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Hope to Die
(DS Nathan Cody #2)
by
When the victim seems perfect, is it the perfect crime? The gripping new serial killer thriller, from the runaway bestselling author of CRY BABY.
On a snowy December evening, Mary Cowper is walking her dog through the churchyard of Liverpool Cathedral - and that's when the killer strikes.
Put on the case, DS Nathan Cody is quickly stumped. Wherever he digs, Mary seems to be ...more
On a snowy December evening, Mary Cowper is walking her dog through the churchyard of Liverpool Cathedral - and that's when the killer strikes.
Put on the case, DS Nathan Cody is quickly stumped. Wherever he digs, Mary seems to be ...more
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Paperback, 416 pages
Published
September 21st 2017
by Bonnier Zaffre
(first published April 6th 2017)
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Mrs Jody Poulton
I found it really obvious too, but still really enjoyed the book. I’m looking forward to seeing Cody’s story unfold in the next book
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Community Reviews
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Start your review of Hope to Die (DS Nathan Cody #2)

It's always a crap shoot to pick up a new series and read it out of order. So it was with some trepidation that I started reading Hope to Die, #2 in the Nathan Cody series. There is a lot of back story here and initially I felt somewhat at a loss for having missed it. But Jackson does a good job of filling you in on the particulars. Not just with Cody, but all the players.
Cody is a damaged soul due to crimes committed against him. If superiors knew how messed up he feels, he wouldn't be allowed ...more
Cody is a damaged soul due to crimes committed against him. If superiors knew how messed up he feels, he wouldn't be allowed ...more

This is the sequel to one of my favourite books from last year, A Tapping at my Door, a police procedural set in Liverpool. For a better understanding of the protagonist, DS Nathan Cody, his history with his colleague, DC Megan Webley, and his relationship with his boss, DCI Blunt, I would recommend reading these in order.
A school teacher is killed in the grounds of the Anglican cathedral in Liverpool. The single woman seemed well liked and respected, so Nathan and his team find it difficult to ...more
A school teacher is killed in the grounds of the Anglican cathedral in Liverpool. The single woman seemed well liked and respected, so Nathan and his team find it difficult to ...more

This is the second novel featuring DS Nathan Cody. The first in the series was, “A Tapping at my Door,” and, like that book, this is also set in Liverpool. Following events in the first novel, in which DC Megan Webley was injured, we return in December, with Webley just about to return to work. Much of the same team are in place; including Detective Chief Inspector Blunt and ‘Footlong’ are joined by new characters, including computer expert Grace Meade.
The author obviously knows Liverpool well a ...more
The author obviously knows Liverpool well a ...more

Hope To Die is the second in the DS Nathan Cody series. A Tapping At My Door (which is the first) was my first introduction to this authors works and was one of my outstanding reads of 2016. I went on to read all of the authors books, which I loved, so you can imagine how much I have been dying for this one to be released.
I love Cody and wanted to give him a big hug for what he is having to go through. He has been through an horrendous time and it is very much with him every day. As much as he s ...more
I love Cody and wanted to give him a big hug for what he is having to go through. He has been through an horrendous time and it is very much with him every day. As much as he s ...more

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an open and honest review.
I have been waiting for Hope to Die to be released after reading A Tapping At My Door a couple of months ago. As soon as I got my hands on this I had to read it.
Well this was even better Tapping At My Door. The Murder of the first victim Mary Cowper is in the first chapter. Mary was brutally murdered walking her dog in the grounds of Liverpool Cathedral. Cody discovers that Mary was a popular school ...more
I have been waiting for Hope to Die to be released after reading A Tapping At My Door a couple of months ago. As soon as I got my hands on this I had to read it.
Well this was even better Tapping At My Door. The Murder of the first victim Mary Cowper is in the first chapter. Mary was brutally murdered walking her dog in the grounds of Liverpool Cathedral. Cody discovers that Mary was a popular school ...more

