What We're Reading

REVIEW
With the child-like entreaty of its title and the blood splash on the cover, this debut novel uses all the props of (excuse the pun) a by-the-numbers serial killer romp.

But this is a notch above the the rest. If only because the fractured and raw relationship between retired detective Dave Gurney and his wife is more tense than the crime itself.

A marriage semi-destroyed by the death of their young son is portrayed movingly, with the unspoken, unspeakable gulf gingerly traversed by a couple reaching for answers.

That is not to downplay the complexity of the main plot. The killer - who asks his victims to think of a number between one and a thousand and then reveals that very number in an envelope in their hands - is one for games.

He is also one for the clinical control of his crime scenes and he uses subtle misdirections, hidden clues and any other means to portray cops as dumb.

His nemesis Gurney loves the puzzles more than the solutions, so the two are perfectly pitted, one against the other, at a perfect time - a series of crimes that make no sense and an hollowed-out ex-cop looking for something to occupy his mind.

Inevitably, the story heads towards a familiar tense climax but, along the way, John Verdon, with rich prose and a teasing set of conundrums, truly creates something above the ordinary.