White River Burning by John Verdon, ripped from today's headlines

Title: White River Burning, John Gurney #6
Author: John Verdon
Publication: Counterpoint, hardcover, 2018
Genre: Suspense

Setting: New York State

Description: Dave Gurney, a retired NYC detective, and his wife Madeleine moved to upstate New York to lead a simpler, safer life in a comfortable farmhouse.  Madeleine loves walks in the country, volunteering at a women’s center, and having an entire room for her crafts.  Dave, however, is at loose ends without a complex case and has previously been drawn into local investigations that have become very dangerous, causing conflict in their marriage.

Here, the local district attorney asks Dave to investigate the death of a white police officer, following the fatal shooting of a black motorist by a white policeman.  The racially polarized city is on edge, likely to erupt at any moment, and additional killings cannot be explained.  Although Dave realizes his involvement could be controversial, he does not anticipate that pushback will come from the law enforcement leaders who asked for his help, but once Dave is committed he wants to solve the case for the sake of the troubled community and affected victims, so will not give up.

My Impressions: This is a story straight out of the headlines: a nearby African-American community is enraged by a police shooting and Dave is called in to help when a white policeman is shot, leaving a text message that indicates there may be corruption in the police department.  Although Madeleine is initially opposed to Dave’s getting involved in such a volatile situation, he ignores her legitimate concerns (although his cases have nearly got them both killed in the past, let alone interfering with the quiet life in the country they had planned).  Dave has an unlikely friend, the crude, obnoxious Jack Hardwick, another retired detective, who has collaborated with Dave in the past and is a useful sounding board, but it is Dave who is able to take disparate evidence and untangle the crimes and motivation behind them.   

I remember coming across the PW review for Think of a Number, the first in the series, and being immediately intrigued.  Gurney and his wife are an intriguing couple – they definitely care about each other but ever since their child was killed by a passing car, their marriage has been strained.   As a homicide detective, Dave held the record for the number of cleared cases in the history of the NYC Police Department.  This means that whenever things go seriously wrong in upstate New York, the local law enforcement seeks his help, although they sometimes simultaneously resent his expertise and don’t trust him:

“The more he tells me how open and honest he’s being with me, the less I believe it.  So I guess I need to make a decision.”

Madeleine said nothing, just cocked her head and eyed him incredulously.

“You think my involvement is a bad idea?” he asked.

“A bad idea?  Is it a bad idea to let yourself be used in a murder investigation by a man you think is lying to you?  To put your life in the hands of a man you don’t trust?  My God, David, on what planet would that be considered a good idea?”

You can see her point but every series needs a gimmick to get the protagonist involved in the crime, so I think Dave needs to go on taking cases, however much it worries his wife and even when it seems like a very bad idea.   Small town life is more dangerous than you thought! Although there is some violence, this is a great series and this entry is one of the best. 

Links: Barnes & Noble – Amazon – Bookshop.org – Book Depository – WorldCat – IndieBound

Source: Library