Mar 01, 2017
Liz Barnsley
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
received-via-netgalley,
addictive-thrillers
Oh David Jackson! Seriously. First of all NO with now making us wait for another in this series I really don't like waiting especially not when endings are so beautifully placed for when you think its done then ITS NOT DONE and then THINGS OCCUR. I can't say more because *spoilers*
This is beautifully constructed, brilliantly written and has an immersive and authentic sense of place, just like the first Nathan Cody novel which if you haven't read yet you probably should. First. Not that this can' ...more
This is beautifully constructed, brilliantly written and has an immersive and authentic sense of place, just like the first Nathan Cody novel which if you haven't read yet you probably should. First. Not that this can' ...more

4.75
Just a tiny something missing to make this a 5 star read. I read through the night to finish this. DS Nathan Cody is investigating the murders of several women. Simultaneously you learn a little about the PTSD he's experiencing due to being tortured and watching his partner killed by clowns that got away. Im going to read the book before this one because I want to find out what I missed.
The flashbacks of the abuse the little boy (serial killer) experienced definitely upset me. The things pa ...more
Just a tiny something missing to make this a 5 star read. I read through the night to finish this. DS Nathan Cody is investigating the murders of several women. Simultaneously you learn a little about the PTSD he's experiencing due to being tortured and watching his partner killed by clowns that got away. Im going to read the book before this one because I want to find out what I missed.
The flashbacks of the abuse the little boy (serial killer) experienced definitely upset me. The things pa ...more

I was first introduced by David Jackson by reading Tapping At My Door, which if you haven't read it and love reading thrillers I highly recommend it. After reading Tapping At My Door which I found frighteningly good with a policewoman being attacked and with the great police procedural, I became hooked into David Jackson books. I was thrilled when I was asked to join the blog tour for David Jackson's new book. I easily got into Hope To Die with another exciting gripping police procedural with a
...more

A few months ago, I raved about the first book in the DS Cody series and I’m kicking myself for taking this long to finally read the second one. Follow-ups are always tricky but I can safely say Hope to Die is even better than its predecessor!
Cody’s having an absolutely horrendous time. Not only is there the investigation into the murder of teacher Mary Cowper, which seems to be going nowhere fast, but he has a lot of other things to deal with as well. His relationship with Megan is at an all-ti ...more
Cody’s having an absolutely horrendous time. Not only is there the investigation into the murder of teacher Mary Cowper, which seems to be going nowhere fast, but he has a lot of other things to deal with as well. His relationship with Megan is at an all-ti ...more

I absolutely LOVED David Jackson's Callum Doyle series and therefore was very excited when he started a new series with a new detective and read the first book A Tapping At My Window back in April 2016 which I really did enjoy, but to be honest I felt like I was cheating on Callum because I loved that series so much. It's taken me quite a while to get around to reading the second book in this series which was published in April 2017 and to be perfectly honest the only reason I read it was becau
...more

I LOVED A Tapping At My Door, so I was beyond excited to be able to read and review Hope To Die as I’ve been waiting for it since I closed the last page of ATAMD to be honest!
Hope To Die is a cracking addition to the series. We’re back with DS Nathan Cody, who is such a great character, and in this one he is tasked with investigating a brutal murder where there appears to be no motive.
Alongside this, Nathan is battling his own demons. If you’ve not read the first book, I won’t spoil it by sayin ...more
Hope To Die is a cracking addition to the series. We’re back with DS Nathan Cody, who is such a great character, and in this one he is tasked with investigating a brutal murder where there appears to be no motive.
Alongside this, Nathan is battling his own demons. If you’ve not read the first book, I won’t spoil it by sayin ...more

The publication last year of A Tapping at My Door marked the start of a new series for David Jackson and moved his new protagonist, Nathan Cody, away from the New York playground of his previous detective, Callum Doyle, and set him up in Merseyside. I loved the Callum Doyle series but this change in direction is working out really, REALLY well for both author and reader here. The UK setting of Liverpool is very well known by David Jackson and so these books come across with a confident passion f
...more

Mar 09, 2017
Debbie
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
net-galley-books,
ebooks
I loved this book! It was SOOOO good. A killer is killing women and it seems it's because of their religious beliefs. Meanwhile, the author is letting us into the psyche of the killer. We are reading about the childhood of the killer. It starts when the killer is five years old and how the mother punishes him when he is a child. There is no maternal love there at all. The things this woman does to this child are unspeakable. The ridicule the child faces because of his mother. It's no wonder he g
...more

