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2000s: Four Derby College students go missing..then a video of them emerges….
2000s: Four Derby College students go missing..then a video of them emerges….
When four Derby College students are reported missing, the police in Derby don’t really pay that much attention at first. Students go missing all the time and often return home on their own accord. But when a video appears which appears to show them committing mass suicide, alarm bells go off.
Just what do the videos show? Is this just one sick prank or have they infact been murdered? And whatever happens to be the truth the one question is Why?
Derby is DI Brook’s new stomping ground. He’s moved from London to Derby carrying a whole lot of emotional baggage and a wrecked career in the Met.
Derby is a rural and pleasant setting after the chaos of London. However not for long as a body has now been found in the River Derwent. The station road bridge has been closed off and the forensic team has been brought in. Soon after another body surfaces. Both are thought to be local homeless so there is little pressure to find the killer or killers. The methods used in these killers are gruesome and brutal to the extreme. Jack the Ripper style.
From this to the murder of the four students – youngsters on the cusp of a great future. Missing from a college. But delve deeper and the background to these students is as varied and troubling as some of the vagrants found
Everything appears on a very sinister website – Deity.com – so the world of social media and murder becomes one and the effects are shocking to the extreme
Mary Mayfield: @marymayf
I first discovered Steven Dunne in 2012 with his third crime thriller Deity. I knew before reading that it was set in my home town of Derby but the only book I’d previously encountered set here was very sketchy on location, and at times the characters’ movements through the city were downright infeasible.
So when I read Deity, I was surprised to recognise the locations as quickly, easily and precisely as I did; in fact when a dead body is slipped into the river Derwent in the second chapter, Dunne gives enough detail that anyone familiar with the area could point to the spot. This accuracy continued throughout the book – the movements of police, victims and suspects could be plotted along familiar streets in the city centre (Waterstones book store gets a nice mention), another ‘incident’ occurs near Exeter bridge a route I regularly take between car park and downtown shops, but for me the most chilling moment came when the killer appeared to be heading to the house of a friend of mine!
Author/Guide: Steven Dunne Destination: Derby, Departure Time: 2000s
Twitter: @reapersteven Facebook: /steven.dunne Web: sdunne2013.wordpress.com/
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