Dead Gone
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
When a student turns up murdered at the City of Liverpool University, Detectives David Murphy and Laura Rossi are charged with finding the culprit. Attached to the deceased body is a letter from her killer, which details a famous unethical psychological experiment; it is that experiment that was used on this victim, resulting in her death. Thinking the letter is just an attempt to throw them off course, Murphy and Rossi initially dismiss it. But then more bodies are found, each with connections to the university—and each with their own letter accompanying the body.Murphy and Rossi quickly realize they’re chasing a killer unlike any they’ve hunted before: One who sees himself as a valuable researcher of human behavior—a killer who doesn’t just want his victims’ bodies, but their minds as well. As they delve into the darkest pockets of psychological research, Murphy and Rossi struggle to understand the motives of the madman, trying to find the killer before his gruesome experiments claim their next victim.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Liverpool Det. Insp. David Murphy pursues a wily serial killer in British author Veste's craftily plotted debut. A note found on the first victim, college student Donna McMahon, indicates that the killer performed experiments involving drugs on the 20-year-old woman (she "wanted to die. She begged for an end. Not because she was in pain, or through fear. She believed she could see the afterlife"). Two more bodies surface in the next four days. As Murphy and his able assistant, feisty Det. Sgt. Laura Rossi, focus their investigation on the City of Liverpool University's psychology department, to which all the victims had some connection, pressure on the beleaguered detective mounts both from the press calling for his removal and a killer who seems to be targeting him as his next experiment. Though the murderer's grandiose scholarly claims for the carnage pale in the light of day, and the pivotal character of Murphy's now-estranged wife remains underdeveloped, Veste keeps this gritty procedural moving through the shocking final revelations.
