A review by wellingtonestatelibrary
Think of a Number by John Verdon

3.0

I don't consider myself to be a nitpicky critic when it comes to books; I either like them, love them or hate them and then try to figure out why. I must have liked this book because I read it in a day and a half. As opposed to other reviewers on here, I did not guess the mystery itself until just a few pages before Dave Gurney, so that in itself kept me turning the pages. I had some major problems with the characters themselves, however, which just got worse as the book went on. It's funny, because while reading this book I kept catching myself doing something I've never done before. I kept wondering, "How does the author want me to feel about...this character...and that character?" It's hard to explain but I somehow felt that, between Dave and Madeleine, he wanted me to like one over the other but I kept wavering as to which way I was supposed to feel. Truly, by the end of the book I wished both of them would get back to marriage counseling pronto, because they both have some major personal issues to deal with. Dave seems to think he is the smartest person in the room while at the same time wanting them all to think that he is humble. He doesn't have much nice to say about anyone, especially his fellow team-mates on the task force. Not one. You would think that he could have found one officer that he could relate to, but no, they were all bumbling idiots in his perception. He couldn't trust anyone else to do the work; he had to run himself ragged driving all over the countryside to solve the murder himself. This, and his vaguely inappropriate relationship with his art instructor, is what has his wife so worked up. So, since I clearly have this poor regard for Dave Gurney, you would think that I would be sympathetic to his wife right? No. I think that she was supposed to come across as lonely and long-suffering but all I saw was a passive aggressive woman who thinks she is better than her husband and uses every means available to make sure that he knows it.

Having said all of that, I still think the book was a good first effort and am going to continue reading the series in the hopes that the author had some kind of purpose in distracting us from the mystery itself with this muddled marriage. The author hinted at some sort of epiphany of Dave's towards the end of the book and I hope that he carries on with this in the following books. Perhaps if Dave calms himself down then Madeleine will lighten up. We shall see.