A dead body and a strange note start a case Murphy and Rossi will never forget. A student from Liverpool University has been murdered, and attached to her body is a note that outlines why she was killed. The note details unethical psychological experiments that were carried out by past famous psychologists, and seems to be an explanation from the killer. Murphy and Rossi think the note is supposed to throw them off the real trail, so they don't put much stock in the contents or use it to help them discover the killer. But as more bodies are found with more notes, they realize that was a huge mistake: the notes will eventually lead them to the killer, if they pay attention to the details and link the clues they find with the information they are given. Everything seems to lead back to the university, but that almost seems to easy and obvious; they have interviewed employees and have not turned up anything suspicious. The notes with the bodies are leading the detectives to believe the killer is using his victims to do psychological experiments, to test the theories and see if he can break the minds of those he kidnaps. And the scariest part is when they realize Murphy may be the killer's next experiment. While this story wasn't really a "mystery" or suspense as I knew what was happening and who was doing what, it was still a good plot. I liked how the author tied in the psychological aspect with the experiments, and I liked how the chapters bounced around among the days of the investigation and each of the victims. There weren't really any major twists in the story, but the development was good and the characters were interesting to watch interact. ( )

I picked up Mr Veste's second offering in a little free library. Having read a couple of chapters I was intrigued by the character of Murphy enough to need to read this one first and I'm glad I did.
The thought of being imprisoned, cut off from everything you know and all human contact is a truly terrifying idea and one that he deals with brilliantly and that's not to mention all the other horrors this truly frightening book contains.
If you like serial killer stories you will love this. ( )

I enjoyed this book, but it didn't particularly do anything new in my opinion. The psychological aspects were only given surface attention and when the opportunity arose to analyse the killer, the detectives chose to disregard him as "a nutcase". ( )

This is a debut novel by the writer and centres around two main detectives working a serial killer case in Liverpool. The references to Liverpool makes this book for anyone who has knowledge of the area.

This book is well written and the story premise is thrilling and terrifying all in one. I however, found this a little slow to start. Personally I like my crime novels to start with a bang and include a little more gore and description. There are parts later on that clearly make up for the lack of gore at the beginning. Although this was a well written book I found that I never got in to the ‘I can’t put this down stage.’ Although I enjoyed reading it I had to make myself pick it back up once I had put it down. I believe my main problem with this book was that I did not really relate to the main character in the book.

I found this slow in places and hard to get into although I am sure that as the writer develops his lead detectives this may change and result in a good crime series. At present I will reserve judgement on this until I read the next in the series. ( )

Dead Gone is a Brilliant Scouse Thriller

Dead Gone by Luca Veste is a brilliant debut by the scouse author who also happens to be a mature psychology and criminology student and he brings that knowledge to the fore in this book. For a debut novel this is a brilliant psychological and police procedural crime thriller, with more twists and turns than your average game of twister. Dead Gone is a brilliant example of twisted storytelling that keeps you on edge and those pages turning because you are trying to get inside the head of killer and detectives.

We are introduced to Detective Inspector David Murphy and Detective Sergeant Laura Rossi work together on the major incident team for Liverpool North which also covers the City centre of Liverpool. We are introduced to them as they start to investigate a murder the victim of which is found in Sefton Park with a letter which is the beginning of a chase for which they rarely get clues or that lucky break. But we start with the abduction of Jemma from a night out in Liverpool and we see how it all ties together towards the end.

As the bodies start appearing all over Liverpool City centre each one comes with a letter telling them that this body is part of an ongoing experiment but leaves them no clues. We do get the occasional hint that this is an experiment referring back to historic and very controversial psychological experiments, such as those by the CIA and the use of LSD. Dead Gone takes these old experiments and brings them to life in Liverpool and at the same time is poking sticks at Murphy and Rossi. The only real clues that they have is that somehow these murders all centre round the City of Liverpool University and first they must work out how this link falls into place before they can make progress with the murder investigations.

What I like about Dead Gone is that as well as being given the back story of DI Murphy and DS Rossi they are rounded characters, scousers who love their city even if one is now a woolly back. We see how this investigation impacts upon Murphy and all the skeletons in his cupboards and how some involved in the investigation are not afraid to point them out to him. Even in the depths of despair Murphy realises he has his issues to deal with but he has the murders to clear up first. We are able to see how this impacts upon his mental health and is torture to him.

Veste has written a brilliant thriller where there are no clear clues to who is actually committing the murders and the real reason why. I do hope that we get another chance to meet Murphy and Rossi and see how these detectives develop as a pairing. Right now though I cannot recommend Dead Gone highly enough. ( )