Preview
  • Deeper than the Dead

  • Vera Boyett, Book 1
  • By: Debra Webb
  • Narrated by: Elise Arsenault
  • Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (98 ratings)

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Deeper than the Dead

By: Debra Webb
Narrated by: Elise Arsenault
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Publisher's summary

Someone’s found the skeleton in the closet, and it’s not the only one. Wall Street Journal bestselling author Debra Webb presents an emotional new mystery.

Crime analyst and newly disgraced deputy police chief Vera Boyett doesn’t visit home often, and she certainly doesn’t venture back into the cave on her family land. But when the remains of her long-missing stepmother are discovered, Vera will have to face a past that threatens all she is.

She and her sister Eve had a fairy-tale childhood: good until it was tragic, with a stepmother they never found a bond with. At least they had each other, a baby half-sister, and a mutual devotion that would have them do the unthinkable.

It’s a summer in small-town Tennessee, so thick with humidity it could drown you and so rife with secrets it could smother you. And deep beneath the surface, there are more bodies than you’d think…

©2024 Debra Webb (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
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Critic reviews

“A taut and gritty procedural with the promise of more.” Kirkus Reviews

“Expertly plotted and whip-smart, Deeper Than the Dead is an exceedingly clever crime thriller filled with secrets, betrayals, and complex characters. Webb manages to hit that sweet spot between family drama and police procedural. This one is sure to be a hit in the crime thriller genre. A wild and massively entertaining ride.” —Christina McDonald, USA Today bestselling author

What listeners say about Deeper than the Dead

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Terrible narration

The writing is okay. it could have been a lot shorter. The constant build up of tension in the relationships Coolio eye roll proportions. The narration was awful! She had so many awkward pauses that it became annoying quickly. I will avoid her in the future.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Secrets always bring the worst out of people

The secrets people keep and the extent they'll go to keep them from being exposed. Loved this book and it was definitely a game of who did it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

One of the best…

There wasn’t a chapter or pages that didn’t pull me deeper into this well written involved I book. I high recommend it

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Kudos to Debra Webb!

Debra Webb dies it again! Strange but fascinating story. I was not disappointed by this twisty plot. Could t stop reading it. Debra Webb is one of my favorite authors! Hope there is a sequel soon.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Many twists!

I loved all of the twists and turns of the plot. Very interesting characters! Great read!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Female Murderers?

The story line was good. There were enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. But the lead female was whiny and for a crime analyst not very bright. I believe the characters could be sharpened.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent! Very complex

The story had you guessing, and trying to figure out things all the way through. It was a very complex story that just kept unraveling as time went on. The focus was on different people trying to figure out exactly how this complex case unfolded. Great book and Narration was extremely well done! I’m looking for way too more of this series.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Moved Slowly

Slow story telling. lots of words without much plot. found a way to make murder boring.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Much to do about nothing

This book is one of those mysteries were the author keep repeating plot points over and over again until you don’t give a wink about how it all turns out.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Amateur writing, very little action/events.

The story is told like a police procedural and the plot was laid out well in the first 10 chapters, BUT… from there the story was so poorly executed I almost could not finish. To be fair to the author and myself for paying for it, I stuck it out.

It was very amateurish how the story was TOLD using 3rd person inside the characters’ minds, using very little action and no relevant clues for the listener to attempt to solve the mystery. There was so much telling, and retelling… reiterating what was already stated over and over as filler. The “clues” that solved the mystery were the worst! The smell of a certain aftershave from an attacker was considered evidence, or the break-in motive assumed the intruder had to be looking for a journal.

I think Webb could have used the time-line strategy of starting the novel back in time, so the listener/reader had a prior connection to the characters. Character development was so weak and characters did not stay in character, I felt totally disconnected to them.

Webb threw in constant “d*mn, sh*t, h*ll, etc. when 3rd person telling the story from the minds of the characters? Profanity is typically character dialog used in a novel to convey intense character emotions, it was so inappropriately thrown in for filler and distracting from the already weak storyline.

Narration was good by Elise Arsenault, she easily alternated between men and women in conversations.

The ending was convoluted and ridiculous, as Webb just kept throwing in one more murder to try to create an interesting tale. The motive for Eve and Vera’s cover-up was preposterous, and what they did at 11 and 14 years old was even more implausible. I’m not a writer and I could think of a lot more create reasons why they did what they did and lied.

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