The Mutant Files: Deadeye by William C Dietz (Mutant Files #1)

8/10

Two detectives, Bryce Conti and Cassandra Lee of Los Angeles's Special Investigative Sector have to get to the bottom of their new case, but tracking down a cop killer known as Bonebreaker proves hard, especially when Lee has a personal interest in it after the Bonebreaker killed her father, Sergeant Frank Lee. Frank was a man of honour who was killed in the line of duty.

Officially, Lee isn't a part of the case, she's letting others handle it as she thinks she could be too personally involved, though unofficially, she will track down the killer until she brings him in alive, or worse, kills him. She might not care which. In these Mutant Files is the Los Angeles of the future as after 2038 a terrorist act killed off a large part of the human race and those left over were put in two differing zones. In the White Zone were norms and in the Red Zone lived mutants. The Red Zone is where most of the action takes place as the daughter of Bishop Screed, the head of the Church of Human Purity is taken by mutants to the Red Zone for
breeding purposes.

Given that all this is happening, Lee has another problem on her hands; she has to trust a new partner. Ras Omo, a mutant who has to give her the lowdown on how the Red Zone works. Having to investigate two cases is enough for Lee as by day she has to deal with the usual ones, while by night, the pain and anguish of her father's murder runs deep enough for her to investigate the Bonebreaker case under her superior's nose. So far the killer has taken the lives of eight policemen and women over the course of fourteen years, dismembering the bodies, breaking the bones and mailing them to the police.

William C. Dietz is the author of novels in the Andromeda and Legion of the Damned series and the Mutant Files are the tales of different cases Detective Lee has to solve, but there is only one she truly wants to put an end to. Lee as we can see is very proud of her dad and what he meant to her. She's a tough woman, when Conti expected her to be girly, he got a surprise; she's blunt, acts abrupt, but she does buy him a burrito first thing in the morning before they get to police
headquarters. There isn't much to say about Conti, only that he's reliable even if he can be a bit laid back while he's on duty. What baffles Lee most is that there is no evidence of name, age or gender of the Bonebreaker, but while she has investigated, she knows the killer can strike fear into the hearts of the people, and her.

Lee's toughness shows from the start when she is shooting down several perps, one gets too cocky, thinking she is out of ammo and loses out. In that moment at the start of the novel, Lee comes across as a female Dirty Harry figure, relentless, determined and unafraid. Dietz takes
Lee through a nightmarish world where she relies on Conti, another detective assigned to her, and the Bonebreaker is still out on the streets. Dietz's future is a dark one, with the danger factor ramped up to max. Fans of his other series will really be a fan of these.