Book of the Week: John Verdon's Peter Pan Must Die

Retired homicide investigator Dave Gurney is bored in retirement. When a particularly puzzling crime appears, he is happy to drop the chores around his Catskill farm to enter the hunt. John Verdon’s fourth novel, “Peter Pan Must Die,” presents Gurney with what seems to be an impossible crime. Spurred on by Jack Hardwick, newly minted private investigator with whom Gurney has a prickly relationship, he is asked to look over the investigation and the subsequent trial that convicted Kay Spalter of killing her husband, Carl, a candidate for governor.

This case is the most perplexing novel Verdon has crafted to date. Although Gurney unravels the prosecution’s case almost immediately, to free Kay Spalter, he and Hardwick must find the true killer, a diminutive assassin who goes by the name of Peter Pan. And from him, the person who put the crime in motion. As Gurney tracks the contract killer’s moves and discovers other unsolved murders connected to the case, he places himself in the crosshairs of a remorseless murderer. The body count escalates and Gurney must not only set a trap but keep those nearest and dearest to him protected.

Readers who love a good whodunnit will be stunned as to who is really behind the murder of Carl Spalter.