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DCI Eve Clay #5
A Date with Death
All they wanted was to find their happy-ever-after... Instead, they met their deaths.
Three women have been killed in Liverpool. The MO points to a stranger, and now DCI Eve Clay is on the trail of a vicious man who preys on lonely women on dating sites. He signs off the same way with each message: "Kiss kiss, night night."
His crimes are escalating – and Eve has to stop him before another girl dies. But first she needs to find him. And that means going undercover online, and posing as his perfect victim...
REVIEWS FOR MARK ROBERTS:
'A fast-paced, chilling novel ... Short chapters, crackling dialogue and action that never lets up for a single moment ... Mark Roberts is what British crime fiction has been looking for' CRIMESQUAD.
'Intricate, fast-paced, with a sense of the macabre ... A genuinely innovative crime writer' DAILY MAIL.
'Dark, gripping and believable. Roberts' intimate knowledge of Liverpool makes the city into a sinister character of itself' GRAHAM MASTERTON.
'This is one of the most thought-provoking, powerful serial killing murders I've ever read. It's brutal, but I found that the plot was so deep, so twisted, intense and clever that there was no way I could put the book down until the final page' BESTSELLING CRIME THRILLERS.
Three women have been killed in Liverpool. The MO points to a stranger, and now DCI Eve Clay is on the trail of a vicious man who preys on lonely women on dating sites. He signs off the same way with each message: "Kiss kiss, night night."
His crimes are escalating – and Eve has to stop him before another girl dies. But first she needs to find him. And that means going undercover online, and posing as his perfect victim...
REVIEWS FOR MARK ROBERTS:
'A fast-paced, chilling novel ... Short chapters, crackling dialogue and action that never lets up for a single moment ... Mark Roberts is what British crime fiction has been looking for' CRIMESQUAD.
'Intricate, fast-paced, with a sense of the macabre ... A genuinely innovative crime writer' DAILY MAIL.
'Dark, gripping and believable. Roberts' intimate knowledge of Liverpool makes the city into a sinister character of itself' GRAHAM MASTERTON.
'This is one of the most thought-provoking, powerful serial killing murders I've ever read. It's brutal, but I found that the plot was so deep, so twisted, intense and clever that there was no way I could put the book down until the final page' BESTSELLING CRIME THRILLERS.
- GenresFiction
400 pages, Paperback
First published May 2, 2019
18 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
Mark Roberts
124 books53 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Mark Roberts was born and raised in Liverpool and was educated at St. Francis Xavier's College. He was a teacher for twenty years and for the last thirteen years has worked with children with severe learning difficulties. He received a Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for best new play of the year. He is the author of What She Saw which was longlisted for a CWA Gold Dagger. Blood Mist, the first in his DCI Eve Clay series, went to number one in the Australian kindle chart.
Mark Roberts was born and raised in Liverpool and was educated at St. Francis Xavier's College. He was a teacher for twenty years and for the last thirteen years has worked with children with severe learning difficulties. He received a Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for best new play of the year. He is the author of What She Saw which was longlisted for a CWA Gold Dagger. Blood Mist, the first in his DCI Eve Clay series, went to number one in the Australian kindle chart.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
October 31, 2019
So this would be book 5 of the series. I have actually read books 2, 3 and 4 but have not reviewed them yet - damn. moving along, I thought this was possibly my least favourite of the series even though it was pretty much a classic Mark Roberts gritty noir thriller and pretty contemporary as it deals with internet dating which I reckon could be a risky proposition these days.
December 4, 2020
Just wonderful
February 15, 2025
I'm not completely sure why this ended up feeling like a solid 'three and a half' star read for me, and nothing more. Perhaps it's that I've read plenty of similar British police procedurals, and though this was a perfectly decently written example of the genre.. it didn't feel like it had a lot to lift it above others. A little familiarity with some of the Liverpool settings made for a little additional connection with me as a reader, but not a lot - and certainly not as much as for some other novels of this type I have read. Some of the characterisation seemed slightly 'off' as well, several of the male police detectives were indistinguishable, several of the characters behaved unnaturally several times, and I'm not completely on board with how the author used disability / neurodiversity at all times.
The plot was very involving - young blonde women going missing after having met men on a dating website - and there was an interesting denouement too. I warmed somewhat to our detective protagonist Eve Clay, but maybe I would've been more involved had this not been the first book I'd read in the series. It left me wondering whether this was any less impressive a read than one by some of the authors I have read many of (Mark Billingham, earlier Peter Robinson etc.) or just a book I came to later and connected with less through lack of familiarity.
