Bloodstream by Luca Veste

Social media stars Chloe Morrison and Joe Hooper seem to have it all - until their bodies are found following an anonymous phone call to their high-profile agent. Tied and bound to chairs facing each other, their violent deaths cause a media scrum to descend on Liverpool, with DI David Murphy and DS Laura Rossi assigned to the case. 

Murphy is dismissive, but the media pressure intensifies when another couple is found in the same manner as the first. Only this time the killer has left a message. A link to a private video on the internet, and the words 'Nothing stays secret'. It quickly becomes clear that more people will die; that the killer believes secrets and lies within relationships should have deadly consequences...

Bloodstream by Luca Veste was published in paperback by Simon & Schuster on 22 October 2015. It is the author's third novel and once again, features detectives Murphy and Rossi of the Liverpool police. The first in this series: Dead Gone was published in January 2014, and the second, The Dying Place was released in December 2014.

Well kept secrets, the glare of the media, a lack of evidence and the incessant buzz of social media theorists are no help to Murphy and Rossi as they work to solve this case. Two celebrities are found dead in a derelict house and there are no clues. Well, no clues that are easily found.  The killing continues, there are more deaths. The case becomes more and more complex.

Once again, Luca Veste has written a crime story that grips from page one. He allows the reader a little insight into what has happened, far more than poor Murphy and Rossi have, whilst keeping up the mystery and suspense.   The relationship between these two detectives is amazing, they work well together and their own vulnerabilities and emotions are not hidden, they are real and lifelike.

The Liverpool setting is so well-done, there's a darkness to the place that is echoed in the references to the grim and often deadly side of Social Media. This is a story that is up to date, relevant and at times, very disturbing.

Luca Veste's awareness of the psychology of the killers, the victims and the police adds a depth to this novel that makes it fresh and contemporary.  His writing is accessible and exciting.

My thanks to the author and the publisher who sent my copy for review.


Luca Veste is a writer of Italian and Scouse heritage, married with two young daughters, and one of nine children. He is the author of the Murphy and Rossi novels.

He was the editor of the Spinetingler Award nominated charity anthology 'Off The Record', and co-editor of 'True Brit Grit', also an anthology of short stories for charity.

He is a former civil servant, actor, singer and guitarist (although he still picks it up now and again). In his acting days, he appeared as a "background artist" - read: extra - on a number of Brookside and Hollyoaks episodes and also once spent three nights in a black leather mini-skirt and high-heels, in front of an ever dwindling audience in a Liverpool theatre!

For more information about Luca Veste and his writing, visit his website www.lucaveste.com
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