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    Wolf Lake: A Novel
    Wolf Lake: A Novel
    Wolf Lake: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    Wolf Lake: A Novel

    Written by John Verdon

    Narrated by Christopher Lane

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Could a nightmare be used as a murder weapon? That’s the provocative question confronting Gurney in the thrilling new installment in this series of international bestsellers. The former NYPD star homicide detective is called upon to solve a baffling puzzle: Four people who live in different parts of the country and who seem to have little in common, report having had the same dream—a terrifying nightmare involving a bloody dagger with a carved wolf’s head on the handle. All four are subsequently found with their wrists cut—apparent suicides—and the weapon used in each case was a wolf’s head dagger.

    Police zero in quickly on Richard Hammond, a controversial psychologist who conducts hypnotherapy sessions at a spooky old Adirondack inn called Wolf Lake Lodge. It seems that each of the victims had gone there to meet with Hammond shortly before turning up dead.

    Troubled by odd holes in the official approach to the case, Gurney begins his own investigation—an action that puts him in the crosshairs of not only an icy murderer and the local police but the darkest corner of the federal government. As ruthless as the blizzard trapping him in the sinister eeriness of Wolf Lake, Gurney’s enemies set out to keep him from the truth at any cost—including an all-out assault on the sanity of his beloved wife Madeleine.

    With his emotional resources strained to the breaking point, Gurney must throw himself into a deadly battle of wits with the most frightening opponent he has ever faced.

    Wolf Lake is the new work by a writer hailed by the New York Times as “masterly”—and it furthers the adventures of Dave Gurney, a detective reviewers have compared to Sherlock Holmes.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJul 12, 2016
    ISBN9781522636472
    Wolf Lake: A Novel
    Author

    John Verdon

    John Verdon is the author of the Dave Gurney series of thrillers, international bestsellers published in more than two dozen languages — Think of a Number, Shut Your Eyes Tight, Let the Devil Sleep, Peter Pan Must Die, and Wolf Lake. Before becoming a crime fiction writer, John had two previous careers — as an advertising creative director and a custom furniture maker. He currently lives with his wife Naomi in the rural mountains of upstate New York — raising chickens, tending the garden, mowing the fields, and devising the intricate plots of the Gurney novels.

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    Reviews for Wolf Lake

    4/5

    72 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Really well written. Great blend of spooky back story, mysterious setting, interesting characters and a smart detective and his sidekick to pull it all together.
    • 4/5
      I picked up the first book (Think of a Number) in John Verdon's Dave Gurney series back in 2010. I immediately liked the lead character and Verdon's plotting and writing. The fifth book - Wolf Lake - is newly released.Dave Gurney is a retired NYPD Homicide Investigator who had the highest solve rate in the NYPD's history when he left the department. He's retired but puzzles intrigue him and unsolved cases still call his name. He's often called on as a consultant.The latest case brought to his attention is a doozy. Four separate suicides with two connecting links. All four men, with no apparent connection, had the same nightmare before they died. And all four had sought the help of a prominent hypnotist before those nightmares. Could the hypnotherapist have actually influenced the men to kill themselves? The police seem to think so and have decided the man is guilty. The man's sister and old colleague Jack Hartwick think differently. Jack and his wife Madeleine stop by the remote lodge where the hypnotherapist is located on their way to their ski vacation. (That cover shot totally matches my mental image of the lodge.) And one day turns into......Dave Gurney is a great protagonist. He's a brilliant puzzle solver, calm and cool when faced with danger and absolutely driven to find answers. I quite like him. But...I like his enigmatic wife Madeleine even more. She's just as brilliant, but thinks differently than Dave, often making observations and suggestions that he doesn't see. She radiates a zen attitude, but this lodge is part of her past and brings up some hidden painful memories. The relationship between the two is a great part of why I enjoy this series so much. I find it really well written and believable. The two play well off each other. Hartwick fills the role of gruff and tough sidekick.Verdon's plotting is imaginative and intriguing. While I had my suspicions, I found I wasn't one hundred percent correct by the final pages. It's nice to be kept guessing.Any of Verdon's can be read as a stand alone, but mystery lovers will enjoy starting at the beginning.
    • 4/5
      3.5 Is it possible to hypnotize four different men, in different parts of the country, a dream of wolves and a dagger, that will cause them all to commit suicide? This is the case that Jack Hardwick brings to Dave Gurney, a case that will send he and his wife to the Wolf Lodge in the picaresque Adirondacks. A case that unbeknownst to Gurney will invoke some painful memories for his wife, bringing her back to the summers she spent there and the death of a young man.This series are one in a chain of what I call puzzle mysteries. They are not written in a style to provide pulse pounding suspense. I consider them something of a hybrid between the British police procedural, the assembling of clues by investigative tactics and talking to knowledgeable experts, and the US thriller genre. There is plenty of action, murder and mayhem but plenty of the former as well. Homophobia rears its ugly head, hypnotism and what it can and cannot accomplish, several others with hidden agendas and many who are not what they seem.This one, however, I found a bit cluttered, almost too much jammed into this story, things that set the case off into too many different directions. What is going on with his wife is another added distraction, though it was interesting, but I am not sure it was at all necessary. Still I enjoy reading this series very much, like the characters and realized when I started reading this, that somehow or another I skipped the last one. Will have to rectify that oversight, so I can stay up to date.
    • 5/5
      The plot plays out in the latest in the latest Dave Gurney thriller at Wolf Lake Lodge, in the remote Adirondacks. It is certainly not without a tantalizing history. Shortly after it became an inn in the early 1900s, wolves devoured its founder on the property. The entire setting screams gothic horror starting with the raving gray man carrying an axe and raving about a hawk that knows evil. The inn itself reinforces this concept with it’s creepy vestige standing in the shadow of two mountains with names that continue the theme…Devil’s Fang and Cemetery Ridge. We then have vague cell phone service…wolves howling, and an attic that holds a terrifying tableau…all adding to the festering scene. Add in that the crimes that Dave Gurney is there to investigate…while not letting the client know that he’s investigating…all take on a horrible, unbelievable life of their own. Four men…all from different parts of the country have allegedly committed suicide after being hypnotized by the same man…Richard Hammond…and have experienced the same nightmare involving the wolves. The story now takes on the resemblance of The Shinning on steroids. Madeline…Gurney’s wife that has accompanied him is greeted in the bathroom of the inn by the vision of a former lover of hers dead in the bathtub. Our hero, Dave Gurney keeps a steady hand and a cool head and begins the task of sorting out this giant mess that the local police have somehow managed to botch and answer the glaring question of the century…can a nightmare be used as a murder weapon? I loved the book. The entire idea was intriguing and held my interest from page 1. Lots of clever twists, plenty of good… though sometimes unusual characters, and a creepy, isolated old inn with a sordid past….what more could you ask for?