Dead Gone by Luca VesteMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Time taken to read - on and off for 2 weeks
Publisher - AVON
Blurb from Goodreads
DI David Murphy and DC Laura Rossi investigate the murder of a student at the City of Liverpool University. Attached to her is a letter from her killer, which details a famous unethical psychological experiment performed on the victim, resulting in her death. Convinced at first that the murderer is someone close and known to the victim, Murphy dismisses the letter as a bid to throw them off the scent…until more bodies are found, each with their own letter attached.
On the other side of the city, Rob Barker, an admin worker at the university, is dealing with his own loss. His partner has been missing for almost a year, with suspicion from all around her firmly pointed at him.
As the two seemingly unconnected events collide, it becomes apparent Murphy is chasing a killer unlike any he’s faced before.
One who kills to discover more about life..
My Review
A serial killer is loose in Liverpool, using innocent people to conduct horrific experiments on and leaving letters to taunt the police. DI David Murphy and his sidekick DC Laura Rossi are on the case trying to work out the killers motivation and victim selection process. The clock is ticking before another body shows up and another innocent person is snatched, the public wants answers, the press is relentless and the pressure is on the police.
For a debut novel it does quite well to grab and pull you in. Rob Barker is a main feature in this tale, his partner went missing and for a while he was a suspect. Almost a year has passed and he knows she is still around, with the murders being linked to his university the police are soon interested in speaking to him again. The story flips from the detectives, to Rob Barker, to the killer and back to one of the victims that we follow from the beginning. I think that is one of my complaints about the story, the chapters are well labeled so you know who it is talking but it jumps around a bit much for me.
The attacks are quite brutal and the pace goes along fairly quickly to keep the reader interested. DI Murphy has a shadow hanging over him that is referred to during the story but the reader doesn't find out until later what the chat is with that. I also felt it speeded up toward the end with the conclusion although it did have a few surprises along the way. Overall, I quite enjoyed it and would rate it as a 3/5. Thanks so much to AVON publishers for providing me with this ARC, you can buy this title yourself from all good retailers from 16th January, 2014.
Thanks for your review and for stopping by my blog earlier.
ReplyDeleteIt is fun to see other people's lists. I like when I see similar books on my list. :)
Happy New Year.
International giveaway on my blog on January 2. Hope you can stop by.
Elizabeth
Silver's Reviews
My It's Monday, What Are You Reading
So good review ,nicely done , happy new year :)
ReplyDeleteThough I find the plots of this type of story fascinating I am getting a bit squeamish about some of the horrific details often described in a book like this.
ReplyDeleteStill if I hear that something is well written, every couple of years I tend to give in to temptation and read something like this.
Your description of this one makes it sound very good.
Have a Happy New Years!
I've seen several mixed reviews of this so thanks for sharing your thoughts. This isn't a book that particularly appeals to me but then again Ive often found myself thinking this only to find myself reading the book.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes for 2014 and happy reading.
The jumping around in storyline would annoy me, but the premise sounds good.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Lainy!