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.

Eve Singer is a crime journalist who is constantly under pressure from her editor to share exclusive reports from the most sensational and lurid crimes taking place in London. Her life is made even more stressful through having to care for her father who is suffering from dementia. Meanwhile, murders are taking place as people are doing their Christmas shopping and Eve is getting an inside scoop on the where and the when, to her and her cameraman’s horror and her editor’s delight.

With a particularly creepy villain and a sense that Eve is living in a permanent state of tension, this is an incredibly compelling story to listen to and enjoy, helped by having a really good narrator.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bolinda audio for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

🎧Audio Book Review🎧


The Beautiful Dead
Belinda Bauer

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟


Despite having two books by this author on my bookshelf - this is the first book that I've actually read - and what a brilliant one to start with!

This instantly grabs our attention with not only a brutal murder scene - but then to introduce us to both our main characters - the murderer and the squeamish but story-hungry TV crime reporter, Eve.
After feeling she was being followed, Eve asks the creepy man behind her to walk her home.
She doesn't know who he is - but he now knows that they are in this together!

I loved the concept of this story as we focus more on the killer and the way that media plays to his needs. He wants an audience and Eve can give him this.
It really made me wonder about the way we all use media in the present day too and how people crave the need to be seen.

Our killer then takes advantage of this strange relationship that he and Eve have and they take us on a journey through multiple inventive murders.
This is pretty descriptive and quite gory in places - but I loved seeing how the killer managed to advertise and perform his "art", whilst also evading any kind of suspicion or capture.

I even found that I was chuckling along with him as he managed to completely "disappear" right from under the police noses on a couple of occasions - yes! I did have to pause and wonder why I was so amused that he's got away again! ?!

The characters were all so well drawn and I absolutely loved the transformation that Eve went through from start to finish.
The final scenes just showing how much strength she really had all along.

The writing style had me completely hooked throughout. Although this seemed fairly slow burn, there was never any lull.
With the many murders keeping this moving forward constantly and the development of this almost cat and mouse chase to capture the killer - I really couldn't put this one down.

This was complex and twisty but so cleverly plotted and I loved it all - I can't wait for my next read by this author and really must get round to those books on my shelf soon....


💕Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my ARC copy - this is my honest review 💕

This title has reminded me that I must catch up on Belinda Bauer; I read and enjoyed one of her earlier titles some years ago and The Beautiful Dead gp has reminded me how well she writes. I listened to the Audi version, so well narrated with a balanced and occasionally creepy delivery that added to the tension. The artwork on the cover is brilliant and drew my attention to the title immediately.

This is a multi layered story, driven by both character and plot. Eve is a journalist, following a murder story. She’s a conflicted character, struggling to look after her father, who has dementia. As a sub story, that aspect just adds to the reality; so many women carry out demanding jobs whilst maintaining domestic responsibilities. I liked Eve and my heart went out to her more than once, Alongside the character driven side is a twisted and well constructed plot. A gripping thriller that kept my attention throughout and delivered everything I wanted. Absorbing, intelligent and plausible. A great listen.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a review copy.

Belinda Bauer’s The Beautiful Dead is a gripping and chilling thriller that lures you in slowly and then refuses to let go. At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the audiobook narration, but as the story deepened, I found that the narrator’s unsettling tone and cadence actually enhanced the eerie atmosphere of the novel, adding a layer of tension that made the experience even more immersive.
The story follows Eve Singer, a dedicated crime reporter juggling a demanding career with caring for her father, who is suffering from dementia. Eve is a complex and deeply human protagonist — ambitious, conflicted, and burdened with real emotional struggles. Her evolving partnership with her cameraman, Joe, adds heart and warmth to the otherwise grim world she inhabits.
Bauer does a brilliant job weaving psychological depth into the narrative. The depiction of Eve’s relationship with her father is particularly poignant — both tender and painfully realistic. These quieter moments of vulnerability contrast sharply with the escalating menace of a serial killer who chooses Eve as his mouthpiece, sending her horrific murder footage that her news station is disturbingly eager to air.
The villain is terrifying — twisted, unpredictable, and unnervingly methodical. His obsession with Eve raises the stakes with each chapter, building toward a tense, edge-of-your-seat climax that is both explosive and satisfying.
There’s no shortage of action, moral dilemmas, or emotional depth here. Bauer's talent lies in blending the horror of crime with the messiness of human relationships, crafting a story that feels both cinematic and intimate.
Whether you're a seasoned crime fiction fan or new to the genre, The Beautiful Dead is an intense, smart, and emotionally charged ride that’s well worth taking — especially in audio, where the narration truly breathes life into the story’s haunting corners.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced listener copy.

