This is the third novel in the DI Brook series from this ex-journalist and now part-time teacher. You don't have to have read either THE REAPER or THE DISCIPLE as sufficient information can be gleaned from this book, which is set in Derby where the author now lives.

Detective Inspector Damen Brook has moved there after a breakdown in London following his unsuccessful bid to bring the Reaper to justice. He has lost his wife to another man and has also left his daughter behind. He is disliked by his colleagues because of his remoteness and they believe he feels having worked in the Met that they are country bumpkins. However his number two Detective Sergeant John Noble knows that Brook is an inspired detective and slowly but surely gets Brook to become human. Bodies are being discovered of vagrants who at first seem to have been abducted from mortuaries; the bodies have been operated on similar to an autopsy.

Whilst Brook and his team try to get to grips with this case, there are four teenagers that have gone missing. Two boys and two girls. They have been greatly influenced by various movies but particularly Picnic at Hanging Rock - set in 1900 Australia three school-girls go missing and two are never found. Have these four decided to emulate what happened in the film?

Brook is at first more concerned with the vagrant bodies, but Superintendent Charlton insists that the missing teenagers take precedence. One of the girls, Adele, has been having an affair with her tutor, also it is discovered her father has been sexually harassing his daughter. Whilst the facts are slowly unravelling a website "Deity" is discovered and revealing videos are promised on set dates. Brook's personal life gets complicated - one of the missing boy's mother's shows an interest as does one of the new pathologists. As if this wasn't enough his daughter Terri turns up complete with her own problems.

I wasn't convinced at first by Brook but he became more human and the book kept my interest throughout. All is not necessarily what it seems as you read, which makes it interesting! I look forward to reading the next novel from this author.

Geoff Jones, England
April 2012