Let the Devil Sleep

A Novel

By: John Verdon

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 16 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

In this novel from best-selling 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 10 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.

©2013 John Verdon (P)2021 Random House Audio

Gripping suspense!

After listening to Think of a Number, I immediately bought the rest of the series. The "devil" in the title is the Good Shepherd who's been silent for 10 years. He has no intention of killing again. He's sleeping. Someone should've told young Kim to let the devil sleep. Instead, she awakens him with a research project and he begins killing again, this time his victims' families. Stayed up half the night doing a jigsaw puzzle, listening to the end. The narrator is magnificent.

Let the devil sleep

Author dragged the story too long. The story was dull . The only positive thing was Scott Brick 's fantastic Performance.