In John Verdon’s most sensationally twisty novel yet, ingenious puzzle solver Dave Gurney brings his analytical brilliance to a shocking murder that couldn’t have been committed the way the police say it was.
The daunting task that confronts Gurney, once the NYPD’s top homicide cop: determining the guilt or innocence of a woman already convicted of shooting her charismatic politician husband -- who was felled by a rifle bullet to the brain while delivering the eulogy at his own mother’s funeral.
Peeling back the layers, Gurney quickly finds himself waging a dangerous battle of wits with a thoroughly corrupt investigator, a disturbingly cordial mob boss, a gorgeous young temptress, and a bizarre assassin whose child-like appearance has earned him the nickname Peter Pan.
Startling twists and turns occur in rapid-fire sequence, and soon Gurney is locked inside one of the darkest cases of his career – one in which multiple murders are merely the deceptive surface under which rests a scaffolding of pure evil. Beneath the tangle of poisonous lies, Gurney discovers that the truth is more shocking than anyone had imagined.
And the identity of the villain at the mystery’s center turns out to be the biggest shock of all.
Peeling back the layers, Gurney quickly finds himself waging a dangerous battle of wits with a thoroughly corrupt investigator, a disturbingly cordial mob boss, a gorgeous young temptress, and a bizarre assassin whose child-like appearance has earned him the nickname Peter Pan.
Startling twists and turns occur in rapid-fire sequence, and soon Gurney is locked inside one of the darkest cases of his career – one in which multiple murders are merely the deceptive surface under which rests a scaffolding of pure evil. Beneath the tangle of poisonous lies, Gurney discovers that the truth is more shocking than anyone had imagined.
And the identity of the villain at the mystery’s center turns out to be the biggest shock of all.
My Review:
In terms of plot this is the best of the four Dave Gurney books. The mystery is a deep one and the author gives clues that will allow the reader to figure out the ending. But the clues are hidden and subtle. I admit that I missed several of them. So the ending was a surprise. But a very interesting one.
I really enjoyed the detective story part of the book. However, there's way too much psychobabble in this one. Gurney's wife, Madeleine, has become one of the most annoying characters in modern fiction. She buzzes through the story like an annoying mosquito one can't swat away, generally getting in the way and spouting vacuous psychobabble at every turn. She keeps trying to get Dave to go to a shrink to find out the deep hidden reason for his interest in investigating crimes. He ends up going and gets told "Nothing in life matters more than love". Just the kind of meaningless New Age crap Madeleine gushes over. Happily, said shrink has terminal cancer so we won't have to put up with his prattle in any future volume. Madeleine is the kind of annoying nitwit who would find that silly "Eat Prey Love" book "uplifting and profound." One can only hope that in the next Dave Gurney book (and I certainly hope there is one!)
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