John Verdon

Biography

John is a graduate of Regis High School in New York City and Fordham University. John Verdon's initial career was in the advertising industry in New York City, where he worked on the creative sides of several large agencies. After his retirement from advertising, he and his wife decided to leave the city and move to a rural area in the western foothills of the Catskill Mountains.

In his first pursuit after leaving the city he designed and built Shaker-style furniture—a career he pursued for the next ten years. He also became a fan of classic detective stories, in all their varieties from Conan Doyle to Ross Macdonald to Reginald Hill.

His wife, Naomi, inspired him to write his own mystery novel. Two years later he completed Think of a Number. Its subsequent success in the marketplace, as well as with critics, persuaded him to write a second novel, Shut Your Eyes Tight, featuring the same central characters. That was the beginning of a series of crime thrillers—also including Let the Devil Sleep and Peter Pan Must Die—featuring retired NYPD homicide detective, Dave Gurney. The books in the series have been translated into more than two dozen languages.

Dave Gurney

A lot of people have asked the union between the main character of his novels and him itself because of the similarities of both lifes. Verdon admits that some of the characteristics of Gurney came from his own history and personality. Both of them were born in the Bronx, graduated from the same college, both had high-pressure careers in the city, and both moved to rural areas completely different from what they were used to. Verdon states that some of Gurney's thoughts and feelings are the same as his, but adds that Gurney has specific concerns of his own, after all, he is a homicide detective. Gurney has the steeliness and confrontational ability for that kind of work, however, Verdon admits that he could never do what Gurney does in his novels.

Dave is a very impressive detective, however, he has serious personal problems. Because he’s primarily a "thinker", he often ignores the emotional impact of his behavior on others. He loves his wife, but he does not spend enough time with her and often he cannot even remember what she said or where she was going but, as can be seen in the novels, he never forgets a single detail of a crime scene. His tendency to prioritize his work above everything else puts a major strain on his personal relationships.

As the author describes him: "He loves his wife and son. But he's not very good with emotion. That's the part of him he’s least comfortable with. His feelings are almost always concealed under a shell of rational analysis. He doesn’t search overtly for love or acceptance or praise. He searches for clarity. Rational analysis is both the tool and the shield that he uses to deal with life."

Criticism

“If one read this novel with no knowledge of the writer’s background, one would guess that he is a retired policeman or prosecutor. It is quite hard to believe that Verdon has no personal knowledge of the bleak and challenging world that he writes about so expertly in this work."c

“Verdon is masterly at keeping Gurney a step ahead of the reader.” New York Times