Nada es nunca lo que parece. Y menos si David Gurney está involucrado.

Han pasado seis meses. David Gurney apenas ha conseguido reincorporarse a una cierta normalidad después de haberse encontrado al borde de la muerte tras resolver el caso más peligroso al que se había enfrentado. Madeleine, su esposa, está preocupada: ha sido diagnosticado con síndrome de estrés postraumático; nada parece alegrarle.

Hasta que recibe una llamada. Connie Clark, la periodista que creó la leyenda de superpoli, lo puso en la portada de una revista y lo catapultó a la fama, quiere pedirle ayuda. Su hija Kim está realizando un documental sobre las familias de las víctimas de un asesino en serie al que nunca atraparon, el Buen Pastor, y Connie quiere que Gurney supervise sus investigaciones y la guíe. En parte por aburrimiento y en parte por hacerle un favor a Connie, Gurney acepta.

Sin embargo, esto no será más que el principio. Incapaz de ponerle coto a su curiosidad y a su necesidad de resolver cada una de las incógnitas que se le presentan, David Gurney se verá arrastrado a una investigación para descubrir la verdadera identidad del asesino. Un asesino que es tan imprevisible como peligroso.

Si en Sé lo que estás pensando te asombró y en No abras los ojos te aterró, con Deja en paz al diablo, John Verdon consigue lo inesperado: sorprender al lector a cada página hasta dejarlo sin aliento.

In this latest novel from bestselling author John Verdon, ingenious puzzle solver Dave Gurney puts under the magnifying glass a notorious serial murder – 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.

David Gurney se sentía casi invencible… hasta que se topó con el asesino más inteligente con el que jamás había tenido que enfrentarse.

Dave Gurney, el protagonista de la primera novela de John Verdon, Se lo que estás pensando, vuelve para afrontar el caso más difícil de su carrera, una batalla con un adversario implacable que no solo es un inteligente y frío asesino, sino que no tiene reparos en atacar directamente al punto débil de Gurney: su esposa.

Ha pasado un año desde que el exdetective de la Policía de Nueva York consiguió atrapar al asesino de los números y, aunque es su intención retirarse definitivamente junto a su esposa Madeleine, un nuevo caso se le presenta de forma imprevista. Una novia es asesinada de manera brutal durante el banquete de bodas, con cientos de invitados en el jardín, y ese es un reto al que es imposible resistirse.

Todas las pistas apuntan a un misterioso y perturbado jardinero pero nada encaja: ni el móvil, ni la situación del arma homicida y sobre todo, el cruel modus operandi. Dejando de lado lo obvio, Gurney empieza a unir los puntos que le descubrirán una compleja red de negocios siniestros y tramas ocultas.

When he was the NYPD's top homicide investigator, Dave Gurney was never comfortable with the label the press gave him: super detective. He was simply a man who, when faced with a puzzle, wanted to know. He was called to the investigative hunt by the presumptuous arrogance of murderers – by their smug belief that they could kill without leaving a trace. There was always a trace, Gurney believed.

Except what if one day there wasn't?

Dave Gurney, a few months past the Mellery case that pulled him out of retirement and then nearly killed him, is trying once again to adjust to his country house's bucolic rhythms when he receives a call about a case so seductively bewildering that the thought of not looking into it seems unimaginable – even if his beloved wife, Madeleine, would rather he do anything but.

The facts of what has occurred are horrible: a blushing bride, newly wed to an eminent psychiatrist and just minutes from hearing her congratulatory toast, is found decapitated, her head apparently severed by a machete. Though police investigators believe that a Mexican gardener killed the young woman in a fit of jealous fury, the victim's mother – a chilly high-society beauty – is having none of it. Reluctantly drawn in, Dave is quickly buffeted by a series of revelations that transform the bizarrely monstrous into the monstrously bizarre.

Underneath it all may exist one of the darkest criminal schemes imaginable. And as Gurney begins deciphering its grotesque outlines, some of his most cherished assumptions about himself are challenged, causing him to stare into an abyss so deep that it threatens to swallow not just him but Madeleine, too.

Desperate to protect Madeleine and bring an end to the madness, Gurney ultimately discovers that the killer has left a trace after all. Unfortunately, the revelation may come too late to save his own life.

With Shut Your Eyes Tight, John Verdon delivers on the promise of his internationally bestselling debut, Think of a Number, creating a portrait of evil let loose across generations that is as rife with moments of touching humanity as it is with spellbinding images of perversity.

