Retired NYPD detective Dave Gurney is finding it hard to
bounce back after a nearly fatal gunshot wound, but not
nearly as hard as staying retired seems to be. An old
friend has asked him to look out for her daughter Kim as
she begins a new reality series based upon the unsolved
Good Shepard case from a decade earlier. The Good Shepard
shot and killed six, extremely wealthy citizens, leaving
behind a textbook manifesto condemning greed and devastated
families who've never recovered from the shocking crimes.
As Dave looks through the case files in order to help Kim
with her series, he becomes convinced that the Good Shepard
case isn't what is appears to be. When the threats begin,
Dave knows that someone doesn't want him digging into the
past, someone who will do anything to protect their secret,
putting Dave and his family directly in the crosshairs of
the Good Shepard.
The plot is intricate and tightly drawn, but it doesn't
sacrifice anything in character development. The
frustrations Dave feels at his slow recovery go toward his
motivation and intensity in looking into this case and that
intensity also manages to get him into trouble. Every
single piece of the story is tied in with everything else.
I loved these connections within connections and the
resonating notes of motivation and reactions based upon
fear.
Dave is a bit of throwback to an earlier era where men
don't express their feelings with words and romance, but
that's not to say he isn't trying. His relationship with
his son and wife add wonderful conflict and depth to Dave's
character and the story on a whole. He recognizes that he
doesn't want to treat his son the way his father treated
him, but the words still stick inside. He recognizes that
his wife is by far the best thing that's ever happened to
him, but he seems almost incapable of reaching out to her.
These internal conflicts are deftly handled and drawn so
they go hand in hand with the increasing conflict between
Dave and the Good Shepard. Without giving away the plot,
I'll say that there were moments toward the end of the book
I held my breath, dreading what I'd find on the next page
and begging Mr. Verdon not to kill off certain characters.
It's definitely that kind of book. If an author can make me
stay up at night just to find out if a certain character
dies, it's a book worth buying, keeping, and then buying
the others in the series.
Reading LET THE DEVIL SLEEP is like watching dominoes fall.
I was so
caught up in watching the movement that I didn't see the
pattern and shape until the last domino tipped over then I
sat back and was like 'Wow! Let's do it again.' LET THE
DEVIL SLEEP by John Verdon is fantastic and I can't wait to
see what he has in store for us next.
In this latest novel from bestselling author John Verdon,
ingenious puzzle solver Dave Gurney puts under the
magnifying glass a notorious serial murder case – one
whose motives have been enshrined as law-enforcement dogma -
and discovers that everyone has it wrong.
The most decorated homicide detective in NYPD history, Dave
Gurney is still trying to adjust to his life of
quasi-retirement in upstate New York when a young woman who
is producing a documentary on a notorious murder spree seeks
his counsel. Soon after, Gurney begins feeling
threatened: a razor-sharp hunting arrow lands in his yard,
and he narrowly escapes serious injury in a booby-trapped
basement. As things grow more bizarre, he finds
himself reexamining the case of The Good Shepherd, which ten
years before involved a series of roadside shootings and a
rage-against-the-rich manifesto. The killings ceased,
and a cult of analysis grew up around the case with a
consensus opinion that no one would dream of
challenging -- no one, that is, but Dave Gurney.
Mocked even by some who’d been his supporters in previous
investigations, Dave realizes that the killer is too clever
to ever be found. The only gambit that may make sense
is also the most dangerous – to make himself a target
and get the killer to come to him.
To survive, Gurney must rely on three allies: his beloved
wife Madeleine, impressively intuitive and a beacon of light
in the gathering darkness; his de-facto investigative
“partner” Jack Hardwick, always ready to spit in authority’s
face but wily when it counts; and his son Kyle, who has come
back into Gurney’s life with surprising force, love and loyalty.
Displaying all the hallmarks for which the Dave Gurney
series is lauded -- well-etched characters, deft black
humor, and ingenious deduction that ends in a climactic
showdown – Let the Devil Sleep is something more: a
reminder of the power of self-belief in a world that
contains too little of it.
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