Shut Your Eyes Tight (Dave Gurney, No. 2): A Novel (A Dave Gurney Novel)

Dave Gurney, a few months past the Mellery case that pulled him out of retirement and then nearly killed him (see my review of Think of a Number, the first in the Dave Gurney series), is trying once again to adjust to his retired life in the country when he receives a call about a case so bewildering that the thought of not looking into it seems impossible. Of course his wife, Madeleine, would prefer that he tend to his asparagus garden, but by now we know that Gurney’s insatiable appetite for seemingly unsolvable cases will draw him in.The facts of the case are horrible: a young and happy bride, newly wed to an successful and well-known psychiatrist, is found decapitated while still in her wedding gown, her head apparently severed by a machete. Based on where the murder took place, the police investigators believe that the psychiatrist’s Mexican gardener killed the young woman in a fit of jealous fury. This is supported by the fact that all of the video footage from the wedding accounts for everyone else’s whereabouts and the bride was seen entering the gardener’s cottage moments before the toast.Although the police have identified the murder weapon and the perpetrator, the gardener seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. The victim’s mother—a chilly high-society woman—is having none of it and loses patience with the police. She turns to Gurney. As Gurney gets drawn into the case, he begins to discover that things (including the bride and her groom) aren’t quite as idyllic they seem. In fact, it seems that Gurney may have stumbled onto a much larger conspiracy that involves a possible serial killer…Summing it up: 3.5/5 stars. I felt the pace in this book was slightly more consistent than in his first book, and Verdon lays out the twisty mechanics of the crime in a clear, organized, and engaging way. I really felt like I was rooting for Dave Gurney this time around, rather than just being mildly annoyed with him. In addition to the well-paced plot, Verdon also gives a convincing urgency to Gurney’s personal dilemmas regarding his “art career”, which further helps to create a somewhat more believeable and (as I’ve said) less annoying portrait of his marriage and other relationships.For me it still doesn’t hit the mark for a 5/5 review because some of the details of the resolution were just a little too hard to believe. For example, the late influx of a mysterious family of gangsters felt a bit contrived – like it was tossed in simply to add to the suspense and keep readers engaged - – - but it just led me to question whether the book really needed to be as long as it was. In fact, thinking back on it, the plot did get a little convoluted toward the end, and it was hard to keep track of the core of the story and keep all the secondary criminal characters straight.Despite these criticisms, I enjoyed reading Shut Your Eyes Tight. Readers who enjoy mysteries and thrillers would probably like it as well, and it is well-suited for a summer read (lots of thrills; not too much “deep” thinking). However, be warned that it’s not necessarily a quick read—coming in at just over 400 pages. In the end, I thought that Verdon’s engaging and well-timed plot far outweighed his occasional excesses. Shut Your Eyes Tight is a strong follow-up to the author’s first book, Think of a Number, and if I had to chose just one to read, I would probably select this one.

The things that were good in John Verdon's first David Gurney novel are a little better in his second, Shut Your Eyes Tight. But the things that needed work in the first novel still need attention here, and I can't in good conscience give this more than three stars. I think Verdon has four or even five star books in him, and Gurney is a complex enough character that he can continue to function as the center of action and attention in Verdon's world. But please -- there are cliche elements to the villainy here, and this book would have been far stronger with a moderated level of evil. The villainous threat in a narrative does not become greater simply because one multiplies the victims or the number of sexual psychopaths with whom the protagonist must contend. Sometimes less really is more, and more is just absolutely too much.At his best, Verdon is playing in the Agatha Christie and P.D. James league, with complicated story lines, rich collections of characters whose motives and capacities are not clearly glimpsed for quite some time, and a hidden background narrative whose exposure will ultimately solve the core crime or crimes. But this potential is heavily burdened in Verdon's first two books with types from other genres of procedural fiction -- the self-serving District Attorney, the moronic or dyspeptic cops with whom our intellectually superior and ever cool protagonist must contend, and so forth. Two or three different types of formula fiction are being blended here, and the mix is not always a happy one.If you can stand multiple decapitation murders, child molesters who are little more than children themselves, and a bunch of rich old psychopaths who show up from time to time to menace either Gurney or one of the many young people in this novel who seem to exist only to be threatened, then maybe you will appreciate this novel more than I did. I can't fault Gurney's style or his ability to move a narrative along, but the sick stuff really needs to be dialed back in order to have a balanced narrative.I doubt Verdon will see this review, but he needs to hear this from somebody: The short chapter printed in italics and presented as the villain's point of view is just a useless convention of threat fiction these days. Such short blocks of text don't advance the story, they don't increase a sense of tension, they don't help misdirect the reader in any clever or sophisticated way, and they are the hallmark of a programmatic writer rather than an involved and thoughtful one. If you are one of the editors that Verdon thanked so extensively in his afterword to this novel, you owe it to your client to keep him from doing that again. Hacks use that technique. Serious writers, which Verdon has the potential to be, should be encouraged to avoid the formulas that lesser novelists use because they haven't the imagination to solve narrative challenges without insulting a reader's intelligence.Overall: good effort with great moments (mostly conversational -- Verdon can write great dialog), but far from perfect. I see Gurney number three is available. I will give that one a try in the near future, but if it still has disappointing elements I may not get to number four.