The plot was very involving - young blonde women going missing after having met men on a dating website - and there was an interesting denouement too. I warmed somewhat to our detective protagonist Eve Clay, but maybe I would've been more involved had this not been the first book I'd read in the series. It left me wondering whether this was any less impressive a read than one by some of the authors I have read many of (Mark Billingham, earlier Peter Robinson etc.) or just a book I came to later and connected with less through lack of familiarity.
July 12, 2019
Someone is kidnapping young women, skinning their faces and scalping them then leaving them in bodies of water. DCI Eve Clay and her team have to go undercover to stalk a killer who is finding victims through internet dating. The latest in the series is another exciting instalment from Mark Roberts with non-stop action and plenty of twists.
August 15, 2019
A long book I was nearly put off with a few reviews but glad I decided to go ahead with this book. Was a typical police detective book but still a good read .
May 12, 2020
Jus5 started reading this, then log into good reads to find it Is book number 5. Iv read no others, my pet peeve within authors is you write so many thousands of words for the book but can’t write 2 words at the start of a book, book 1 book 2... not happy.
July 3, 2020
This book is my first experience of Mark Roberts, and was a real rollercoaster. The first half was slow, and took a lot longer than needed, the next half was brilliant - fast paced and exciting - but the ending was a let-down. I had guessed the twists early on, and there was nothing new in the final chapter, so it fell a bit flat. Also, what happened to Daniel?! He disappeared and wasn’t mentioned again...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 13, 2020
First book I read from Mark Roberts and I am already a fan!
Very easy to read and writing style keeps you on your toes. Brilliant page-turner, not too graphic and definitely not scary (at least in my eyes anyways) - which would definitely suggest it as a good recommendation for beginners in the genre too!
Many twists, even though towards the mid-end you kinda know who and what (especially if you're as nuts as I am and keep notes), but not WHY and HOW! Now THIS is what gave this book the 5th star in my case!
The book is NOT the best I've ever read, but the author kept me interested and kept throwing flavours in the mix!
I definitely recommend it and will be buying the previous from the series, because silly enough I picked this one up at the shop while not having access to GoodReads and unaware it's basically the last book so far! =D
Very easy to read and writing style keeps you on your toes. Brilliant page-turner, not too graphic and definitely not scary (at least in my eyes anyways) - which would definitely suggest it as a good recommendation for beginners in the genre too!
Many twists, even though towards the mid-end you kinda know who and what (especially if you're as nuts as I am and keep notes), but not WHY and HOW! Now THIS is what gave this book the 5th star in my case!
The book is NOT the best I've ever read, but the author kept me interested and kept throwing flavours in the mix!
I definitely recommend it and will be buying the previous from the series, because silly enough I picked this one up at the shop while not having access to GoodReads and unaware it's basically the last book so far! =D
July 7, 2019
If I could, I would give six stars. It is my first book from Mark Roberts and I loved it. I read 500 pages in one go, in one day. I don't remember when last time it has happened to me. The story about internet dating sites, about hideous crimes, about preying on human weaknesses, about the dark side of our soul. I love how the book is written. The timeline is four days split into hours and minutes, as when it is about catching the psychopath, every minute counts. I loved all the characters. The pace is fast, everything is happening so quickly. The only thing which puzzled me: why the year 2021? And I picked up this book in my library, first of all, because the whole story was happening in Liverpool (so close home). I am definitely going to read the rest of Mark Roberts books.
July 24, 2019
I almost gave up with this on more than occasion. It was flat and unrealistic. All it managed to do is irritate me. Like which 40 something couple married for a few years, uses their christian names in a one on one conversation. None. DNA and foresinic results within a couple of hours, yeah right. A defence lawyer that tells the client to tell the police the truth. Yeah sure. And iPhone used 119 times in this book, send it to my iPhone ; her iPhone buzzed; I'm just recording this conversation on my iPhone and on and on. No no no.
August 16, 2019
Oh my, this was Good. More than good. And the way every crime novel should be. The cover is glorious, and the topic so appealing in this day and age of social media communication and Internet dating. Personally, I would never go on Internet dating sites, but there are so many who do. Read this, and they may all just go out of business! Love Eve Clay, her team, the setting. It would make an excellent TV drama, twists and turns. It frightened me to death and gave me anxiety, it was that good. Read it, totally unputdownable.
