Let the Devil Sleep

By: John Verdon

Narrated by: Jeff Harding

The most decorated homicide detective in NYPD history, Dave Gurney, is trying to adjust to his life of quasi-retirement 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 10 years before involved a series of roadside shootings and a rage-against-the-rich manifesto.

The killings ceased, and a consensus opinion developed that no one would dream of challenging - except Dave Gurney. Mocked even by some who'd been his supporters in previous investigations, Dave realizes that the killer is too clever to be found. The only gambit that may work is also the most dangerous - to make himself a target and get the killer to come to him.

©2012 John Verdon (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

3.5 Stars This Book Not As Good As The First Two

John Verdon starts off with an intriguing mystery which goes downhill the minute he starts rehashing the same marital woes of the Gurneys. It could be cut by 100 pages just by concentrating on the mystery itself and giving the other short shrift. Madeline is an uptight, passive-aggressive women who should by now have had enough of her husband's thoughtless, self-centered actions. Just let her blow off steam instead of this constant dance back and forth. Dave can't possibly be the smartest detective ever on the force, (as each book tells us) because he always ends up making a stupid, life-threatening decision in order to capture the bad guy. This is the third time in a row he just missed being on the coroner's slab. Neither one of them are very appealing people, and they sure don't have a happy marriage. That aside, this was a pretty good set-up but it got way over the top at the end. Situations where police protection would have been in place to stop a very predictable murder were left out and that kind of fell flat. The outcome and the reason for the killer's actions were pretty flimsy and a letdown.

An interesting story, fast enough to hold my

An interesting story, fast enough to hold my interest, but made more appealing by the narration of Jeff Harding. Character and plot development were as good as previous books by John Verdon and I couldn't help noticing how some of Dave Gerney's analytical thought processes mimicked those of Jack Reacher. This one was not quite as entertaining as earlier books in the series and it goes into the second tier of my library for that reason.