Wolf Lake

Starred review from May 2, 2016
Fans of classic fair play who appreciate well-developed characterizations in their whodunits will relish Verdon’s richly atmospheric fifth mystery featuring retired NYPD homicide detective Dave Gurney (after 2014’s Peter Pan Must Die). A former police colleague brings Dave back into his previous life by involving him in a bizarre and baffling case. Ethan Gall, the owner of Wolf Lake Lodge in the Adirondacks, hired renowned psychologist Richard Hammond to provide on-site hypnotic therapy at the lodge. After four of Hammond’s patients, including Gall, committed suicide, the doctor was dubbed the “death whisperer” by the press and suspected, by the public and the New York state police, of talking patients into killing themselves. Despite the seriousness of his situation, Hammond refuses to hire an attorney or seek any other help. His sister, Jane, however, asks Dave to work for her to clear her brother’s name. To the detective’s surprise, his wife, Madeleine, who has been ambivalent about his continuing to sleuth, agrees that he should take on the case. Verdon couples the continued nuanced exploration of Dave and Madeleine’s relationship with one of his most sophisticated solutions yet. Agent: Molly Friedrich, Friedrich Agency.

May 1, 2016
Standard isolated-inn thriller with notes of horror and hints of the supernatural. The biggest and ultimately unsolved mystery at the core of the latest in Verdon's Dave Gurney thriller series is why anyone would pay $1,000 a night to stay at Wolf Lake Lodge, where the plot plays out. Shortly after this place in the remote Adirondacks became an inn in the early 1900s, wolves devoured its founder on the property. Raving about a hawk that knows evil, a grizzled man with an ax now roams the grounds, which stand in the shadow of two mountains, Devil's Fang and Cemetery Ridge. Cellphones fade, wolves howl, and up in the attic there's a terrifying tableau. All this, plus the threat of "a real road closer" storm, cannot deter Gurney, a retired NYPD homicide detective, from pursuing a case at the lodge. No wonder. The crimes are unusual indeed: four men, from different parts of the country, allegedly committed suicide after experiencing the same harrowing nightmare involving the ubiquitous wolves. (As one character acknowledges, the idea of a shared nightmare also occurs in Richard Condon's thriller The Manchurian Candidate). Is it possible that the hypnotist who treated all four men is responsible for planting the dreams? Or were the deaths really murders disguised as suicides? As his case quickly expands, Gurney uncovers clues that suggest the deaths may be linked to terrorist activity. It also turns out that three of the victims were virulent homophobes who, years ago, had bullied a gay youth at summer camp. As hallways creak and sleet lashes at the windows, Gurney's wife, who accompanies him on the trip, shrieks when she sees in the hotel bathtub the body of a young love who years ago drowned in the lake. At the center of the natural and emotional turbulence, Gurney remains steady, methodical, and scientific as he pulls together the case's disparate strands.The case is a bit cluttered, Gurney's drawn-out ratiocinations slow the pace at the end, and Verdon's straightforward prose doesn't effectively evoke the tale's dark setting. Still, the notion of shared nightmares holds the reader start to finish.

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