While reading White River Burning: A Dave Gurney Novel, by John Verdon, I came up with an amusing, and almost certainly alse idea of how this series of books came into existence. In my mind, Verdon is telling his agent about his latest book, a literary novel about a married couple that flees the rat race of New York City to start over again on a farm in the country. The book is about all their misadventures as hobby farmers, but also mines the nuances of their relationship. The agent says, “John, look, that sounds great, but no one will buy it. Can we make the guy into a detective who solves murder mysteries?”
Shirley, that never happened, but White River Burning has the feel of a literary novel, and Verdon definitely has the talent for it. It’s a murder mystery, but there’s a quality to the writing you don’t always find in such books.
This is the sixth in a series of books by Verdon featuring Dave Gurney, a retired star homicide detective from the NYPD. He’s living quietly in the country in upstate New York, tending to his chickens and wondering about architectural artifacts he’s found in the ruins of an old barn on his property.
Not far away, however, in a city with real American problems, there had been a police killing of an unarmed black man a year earlier, which led to racial rioting and protest by a group calling itself the Black Defense Alliance (BDA). Now, a white police officer has been shot dead by a sniper. The city is on the verge of boiling over as the police search for the cop killer.
The local district attorney approaches Gurney and asks for help investigating the shooting. Gurney, who has some experience with the man, is suspicious and reluctant to get involved, especially because the city’s police department and county sheriff’s investigators are already on the case. The DA pleads with him, so Gurney says he’ll think about it. Gurney’s wife, meanwhile, isn’t too pleased with the idea. She suggests he say no.
Gurney eventually says yes, partly because he’s a detective and he can’t help noticing a few anomalies about the case and the investigation. He’s also very turned off by the hyper ambitious police chief, who plans to run for Attorney General of New York State after he’s nailed this (black, we assume) cop killer—all while preening for attention on RAM News, a thinly disguised Fox News.
As the book unfolds, Verdon takes on some loaded subjects, including race relations, police brutality, conservative political perspectives on crime, corrupt, agenda-driven news channels, and the racial politics of the ultra-rich. In my experience, these are topics to be hinted at, not put front and center in a detective thriller. But, Verdon is up to the task, as a writer. He doesn’t come off as preachy, nor does it feel like he’s digressing to telegraph a message to the reader.
The plot of this book is highly complex and multi-layered. Everyone is hiding something. No one is as he seems. Verdon does a great job with this. You’re definitely left guessing, and the story holds up well enough that you’re not confused by what’s happening, which is a risk with such a complicated yarn in a long book. (This book over 400 pages of 10 point type… so at least 200,000 words.)
Gurney is a detective’s detective. He questions every “established fact” of the cases. He suspects people that no one else suspects. He refuses to accept every “slam dunk” prosecutorial step—and he’s right, of course, and right in ways that you won’t guess.
Still, this book is a bit long. Like, you reach a point in the story where you’ve had a huge denouement, the revelation of the real, surprise villain, and boy, it’s a doozy! And, then you realize you still have a hundred more pages to go. What? There are more reveals to come…
But, I recommend you keep reading. It’s worth it.