An extraordinary fiction debut, Think of a Number is an exquisitely plotted novel of suspense that grows relentlessly darker and more frightening as its pace accelerates, forcing its deeply troubled characters to moments of startling self-revelation.

Arriving in the mail over a period of weeks are taunting letters that end with a simple declaration, 'Think of any number.picture it.now see how well I know your secrets.' Amazingly, those who comply find that the letter writer has predicted their random choice exactly. For Dave Gurney, just retired as the NYPD's top homicide investigator and forging a new life with his wife, Madeleine, in upstate New York, the letters are oddities that begin as a diverting puzzle but quickly ignite a massive serial murder investigation.

What police are confronted with is a completely baffling killer, one who is fond of rhymes filled with threats and warnings, whose attention to detail is unprecedented, and who has an uncanny knack for disappearing into thin air. Even more disturbing, the scale of his ambition seems to widen as events unfold.

Brought in as an investigative consultant, Dave Gurney soon accomplishes deductive breakthroughs that leave local police in awe. Yet, even as he matches wits with his seemingly clairvoyant opponent, Gurney's tragedy-marred past rises up to haunt him, his marriage approaches a dangerous precipice, and finally, a dark, cold fear builds that he's met an adversary who can't be stopped.

In the end, fighting to keep his bearings amid a whirlwind of menace and destruction, Gurney sees the truth of what he's become – what we all become when guilty memories fester – and how his wife Madeleine's clear-eyed advice may be the only answer that makes sense.

A work that defies easy labels – at once a propulsive masterpiece of suspense and an absorbing immersion in the lives of characters so real we seem to hear their heartbeats – Think of a Number is a novel you'll not soon forget.

Op de dag dat ze zou trouwen met een vooraanstaand psychiater, wordt een jonge bruid onthoofd aangetroffen. De politie denkt dat de Mexicaanse tuinman haar in een vlaag van jaloerse woede heeft aangevallen met zijn machete, maar de moeder van het slachtoffer - een steenrijke, koele schoonheid - gelooft daar niets van en neemt contact op met oud-politieman Dave Gurney.

Een paar maanden na zijn laatste opdracht, die hem bijna het leven kostte, probeert Dave zich weer aan te passen aan het rustige, huiselijke leven van een pensionado. Tot hij een telefoontje krijgt over de moord op de bruid, een zaak die hij ondanks de bezwaren van zijn vrouw Madeleine niet kan weigeren. Er lijkt echter geen enkel spoor van de dader te zijn. Niets.

Achter de misdaad lijkt een duister complot schuil te gaan. Terwijl Gurney hier een beeld van begint te krijgen, komen veel van zijn zekerheden op losse schroeven te staan. De afgrond die zich dan voor zijn voeten opent, dreigt niet alleen hem, maar ook zijn vrouw op te slokken. In een ultieme poging om haar en zichzelf te redden ontdekt Gurney uiteindelijk dat de moordenaar toch een spoor heeft achtergelaten. Maar de tijd dringt...
(source: Bol.com)

Amazon.com Review

Guest Reviewer: Lisa Scottoline on *Shut Your Eyes Tight*

*Lisa Scottoline is the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author of 18 novels including her latest, Save Me. She is President of Mystery Writers of America and writes a weekly column, Chick Wit, with her daughter Francesca Serritella for the Philadelphia Inquirer. The columns have been collected in Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog and *My Nest Isn’t Empty, It Just Has More Closet Space.

Voice is the hallmark of a great writer, and I loved John Verdon’s riveting Shut Your Eyes Tight from page one, because I fell in love with his voice.

Yes, the plot is a humdinger, too, with a bride turning up dead on her wedding day, whereupon former NYPD police detective Dave (“Don’t call me Davey”) Gurney is called out of an uneasy retirement to investigate the crime and find the killer. Gurney’s been settling into a country life in the Catskills, trying to force himself to think about mulch and bulldozers, but it ain’t working out so great. His superbly-drawn (if realistically tart-tongued) wife is hoping they can spend more time together, but Gurney is a “natural-born onion peeler” and he can’t sit on his hands when murder strikes in nearby, ritzy Tambury.

Gurney starts digging, asking thoughtful questions, and interviewing the society types who knew the bride, and soon his dining room table is covered with notes and gruesome crime-scene photos that his wife wishes weren’t around when dinner guests arrive. Yet Gurney persists, seeking the truth in his quiet, self-assured way.

