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Derbyshire policeman Detective Inspector Damon Brook is faced with the problem of two apparently unconnected bodies, both with their internal organs removed. Then four bright local students disappear leaving nothing behind other than a trail of internet films. Brook has to decide whether the films are real and whether the incidents are connected. Events soon become increasingly strange and, as Brook struggles with his own demons, as well as with the investigation, his own daughter is threatened. Derby, where the action is set, is a town of more than 240,000 people – hardly a backwater with little or no police presence. It is the largest of the three divisions of the 2,400 strong county constabulary. Its head of CID is a detective chief inspector. Yet Dunne has D Division as a complete stand-alone, no DCI, only a weak commander complaining about budget cuts and staff shortages in the face of what may be a serial killer investigation and the disappearance of four students from the local college. The lack of a response to what is clearly a serious incident stretches belief to breaking point, even set against a backdrop of ever-increasing cuts. Brook is something of a maverick, but a DI taking a few days off work in the middle of an investigation like this to go under cover on his own account is looking for a quick way out of the force, probably without a pension. Brook's nemesis, local journalist Brian Burton, who has pursued the flawed DI since his failure to catch a killer nicknamed The Reaper in an earlier book, is little more than a joke, a sort of combination of the worst of The Sun and Fox News. A crime reporter who tries to harass a man being led in handcuffs by police from his home is getting dangerously close to arrest for obstruction and interfering with police and when he openly insults the DI at a press conference, he is breaking every rule in the book. These issues aside, the book certainly has great strengths. The plot is clever, complicated and chilling, highlighting the modern obsession with fame and the ability of a warped man to bend that obsession to his own ends. The characters, particularly the teenagers, are grippingly real; the sometimes sordid, sometimes pathetic main protagonists could be your neighbours and their children. The twin investigations are carefully outlined, leading Brook through a maze of false starts and dead ends in which nothing is ever quite what it seems to a horrifying conclusion in which he must pit his wits against those of a twisted and vicious killer in a to save his own daughter. DEITY kept me guessing right to the final page and despite its flaws I recommend it to anyone who appreciates a carefully crafted brain teaser. §John Cleal is a former soldier and journalist with an interest in medieval history. He divides his time between France and England.
Reviewed by John Cleal, August 2012
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