May 30, 2019
When the body of a woman is found on the banks of the River Mersey, scalped and her facial features removed, links are immediately made to a recent murder in nearby Warrington. When a third body is found, bearing the same injuries, DCI Eve Clay knows that there is a particularly sadistic serial killer operating on her patch. Each of the dead women had one major thing in common – they were all hoping to find love on the same dating website. Eve feels that there is only one way to stop ‘The Ghoul’ and that is to go undercover online, posing as his perfect victim…
I’m a huge fan of Mark Roberts and A Date With Death was one of the books I was most looking forward to reading this year. Ever since reading the first in the DCI Eve Clay books, Blood Mist, this series has become one of my firm favourites and Eve has become one of my favourite characters. This book, the fifth in the series, keeps up the high standard that I have come to expect.
One of the things I like most about this series is that we don’t have ordinary, run of the mill serial killers – if there is such a thing! In the past, we’ve had bodies arranged in patterns and a paedophile killer but now we have someone who slices off the faces of their victims. For those, of a squeamish nature, we don’t actually read about the act itself, but we do, towards the end of the book, find out the reason why the killer does this, making for a very gruesome scene!
Eve Clay is a great character with a gripping backstory, her traumatic past shaping how she is today. Although you do not need to have read the previous books in the series to enjoy this one, I have really enjoyed seeing how her character has developed. Even though she is dealing with a particularly horrific case, she appears to be becoming more able to separate her professional and personal life, not fretting as much about her young son as she has done in previous books.
Mark Roberts has definitely done it again with A Date With Death, writing a gripping book, impossible to put down. I’m already looking forward to the next one – maybe, in the meantime, I’ll bump into Clay’s husband and son at Goodison Park!
I’m a huge fan of Mark Roberts and A Date With Death was one of the books I was most looking forward to reading this year. Ever since reading the first in the DCI Eve Clay books, Blood Mist, this series has become one of my firm favourites and Eve has become one of my favourite characters. This book, the fifth in the series, keeps up the high standard that I have come to expect.
One of the things I like most about this series is that we don’t have ordinary, run of the mill serial killers – if there is such a thing! In the past, we’ve had bodies arranged in patterns and a paedophile killer but now we have someone who slices off the faces of their victims. For those, of a squeamish nature, we don’t actually read about the act itself, but we do, towards the end of the book, find out the reason why the killer does this, making for a very gruesome scene!
Eve Clay is a great character with a gripping backstory, her traumatic past shaping how she is today. Although you do not need to have read the previous books in the series to enjoy this one, I have really enjoyed seeing how her character has developed. Even though she is dealing with a particularly horrific case, she appears to be becoming more able to separate her professional and personal life, not fretting as much about her young son as she has done in previous books.
Mark Roberts has definitely done it again with A Date With Death, writing a gripping book, impossible to put down. I’m already looking forward to the next one – maybe, in the meantime, I’ll bump into Clay’s husband and son at Goodison Park!
June 8, 2019
Follows a gory trail to its conclusion.
Always gory with 'inventive ' ways of killing. Not sure how much this relates to the real world. Nice to read about police procedures in some detail.
Always gory with 'inventive ' ways of killing. Not sure how much this relates to the real world. Nice to read about police procedures in some detail.
October 18, 2025
Wow read this in 2 days I was hooked from the start couldn’t put it down loved DCI Eve and her connection to her colleagues and family. Great easy read interesting plot. Haven’t read one of Mark Roberts before will look out for more.
May 22, 2019
I stopped reading this book at a 100 pages. The storyline seemed decent but the way it was written was very simplistic. Dialogue between characters was very basic.
June 13, 2019
So good!!
Great characters! every single one of them!
Really enjoyed it and would love to read more from Eve Clay!
Great characters! every single one of them!
Really enjoyed it and would love to read more from Eve Clay!
October 9, 2019
Wow fantastic book kept me gripped
October 19, 2019
The dialogue just didn't seem to flow. Found it really hard to read. Gave up after 100 pages.
December 17, 2019
It was ok. It did have some good bits but not a lot.
December 17, 2019
It was ok. Not a lot of good parts.
December 18, 2019
good story line which gives you a lot to think about. really enjoyed it. well done mark deffo a 5 star
February 15, 2020
Albeit a little predictable, a good fast paced read. Perhaps doesn’t need to be so long.
February 1, 2021
New author
I have found a new author. Brilliant book fast paced and full of auction. Interesting caricatures and story line. I can really recommend this book.
I have found a new author. Brilliant book fast paced and full of auction. Interesting caricatures and story line. I can really recommend this book.
February 14, 2023
Brilliant read couldn't put the book down. Had me guessing all the way through.
February 22, 2020
Enjoyed this series having read them all in order. Hoping for another soon...
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews