Shut Your Eyes Tight

A Novel

By: John Verdon

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 17 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

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 best-selling 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.

Also listen to Think of a Number.

©2011 John Verdon (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Verdon, who hit a home run with his debut novel, Think of a Number, has now nailed another one." (Booklist)

"Verdon follows Think of a Number, his sensational debut featuring retired NYPD detective Dave Gurney, with this standout sequel, set a year later [with] a bizarre, high-profile murder…an apparent impossibility involving the murder weapon, and once again… a relationship in crisis." (Publishers Weekly)

Multilayered, intelligent. Better than Connelly.

this was a fantastic listen. you want to or have to stay in the car. great detective work, great characters, great story development, twists and turns. i have listened to a boatload of detective novels, and this is at the top. i love most of the harry bosch books, for example, and this is simply a step ahead.

I'm now a John Verdon fan!

Would you consider the audio edition of Shut Your Eyes Tight to be better than the print version?

Yes, Scott Brick could make any story better, and he doesn't disappoint with Shut Your Eyes Tight.

Have you listened to any of Scott Brick’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I've listened to many Scott Brick performances. He is my favorite narrator. He did an excellent job with this one, just like his others!

Any additional comments?

One of the things that I liked best about this book is the the fact that the story is so different from anything else I've read. I love mysteries and thrillers. This one is dark and has some creepy characters, I loved it!!

Reader

The reader needs to be less intrusive in the narrative. Too much tonality that distracts. The author is exceptionally good. I will be starting novel #3 immediately. Highly recommend!

Love a good mystery

Great book, keeps you thinking about how everything fits together. The narrator, Scott Brick, is my favorite; he does such a great job with changing his voice between characters. The characters' voices seem real and not fake like some of the other narrators I have listened to. This is the first book of this series I've listened to (a little out of order) but I will definately listen to the other two.

Mr. Brick makes my ears hurt.

The second Dave Gurney adventure pales in comparison to the first. Many of the same characters are here. The initial murder is a good hook: plenty gory and well set up. But the book is all over the place, full of so much contrivance and what ifs that it utterly strains credulity.
Particularly while listening to the voice of Scott Brick, the wedding scene sounds reminiscent of Nelson DeMille, which is to say it is utterly without subtlety. Every single thing is wildly overblown. As if what we wish to do is listen to a British coronation. The fabulously wealthy distant suburbs of NYC, where everyone has a castle and a moat and a yacht, etc. When Dave Gurney finally succumbs to the charms of the (of course) luscious Val Perry, agreeing to look for her of course glamorous, genius (IQ=168) daughter, who has been grossly beheaded by the gardener during her wedding to of course internationally brilliant psychiatrist Dr. Scott blah blah Ashton, while being given away by the of course world’s most wealthy and decorated neurosurgeon, who makes the of course average amount for the Zipcode: $44 MILLION per annum (no physician in the history of the universe has ever come anywhere near this insane sum). And there is more and more and more.
And then there is Dave’s wife, Elizabeth Taylor in blue jeans. The contrivances build up and up and up until the entire operation is balancing on a structure that is as flimsy as a spider web: you could just blow hard (mmmm...) and it would collapse completely. Dave comes up with so much pure speculation that the governor and the top cop and his henchmen all fall down! The idea that all of the murders could be based on a play that is so old and obscure, with names transferred and the scheme of the killer and the apparent conspiracy of the women who have left "Mapleshade School" (personally, I think that that is an awful name for a school). Anyway, I gave up on old Dave and on Mr. Brick. Mr. Verdon will have trouble writing a book as good as Think of a Number. He does not have a good feel for what the reader will swallow. I know that quite a number of readers liked this book. You might like it. I didn't.

Good book

Thoughtful plot. Keeps you guessing as Gurney investigates the crime. Also like Gurney and his wife's interactions and their beautiful plot of land as well.

Intriguing twists and turns

I liked that despite many characters, I was able to keep them straight as I walked and listened. I always love this narrator.

Great book

I really love the books Scott Brick narrates, He takes an average book and makes it better or a good book and makes it great.
John Verdon is somebody I had not heard of, but I’ll look for more of his books. Scott took a very good book and made it SUPER!
Thank You John And Scott.

human trafficking

Dave once more is lured out of retirement this time because someone is beheading women. As he gets closer and closer to the answer at the core of this mystery, he puts himself in danger. He’s drugged and photographed in, well, a compromising situation.

He picks up clues others missed and ultimately solves the mystery. And then he’s shot 3 times.

Time to move on to #3.

In the absence of editors

If you like being in the mind of a psychopath killer or a neurotic, emotionally fragile, and prone to reflection detective (these are the only two choices) you are welcome to this book. Read with as much pathos and seriousness as humanly possible.