Apr 23, 2018
Mandy White (mandylovestoread)
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
audible
What a fantastic book! Great stories and characters that all kept me guessing til the end

Jun 05, 2017
April
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
netgalley-books-ive-read
Hope To Die by David Jackson
DS Nathan Cody Book #2
Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Bonnier Zaffre for the ebook ARC of Hope to Die by David Jackson.
Mary Cowper(42) was walking her dog through a church yard of Liverpool Cathedral on a snowy evening in December. Someone comes up and kills Mary very brutally.
Detective Sergeant Nathan Cody of the Major Incident Team is put on the case. Whichever way Detective Cody turns, Mary seems to be perfect, no one has a bad word to s ...more
DS Nathan Cody Book #2
Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Bonnier Zaffre for the ebook ARC of Hope to Die by David Jackson.
Mary Cowper(42) was walking her dog through a church yard of Liverpool Cathedral on a snowy evening in December. Someone comes up and kills Mary very brutally.
Detective Sergeant Nathan Cody of the Major Incident Team is put on the case. Whichever way Detective Cody turns, Mary seems to be perfect, no one has a bad word to s ...more

Synopsis/blurb.....
The gripping new serial killer thriller, from the runaway bestselling author of CRY BABY. Perfect for fans of Mark Billingham and Peter James.
On a bitterly cold winter's night, Liverpool is left stunned by a brutal murder in the grounds of the city's Anglican Cathedral. A killer is on the loose, driven by a chilling rage.
Put on the case, DS Nathan Cody is quickly stumped. Wherever he digs, the victim seems to be almost angelic - no-one has a bad word to say, let alone a motive ...more
The gripping new serial killer thriller, from the runaway bestselling author of CRY BABY. Perfect for fans of Mark Billingham and Peter James.
On a bitterly cold winter's night, Liverpool is left stunned by a brutal murder in the grounds of the city's Anglican Cathedral. A killer is on the loose, driven by a chilling rage.
Put on the case, DS Nathan Cody is quickly stumped. Wherever he digs, the victim seems to be almost angelic - no-one has a bad word to say, let alone a motive ...more

Hope to Die is the second book in the DS Nathan Cody series and one of my most eagerly anticipated reads of the year. I read the first in the series, A Tapping at My Door last year when it was first released and WOW, I absolutely loved it. Click here to read my five-star review. So much so it made it to my books of 2016 list. I had incredibly high hopes for this second instalment.
And having read (read = devoured) Hope to Die I can confirm that I am not the slightest bit disappointed; this book w ...more
And having read (read = devoured) Hope to Die I can confirm that I am not the slightest bit disappointed; this book w ...more

Winter is here, Liverpool Cathedral and the snow is falling.
Can you picture the scene?
The stunning, red brick building, smattered with the softest white snow, the deep, wide stairs barely visible, the surrounding trees glistening whilst the branches, heavy with the snow fall, dance gently in the breeze ... perfect for a romantic stroll ... until you see the blood that is ...
For this is the location of the first gruesome murder.
Bludgeoned to death in what appears to be the most random of crimes, ...more
Can you picture the scene?
The stunning, red brick building, smattered with the softest white snow, the deep, wide stairs barely visible, the surrounding trees glistening whilst the branches, heavy with the snow fall, dance gently in the breeze ... perfect for a romantic stroll ... until you see the blood that is ...
For this is the location of the first gruesome murder.
Bludgeoned to death in what appears to be the most random of crimes, ...more

I would like to thank Netgalley and Bonnier Zaffre for an advance copy of Hope To Die, the second Liverpool based police procedural to feature DS Nathan Cody.
Mary Cowper, a good Christian teacher, is murdered by a man with a hammer in the grounds of an Anglican church. Cody and the team can find no reason for the murder so their sense of foreboding increases when another woman is murdered in the same way in the grounds of a Catholic Church.
Hope To Die is a good read. The murder plot is fairly st ...more
Mary Cowper, a good Christian teacher, is murdered by a man with a hammer in the grounds of an Anglican church. Cody and the team can find no reason for the murder so their sense of foreboding increases when another woman is murdered in the same way in the grounds of a Catholic Church.
Hope To Die is a good read. The murder plot is fairly st ...more

