Crown Publishing Group

Title: Shut Your Eyes Tight (Dave Gurney, No. 2)
Author: John Verdon
Publisher: Crown
Publication Date: July 12, 2011
Hardcover: 528 pages
ISBN: 978-0307717894
Genre: Fiction, Thriller

From the Publisher:

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.

My Review:

Shut Your Eyes Tight by John Verdon is a captivating thriller and the second book in the Detective Dave Gurney series, a series beginning with Verdon’s debut Think of a Number. In Shut Your Eyes Tight, Gurney is once again called out of retirement to investigate a heinous beheading and readers will delight in the superior style that Verdon has adopted in this most compelling series of thrillers. Verdon masterfully crafted this mystery thrill ride where Gurney finds evil far beyond his wildest expectations as he investigates the gruesome and bizarre death of a new bride in the middle of her wedding reception. Verdon has cleverly crafted an exceptional thriller while exemplifying beautiful literary characteristics in his use of vivid descriptions and details of the characters, their lives, and their surroundings. Shut Your Eyes Tight was a book that could have gone on forever and I would not complain, and I am glad to see he has continued in the tradition of excellence set out with the original Dave Gurney novel. Without reservation I recommend Shut Your Eyes Tight to anyone looking for an exceptionally thought out thriller.

About the Author:

JOHN VERDON has held several executive positions with Manhattan advertising firms, but like his protagonist, he recently relocated with his wife to rural upstate New York. Shut Your Eyes Tight is his second novel.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a complimentary ARC of Shut Your Eyes Tight by John Verdon from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.