This was such an intriguing read. I loved the premise. It was highly entertaining and kept my focus throughout.

Eve is a tv journalist that likes to get to the next big story first and fast. Eve is always wanting to be first on the scene her journalistic nose pushing Eve into uncomfortable situations. Eve getting older with younger and younger journalists hot on her heels Eve finds herself forever pushing boundaries. Eve finds herself inadvertently on the hunt for a serial killer who likes to think of these murders as his very own form of art.

The premise of this book is what hooked me, regrettably for me it fell a little short. I did enjoy the thread throughout of Eve caring for her elderly parent whom has dementia. I guess I was waiting for a twist that didn't really arrive.

It was my first book by this author and although this may have not been my favorite, it was an enjoyable read and I will look out for other books by the same author.

The Beautiful Dead by Belinda Bauer
Eve Singer works as a TV crime reporter on iWitness. This is a tough, precarious and stressful job where her editor wants the goriest photographs and the most dramatic interviews. Eve is struggling with caring for her father who has dementia and also with other younger journalists snapping at her heels. I listen to the audiobook and the narrator had a doom-laden voice he was very interesting to listen to, but his tone did occasionally sound overdramatic. There was no let up in the horror throughout the novel.
Eve finds herself involved in the serial killers plans for his victims and it is up to her to assist the police and bring him to justice. In doing so she places her father at risk and puts her own life in jeopardy. Eve has to begin to think like a cold blooded in order to be able to bring him to justice. The motivation for the serial killer is unusual but there is also a nod to Psycho in the motivation of the murderer.
This is the story of a woman pushed to the brink of what she is able to survive and there are some unpleasant misogynistic characters. I would recommend the narrator and the story kept you engaged to the end.

Thank you to Bolinda Audio, the author and NetGalley for an LRC in return for an honest review

Although this book first came out in 2016, the audiobook is only just being published this year on 1st August. If you have already read the printed version back when it was released 9 years ago, I strongly recommend revisiting this book in the audio format. Andrew Wincott delivers a nuanced performance, his voice adding psychological intensity to the contrast between the journalist’s inner conflict and the killer’s chilling detachment.

Belinda Bauer’s writing is sharp and immersive, she has a remarkable ability to pull the reader into her characters' inner worlds while maintaining a taut, propulsive pace. The tension builds steadily, blending psychological depth with procedural grit and her dark wit adds dimension without ever undercutting the emotional stakes. The Beautiful Dead manages to be both a crime thriller and a commentary on the ethics of sensationalism in media, all wrapped in Bauer’s elegant prose.

Disappointingly, I have not seen any discussion about the beautiful black and yellow cover art featuring butterflies 🦋 so here are my own thoughts. Just as butterflies are caught, pinned and immobilised, the killer seeks to preserve moments of death in a perfect, stylised tableau. The comparison underlines his obsession with control and aestheticising violence.

Bauer's 2018 book 'Snap' features the same Detective, Veronica Creed, this time as a senior officer. There doesn't appear to be any plot continuation, so each book can be read independently.

Highly recommended for fans of intelligent crime fiction with complex characters and moral ambiguity.

#TheBeautifulDead #NetGalley

As someone who's enjoyed several of Belinda Bauer’s previous novels, I was excited to receive an advance copy of The Beautiful Dead. Bauer is known for her sharp prose and psychological insight, so the premise—dark, unsettling, and full of potential—had me intrigued from the start.

Unfortunately, this one didn’t quite land for me. While the concept is strong, the execution lacked the depth and drive I’ve come to expect from her work. I struggled to connect with the characters, which made it difficult to stay invested in the story. Pacing-wise, it dragged in places, and some key developments didn’t feel as impactful as they could have.

That said, Bauer’s writing style remains compelling, and I appreciate her willingness to take creative risks. This might still resonate with readers new to her work or those drawn to more subdued thrillers.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Never have I ever … read anything written by Belinda Bauer and never have I ever … read a book quite like this.

Eve is a journalist who is struggling to keep her face in the spotlight of the incredibly competitive ‘meat beat’, as a crime reporter her job is, in effect … death. The killer believes his job is also death.

I mean, what a premise … it’s great, as is the execution. I was lucky enough to be provided with an advanced audio copy in exchange for an honest review and the narration was flawless. Thank-you Netgalley, it was quite the ride, highly recommended.