Dead Gone: A Novel

by Luca Veste Narrated by Mark Meadows

Overview

A university student is murdered and attached to her body is a letter from her killer, detailing a famous unethical psychological experiment; an experiment that the killer had replicated on the victim, resulting in her death. Detectives Murphy and Rossi initially dismiss the letter as a bid to throw them off the scent-until more bodies are found, each with their own letter attached. The detectives realize they're chasing a killer who doesn't just want his victims' bodies, but their minds as well. As they rush to prevent any more deaths, they are forced to delve into the darkest channels of psychological research in an attempt to understand the motives of the madman.

Editorial Reviews

Mystery Tribune

"Luca Veste knows a lot about writing. This experience shows itself in his great new serial killer debut Dead Gone. This amazing novel has a gripping plot and an unpredictable storyline which is impossible to put down."

Publishers Weekly

"Craftily plotted. Veste keeps this gritty procedural moving through the shocking final revelations."

Criminal Element

"A terrifying trip into the darkest corners of psychology. Dead Gone grabs you from page one and compels you to stay until the very end, and it is that element of not being able to get away that draws you in and makes you at one with the victims in this very dark and skillful thriller."

Steve Mosby

"Gripping, unpredictable, genuinely shocking and impossible to put down, Dead Gone is a remarkable debut."

Chris Ewan

"Tense and darkly playful, Dead Gone is a cleverly constructed debut thriller."

Mark Billingham

"A chilling debut from a writer to watch."

Bookgasm

"[An] impressive and inventive work...Murphy and Rossi have the makings of a successful series."

The Times (London)

"A darkly impressive first novel, disturbing and intelligent."

CurledUp.com

"For those who like their British crime thrillers gritty and dark, Dead Gone is the perfect read. It takes real skill to write about so much wickedness while also making it palatable. Veste does it all."

Kirkus Reviews

2016-10-19
The abduction of a university student sets off a dark chain of events in Veste's U.S. debut.Student Jemma Barnes is kidnapped when she takes a taxi home after a night of clubbing. While her estranged boyfriend, Rob (and apparently, nobody else), panics over Jemma's disappearance, other dead bodies begin showing up around Liverpool—accompanied by long, florid, and rather pretentious letters referring to shady CIA experiments decades earlier. The case improbably goes to Detective David Murphy, who is still damaged from the recent murder of his parents and his own marital problems. (His partner, Laura Rossi, is never fleshed out as a character.) The killer's identity is revealed early in the book, and Murphy and Rossi manage to overlook the obvious culprit while pegging nearly everybody else as a suspect. That's not the only logistical howler in the plot: at one point Jemma overpowers her captor and escapes; instead of running straight to the police she turns around to attempt another rescue and gets herself captured again. Rob also makes a fateful misstep that most people with good sense would have avoided. Veste peppers the chapters with some weighty quotes about death and grieving, but it's hard to take a thriller too seriously when the cops are clueless and the killer is a bit of a bore. The obligatory Silence of the Lambs-style torture scenes don't help, nor does a crucial plot twist in which a main character gets a highly unlikely lucky break. A thriller whose ambitions aren't matched by its dead-silly plot twists.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175792691
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	01/10/2017
Series:	DI Murphy & DS Rossi
Edition description:	Unabridged

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