Let The Devil Sleep has a rather simple plot. It does have a number of suspects, enough red herrings and lots of unanswered questions but the central plot, the reopening of the Good Shepherd case, feels rather thin. So the novel seems to be spinning its wheels at many places as Gurney tries to look at the case from a new angle and revisits the main aspects. The other problem is that Gurney himself doesn’t seem to do much. He raises the right questions as he begins digging into the 10-year-old murders but he never really finds the complete answers for them. And when he finally unmasks the murderer, it is by baiting him and getting him to reveal himself rather than any good detective work.

The novel does have a few interesting questions. The Good Shepherd murders themselves raise a number of questions about the killer’s actions and intentions as we follow Gurney’s thought process. And the happenings at Kim’s apartment are creepy and lead to their own set of questions about who is behind them and how they are doing them. But unlike Verdon’s previous 2 books, these puzzles are not total head-scratchers and the broad answers, even if not all the specifics, can be guessed before the end.

But its the resolution that’s the most disappointing part of the novel. The ending of the Good Shepherd murders track feels derivative and unoriginal since the killer’s MO resembles the plan in another popular mystery novel by a very famous author. The identity of the killer himself is a surprise but it doesn’t have a strong impact since there are too many suspects. There are a few good surprises that come out(the link to another crime is one) but they not enough to be a satisfactory payoff and the final pages feel rushed.

I will definitely be looking forward to Verdon’s next but the expectations will be somewhat muted.