May 08, 2018
Pat (not getting friend updates currently)
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
This was pretty darn good. A school teacher's body is found outside an Anglican cathedral. Hmm, strange. The woman was very religious but no motive for the murder is apparent. Then a dead prostitute is found outside a Catholic cathedral. OK, now its getting interesting.
Nathan Cody and his crew are investigating these murders. Much of their progress comes from newbie, Grace, a geek tech wizard but also all round smart cookie who has some pretty good ideas. Meanwhile Nathan is being plagued by cra ...more
Nathan Cody and his crew are investigating these murders. Much of their progress comes from newbie, Grace, a geek tech wizard but also all round smart cookie who has some pretty good ideas. Meanwhile Nathan is being plagued by cra ...more

Very impressive. Cody, Webley, Blunt and co are getting better and better with every outing and Cody's continuing psychological problems are such a clever leitmotif. David Jackson has created a team of characters the reader will care about and his plotting and pace in this book are testimony to a writer at the top of his game. The vividly evoked Liverpool setting, the intriguing story and characters who really come to life would translate so effectively to TV that I wouldn't be at all surprised
...more

To call this a thriller is an understatement. At first, I wasn't sure where the story was going, but as it went on, I found it incredibly hard to stop reading. Some passages are ultimately harrowing, dealing with the experience of child abuse at the hands of a devout mother, and one or two of these actually upset me (which takes a lot of doing!). But elsewhere the pace of the plot and the twists and turns of the case were riveting, and I genuinely didn't see the ending coming. Looking forward to
...more

My actual rating is 2.5 stars. Compared to the other books I've read just recently this novel just wasn't quite as good.
...more

I love the storyline of these books but I just hate the ongoing story about the clowns and phone calls to Nathan Cody. I’m good with the serial killer so I don’t need to read about the hero’s failing mental health. At only 42% I was wondering if I was even going to finish this book. If it weren’t for the narration I probably wouldn’t have. I knew, however, if this was still a problem at the end of this book I wouldn’t be reading any more from this author.
At 71% we finished with another long epis ...more
At 71% we finished with another long epis ...more

A follow up to A Tapping At My Door, Hope To Die could be read as a standalone novel but you would get more enjoyment from it if you know and understand why Nathan Cody is hurting emotionally and physically.
The novel starts with a murder in one of my favourite areas of Liverpool, the gardens surrounding the Anglican Cathedral. I’ve always enjoyed reading a novel where I know the area and the Cathedral and the Georgian Quarter of Liverpool is one I know quite well. The footpath where the murder t ...more
The novel starts with a murder in one of my favourite areas of Liverpool, the gardens surrounding the Anglican Cathedral. I’ve always enjoyed reading a novel where I know the area and the Cathedral and the Georgian Quarter of Liverpool is one I know quite well. The footpath where the murder t ...more

David Jackson does it again another crack a jack of a read
A cleverly plotted police procedural superbly written which will you leave you guessing until the end, in Nathan Cody you have a tortured soul a character with a great back story that the author keeps drip feeding the reader.
You get a real feelimg of authenticity within the storyline that helps the book to flow and the pages to turn, top notch entertainment.
As usual with the ending you have that great sense of wanting more to know what fu ...more
A cleverly plotted police procedural superbly written which will you leave you guessing until the end, in Nathan Cody you have a tortured soul a character with a great back story that the author keeps drip feeding the reader.
You get a real feelimg of authenticity within the storyline that helps the book to flow and the pages to turn, top notch entertainment.
As usual with the ending you have that great sense of wanting more to know what fu ...more
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I am the author of a series of crime thrillers featuring Irish-American NYPD Detective Callum Doyle. The first in the series, Pariah, was Highly Commended in the Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger Awards. It is published by Pan Macmillan. The follow-ups are The Helper and Marked, and I am hard at work on the fourth in the series. My writing influences include Ed McBain, Dennis Lehane, George P
...more
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DS Nathan Cody
(4 books)
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