One thing is obvious, our hero, Gurney is in dire need of a good therapist. From the authors description of his thoughts and what he does in the novel he is really messed up. This book is more of a psycho drama than just a straight mystery. He is so racked with guilt over his younger sons death that he shuts out everything else except solving the homicide he is now involved with. And, he isn't all that sharp either. The mystery of the trail that was laid down to the knife at the beginning of the story was likely solved by at least 1/2 the readers almost immediately as soon as the boots were mentioned. Of course only the "how" of the mystery was evident, not the "why" or the time frame. Those came out later in the book. The other incident, where he was drugged at the art buyers home, and woke up in his car hours later seemed to be mystery to him. Anybody who ever saw the Godfather knew immediately what had happened. In his obsession with his pursuit of murderers he put his marriage in jeopardy and alienated his oldest son. He really is a basket case. The first novel, and this one, the second, gives the hero the same characteristics, so I guess the next one won't deviate much from that formula. The author seems to like it. It might not be a book for everyone, especially if you like your hero to be strong, not racked by guilt and other psychosis, But, I found it to be entertaining and worth the time.

This is the sequel to the popular “Think of a Number” that introduced the retired New York homicide detective David Gurney. In this book, Gurney is once again lured away from quiet retirement life by a murder with seemingly impossible circumstances. In this case, a bride was beheaded during the wedding by a gardener who seems to have vanished into thin air. Like the first book, this book is intensely gripping and keeps the reader guessing how all of the puzzle pieces fit together. I immensely enjoyed reading the book. It is fast-paced and full of surprises but does not go for the cheap logic-bending twists of so many books in the genre. I also like the main character. It’s very clever how the protagonists’ analytic mind and intense drive are also his weakness in certain circumstances. The author draws the reader into the protagonist‘s inner world and lets unwittingly experience the same blind spots. The only aspect that I did not like is the drawn-out tension between the detective and his wife. I can see that there needs to be some counterweight to show how far the detective’s obsession goes, but the trope of the wife who holds him back seems a bit hackneyed. But, altogether, I found the book very enjoyable. It was the perfect pageturner to take my mind off and I would recommend it to anyway who liked “Think of a Number”.

This novel represents the second outing for Dave Gurney, now retired ace detective for the NYPD homicide squad. The core event is a kind out outdoor locked room murder, where a young socialite (with a very dubious past) is decapitated in a small house in the grounds of a larger one, apparently by a rather mysterious mexican gardener who has now disappeared. Several strange clues are found suggesting to the highly intelligent Gurney that things aren't what they seem. The basic crime is like something that John Dickson Carr would have thought up. What happened to the gardener? How can anyone else have done the deed? And, in fact, the solution is one that's mentioned in Carr's "Locked Room Lecture" that Dr. Fell gives in The Hollow Man/Three Coffins.But there's more to this than a merely tale of cerebral deduction. Virtually everyone in the dead woman's family seems to have serious issues/problems, and there's a particularly horrible sort of commercialized sexual perversion that's uncovered, so this gives the story a modern "psychopathic" feel.Gurney's more Dr. Fell than Jack Reacher, so he doesn't go in all guns blazing (or even seem to have a gun) but he's a good character and he has some interesting supporting characters as well (his long-suffering wife, a clever but cynical colleague still in the police, necessary to get various bits of information that a civilian can't access). Like John Dickson Carr's own work, the reader wonders at the end (a) whether anyone could have got away with anything as complicated as this in real life, and (b) whether all the loose ends have actually been explained, but I liked this book a lot.

Dave Gurney is a retired New York detective trying to lead a peaceful life in a quiet community in upstate New York. However his reputation as somewhat of a supercop won't leave him alone and for the second time he is being approached to help out on an unsolved murder. A blushing bride has been hacked to death on her wedding day and the finger of blame is being pointed at the Mexican gardener by locals and police alike. But said Mexican has fled the scene leaving behind no trace at all and stopping the investigation in its tracks. And this is where Gurney comes in, approached by the wealthy mother of the bride who is desperate for answers, she pleads with Dave to look in to the case and open up some new lines of inquiry. Reluctantly Gurney agrees to two weeks but it soon enough becomes apparent that there is a lot more to this case than meets the eye.This is the second in Verdon's series featuring the retired detective and like its predecessor  Think of a Number  it's very well written. Although not as clever as it wants to be, this is a good enough book. As other reviewers have stated this is a thriller with a bit of depth, despite the punchy front cover it's a slow moving story, one that without such well written characters I would have become bored with quite soon. Worth a read if you like a thriller you have to think about but read  Think of a Number  first to really get to grips with the characters. Think of a NumberThink of a Number

Yes, very good I thought. His personal circumstances (surely separation / divorce can't be long off?) and his former career lend themselves to an interesting and entertaining search for an unusual killer.As last time, the story is quite involved / unrealistic, though I found this more believable than the first ('Think of a Number'), which - with the poems that the killer sent, and the extra-ordinary complexity - was just too much.Verdon has clearly learned from his first effort, improved the plotting, and produced a very good read.I'm about to start his third (and most recent), and just hope that the denouement of this one is not our hero face to face with the killer, in a confined space, where the killer has got the drop on him! That's been the case in the first two stories - so I hope that there is a touch of variety in the next!Recommended.

Having recently read the first novel in this series I couldn't wait to see if the second was as good, I was not disappointed. Verdon has continued to sympathetically develop his characters and I loved the way Jack Hardwick relationship unfolds, brilliant. The bad guys are delightfully sinister and evil.Once again the murders are frequent and gory, without dwelling on the gore. The plot is wonderfully complex with those satisfying moments when Gurney pieces the puzzle together and another door opens. Thoroughly enjoyed this novel, now off to download number three in series. Highly recommended.