The plot comes to life on the first page, but as I say, what keeps the pages turning is the pitch-perfect, intriguing voice of this “hero,” a term I know that Dave Gurney would hate. He’s super-smart, but the last one to brag. He loves his wife, but he doesn’t get all mawkish about her. He’s haunted by the death of his young child, but he doesn’t even say that aloud. Even his diversions are fascinating; you’ll never forget his theory of “The Eureka Fallacy,” a lesson in police analysis that applies to your everyday life. And he goes about serving justice, despite all the personal costs at home, with a care and concern that you realize, by the end, is characteristic.

I know that you’ll want to hear more from Dave Gurney and this amazingly talented author, John Verdon. I can’t wait for his next book.

A Letter from Author John Verdon

“How on earth did you put this together?”

That’s probably the question I was asked most frequently about my first Dave Gurney multi-layered thriller, Think of a Number. And now the early readers of the second novel in the series, Shut Your Eyes Tight, an even twistier tale, are asking it again.

I guess the best way to answer the question is to describe how these complex stories seem to develop in my mind. For me, there are two starting points for every mystery-thriller. There is the largely concealed action of the criminal—the true extent and nature of which will drive the plot, creating an increasing level of danger and destruction. And there is a specific mysterious result of that criminal action that initially touches and involves the crime-solver—drawing him into an ever higher level of confrontation with the underlying evil enterprise.

In Think of a Number, the initial tip of the criminal iceberg is a chilling and seemingly clairvoyant series of letters received by Dave Gurney’s old college classmate. As other baffling and murderous bits of the iceberg come to the surface, Dave becomes more and more engaged, more personally challenged to find the pattern, the motive, the killer.

In Shut Your Eyes Tight, the first visible sign of something complex beneath the surface is far more horrific. A bride is decapitated at her own wedding reception—and Dave is drawn into the investigation by a disgruntled cop who believes the official investigation is off-track.

My personal approach is to develop a story like Shut Your Eyes Tight on two simultaneous tracks that gradually become more and more entwined. The criminal does something that gets the attention of the detective; the detective begins his examination of the situation; the criminal escalates his activity, producing results that further involve the detective; the detective’s intensified investigative actions provoke more desperate responses by the criminal, building to a climactic high-risk confrontation and the revelation of the full architecture of the very nasty iceberg.

For me, the key to the credible development of this kind of a narrative lies in understanding my characters—their motives, emotions, and potential for interaction. But you know what part of the process excites and inspires me the most? It’s the part where I imagine that first visible hint of the monster beneath the surface. Whenever I see a horror or science-fiction movie, the great moment is that first glimpse of trouble.

I remember an old black-and-white movie I saw, probably back in the 1950s. A happy little family on vacation spent the night in their camping trailer by a back road in the desert. In the morning, one of the children, chasing a ball, comes upon a very strange footprint in the sand—nothing recognizably human or animal.

A clichéd opening? Sure. But it gave me gooseflesh, and I loved it! And of course, there is that remarkable scene near the beginning of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, in which the young hero, walking through the woods, happens upon a human ear.

I believe that a lot of the power and appeal of any narrative flows from its initial image of trouble. It’s the imaginative flash of lightning that illuminates the path into the story—for writer and reader alike.

Review

"Verdon, who hit a home run with his debut novel, THINK OF A NUMBER, has now nailed another one."--Booklist (Starred review)

"Verdon follows THINK OF A NUMBER, his sensational debut featuring retired NYPD detective Dave Gurney, with this standout sequel, set a year later. [The elements:] a bizarre, high-profile murder…an apparent impossibility involving the murder weapon, and once again…a relationship in crisis."--Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

From the Hardcover edition.

Raffiniert – rätselhaft – mitreißend Am Tag der Hochzeit beginnt das Grauen. Jillian, die junge Braut eines renommierten Psychiaters, wird auf groteske Weise enthauptet in der Gartenlaube aufgefunden. Der mutmaßliche Täter ist wie vom Erdboden verschluckt, der Fall scheint unlösbar. In ihrer Not beauftragt die Mutter des Opfers Dave Gurney, und wieder geht der pensionierte Top-Ermittler auf Verbrecherjagd. Schnell wird klar, dass Jillian nicht das einzige Opfer war – und dass nicht nur Gurneys eigenes Leben in höchster Gefahr ist.