The Dying Place
Luca Veste
Once inside THERE’S NO WAY OUT…
DI David Murphy and DS Laura Rossi make a grisly discovery. The body of a teenage boy, dumped in front of a church in Liverpool. His torso covered with the unmistakable marks of torture.
And a shocking fact soon comes to light. Seventeen-year-old Dean Hughes was reported missing six months ago, yet no one has been looking for him. A known troublemaker, who cared if he was dead or alive?
But soon the police realise Dean isn’t the only boy who’s gone missing in similar circumstances. Someone has been abducting troubled teens. Someone who thinks they’re above the law.
SOMEONE WITH TERRIFYING PLANS FOR THEM…
Liverpool’s DI Murphy and DS Rossi return in this new thriller from the author of Dead Gone.
Nobody seemed concerned when a single mother’s son went missing. She’s on benefits. He’s a known troublemaker the cops assumed would turn up after a day or two. Then a body turn up, mutilated and dumped in a church yard.
A violent gang are kidnapping young tearaways, attempting to teach them a lesson.
They take another boy, Goldie, to a farm where the ‘rehabilitation’ takes place. It’s like a boot camp with torture and surveillance. Like the others he’s a bad lad, a scally, who tormented an old man, but, after time, it’s easy to feel sorry for Goldie as he actually makes positive adjustments.
The extreme gang's aims of rehabilitation and release are easier said than done. Things go drastically wrong, for both the capturered and their capturers. The gang wear masks and use code names but their hostages know enough to threaten their discovery.
Veste is a clever writer. The reader manages to see both sides as wrong but there’s enough understanding and sympathy to empathise with them both in this well paced mystery.
Do the captures deserve their fate? Can they be cured with violence? There are social issues here, with questions of upbringing and justice raised.
Gritty and original.
About Luca Veste:
Luca Veste is a writer of Italian and Scouse heritage, married with two young daughters, and one of nine children. He is currently studying psychology and criminology at University in Liverpool.