I'm starting to read this at midnight. Will I never learn?

Solid 4 stars. Not as good as the previous three because I was able to put this one down.

Харесвам много Джон Вердън - едни от най-добрите криминални романи, които прочетох през последната година, бяха неговите. Харесва ми стилът му, чувството за умереност и тихо напрежение, атмосферата на романите му. Четейки обаче тази трета за мен негова книга, имах усещането за нещо твърде познато - известната доза предсказуемост в развитието и начина на изграждане на фабулата леко ме подразниха. Въпреки това книгата ми хареса - заради начина на писане, симпатичните герои, дълбочината, но и заради това, че финалът не бе предизвестен и ме изненада - в този момент всеки факт намери своето логично място и се напасна идеално в мозайката на романа.

When I finally picked up this book, it had been almost 2 years since I read the third book in the series, so I didn't really remember a lot and I wasn't really excited to read it. Since I wasn't expecting a lot, this book really surprised me and hooked me since the very beginning. I couldn't stop reading. I was so hooked that I even read during times when I don't usually read. I couldn't stop reading until I finished the book.

I liked the mystery way more than I thought I would like it by reading the summary. If I have to find something that I don't like about this book it's the fact that it all ends really fast (in my opinion) and that, in the end, the mystery isn't complicated at all.

Dave Gurney is back in this fourth installment of John Verdon's series.

It's been just a few months since Gurney helped solve the Good Shepherd case. Just a few months since his consulting led to Jack Hardwick's forced retirement from the NYSP. Jack has been left with something of an axe to grind over the whole thing and Gurney is well aware that he owes him. So when Jack approaches him with a new plan, Gurney has little choice but to go along.

Jack is set on starting up as a PI and he has his eye on a high profile case as his first. Kay Spalter was convicted of killing her husband, Carl, and is serving a life sentence. Jack has inside information proving negligence in the investigation and, with the help of a top-notch attorney and Gurney, plans to get the case overturned. As Gurney begins to investigate, it becomes clear that there are definite questions about Kay's guilt and the case against her. With mob links, corrupt cops, and a seriously dysfunctional family at the root of the case, Gurney has plenty of leads to look into. Strangely, though, one unidentified person keeps appearing at every turn. Is this the real killer? And if so what is the motive behind Carl Spalter's murder?

John Verdon is a master at creating whip quick puzzlers! Gurney, dubbed a super cop, has excellent observation skills - skills that fortunately don't come across as over the top. It's quite easy, as a reader, to follow his train of thought and the various details to his conclusions.

In Peter Pan Must Die, Jack is something of a roadblock. He's determined to prove negligence - a clear effort to enact some revenge on the very people who penalized him for bringing Gurney in on their former case. And yet, as Gurney begins to find clues suggesting Kay Spalter's innocence, Jack seems almost unwilling to listen. He's not out to prove her innocence, he's out to prove the guilt of the police!

I love the interactions and relationships between Gurney and the other characters. The tension between him and his wife over his continued involvement in investigations in spite of his retirement (which is actually quite accepting on her part). Gurney's feelings about Jack, "it's complicated" about sums it up. There's a definite care and attention in the development of the characters in this series that I appreciate as a fan.

I kind of feel like the Dave Gurney series is one that doesn't get as much attention as it deserves. I really do recommend checking it out, even if you dive in with this latest, as Verdon has created something here that rivals the best of the mystery/thriller genre!

This was my first of John Verdon's books to read so I was initially a little bit skeptical about it, having not previously read the other 3 Dave Gurney novels. I was, however, pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I love a good murder mystery and this one was enthralling. My only real complaint would be that the plot seemed very far fetched, but at the same time, I definitely didn't see the ending coming. I didn't feel like I was really missing out on anything by not having read the other three books, but there were some comments made throughout the novel that I believe alluded to the other books. Explanations about past events were there, and may have been redundant if I had read the others.

**I received this book from Blogging For Books, but my opinion is entirely my own.

I was so lucky, I won this book through Goodreads! I had been waiting forever for it to come out!
This was a really fun read. I couldn't figure out why David Spalter was such a difficult target, but when it was revealed at the end that he was not, in fact, the target, everything became so clear. It made perfect sense, but I didn't see it coming.
I do wish we could have known more about the Peter Pan character. He was such an important part of the story line, but pretty much all the information we learned about him was sort of through the grapevine. This makes sense, given that both Gurney and Hardwick are out of the official loop, but it would have been interesting to have a little more insight into what factors contributed to the existence of such an evil character.
Overall, a very fun read and I look forward to another Gurney novel!
(I would actually give this 3.5 stars.)

Mi segundo caso favorito. Disfruté leyéndolo