe Calvert is guilty and is determined to prove he is innocent.
I wanted to like this tale. The premise is unique and interesting, a man is in an accident and is left with traumatic head injuries. His injuries leave him believing he is dead. Sounds fascinating! Unfortunately, this tale is slow moving and did not hold my attention. I didn’t like Calvert and had a hard time finding sympathy for him. The mystery was weak. In general this novel fell short of my expectations.

Calvert is suffering from an interesting rare disease. He believes that he is dead and this takes a serious toll on him.

As he struggles with repressed memories of his past life and the accident that almost killed him, he attempts to move on with his life.

Simultaneously a woman is found murdered. She is not the first.

Enter Moe; a queer journalist and woman of color she is determined to solve these cases with her cousin Whistler..

She suspects Calvert after he rescues a woman. Will her assumptions be correct, or is she walking right into the lions den?

This book was ok for me. I listened to the audiobook. The narrator did a great job.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media.

The car accident that left Calvert Green a widower also robbed the former Russian lit professor of his career and his mental health. Because of his head injury, Calvert suffers from the bizarre Cotard’s Disease, meaning he actually believes he’s dead. In an assisted living facility because of his condition, Calvert decides to solve the mystery surrounding his “death” as he has no memory of the accident. He inadvertently stumbles into a real life murder investigation where he becomes a person of interest. This is a complex story about a bizarre and little known syndrome; Berman manages to capture Calvert’s confusion and determination to right a world gone terrible wrong

I was expecting more of a page-turning thriller given the synopsis but would say this story is more of an in-depth character study. The main character, Calvert, is a bit hard to empathize with and truly understand- which I believe is the point. The book reads like a film or show, where the reader can clearly see imagery in their head and follow the story but is left ever-guessing what's actually going on. It was an interesting exploration of Calvert!