Cold Eye

by Giles Blunt

Nicholas Hood, a painter of imaginary murders in New York settings who has never sold a canvas, meets Andre Bellisle, who can forsee the deaths of others, and the two travel a deadly path toward success

Genres: Horror, Mystery, Crime, Canada, Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1989

About the author

Giles Blunt (born 1952 in Windsor, Ontario) is a Canadian novelist and screenwriter. His first novel, Cold Eye, was a psychological thriller set in the New York art world, which was made into the French movie Les Couleurs du diable (Allain Jessua, 1997).

He is also the author of the John Cardinal novels, set in the small town of Algonquin Bay, in Northern Ontario. Blunt grew up in North Bay, and Algonquin Bay is North Bay very thinly disguised — for example, Blunt retains the names of major streets and the two lakes (Trout Lake and Lake Nipissing) that the town sits between, the physical layout of the two places is the same, and he describes Algonquin Bay as being in the same geographical location as North Bay.

The first Cardinal story, Forty Words for Sorrow, won the British Crime Writers' Silver Dagger, and the second, The Delicate Storm, won the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award for best novel.

More recently he has written No Such Creature, a "road novel" set in the American southwest, and Breaking Lorca, which is set in a clandestine jail in El Salvador in the 1980s. His novels have been compared to the work of Ian Rankin and Cormac McCarthy.

Series:
* John Cardinal and Lise Delorme Mystery

Awards:
Arthur Ellis Award
◊ Best Novel (2004): The Delicate Storm
Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger
◊ 2001: Forty Words for Sorrow

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an intriguing story: a mixture of Dorian Grey meets Jekyll/Hyde meets Theodore Dreiser's American Tragedy. Nick Hood is a second rate artist with very depressing motifs in his paintings, suicides and killings. When he meets mysterious Mr Bellisle his star begins to rise. What does that ugly stranger to change his painting style? How does his stardom affect his marriage? What about his relationship to fellow artist and model Valerie Vale? This book was quite outstanding and extremely uncanny at some parts. Also the ending was quite disturbing. Can Nick be saved from evil? What a first novel by this author. Page turning, mysterious, full of horror and moral. It's dangerous if you want success at any price. The devil has many faces. A true highlight I can highly recommend!

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cold Eye started out strong, kept building, and then just kinda petered out. Our main protagonist, Nick, works as a painter in NYC, starving mostly except for the income his wife generates as a music teacher. Nick, approaching 35 yo and not having much to show for it teeters on depression. His main subject is death/murder; very dark, but he argues it reflects the real world. One day, however, Nick meets one ugly little man named Andre Bellisle and things start to change...

First off, Blunt makes Nick pretty hard to root for; the guy is basically an asshole, jealous of more successful painters and mentally abusive to his loving wife. Andre emerges as an enigmatic figure. Is he some sort of devil, offering Nick success for his soul? Seems that way although Blunt never defines old Andre. What Andre does, or what he purports to Nick he does, concerns seeing death before it happens. When Nick and Andre meet in a bar one night, Andre tells Nick that one fellow reveler will die very shortly; 30 minutes later the guy gets creamed by a car just in front of the bar.

Andre criticizes Nick's art for not being realistic or inspired, but also promises to show him the moment of death so he can enlighten his art. Andre tells Nick to meet him at an address just in time to witness a young guy take a leap of a building; another time Nick witnesses a man setting himself on fire. After these events, Nick paints like he is possessed and completes the paintings in record time. Further, these are clearly his best work to date and his agent/gallery owner loves it, but even better, starts selling his work.

The question that begs to be answered, however, concerns what Andre gets in return for helping Nick? Amazingly enough, the short, ugly man slowly transforms, becoming taller, and even handsome. Nick, on the other hand, becomes even more of an asshole, reaching sociopathic territory, blowing off his wife, his friends, but also more unhappy by the day. Was Blunt trying for a morality tale here? Not certain. Shortly after reaching star status, some events occur that change the trajectory of the plot, but I will stop here to avoid spoilers. After all the build up, and the strange, mysterious Andre, the novel fissiles out like a wet fart, providing no answers to all the questions raised. I enjoyed Blunt's prose (strangely enough, it is rather blunt 😎) and the build up, but really wanted much, much more from the denouement. 2.5 cold stars, rounding up for the first 150 pages.

[Satori Gregorakis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cleverly written by an acclaimed author, Giles Blunt. Although I’m not a fan of the macabre, I cannot fault the author who obviously had high standards of research both in the arts and death. Not my cuppa. I’m too squeamish.

[Ashley Mann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author and I have a long, long history. If you've read my reviews I often compare other books to his work in the Cardinal series, most notably Forty Words for Sorrow, because he set the bar and the example for me. His use of poetry in prose and narration astounded me and his grasp on characterization beguiled me. For a long time no one wrote like him, he inspired me to try and I sought more of his work. When I got my hands on a copy of his debut I had high expectations and it was very humbling to see he was not always the literary Titan I knew him as. The things I love about his works are here in Cold Eye but they're in their infancy. He has clearly yet to master his skills, had I read this first I don't know that I'd look for more from him, which is to be expected in a debut novel. Hood the main character is throughly unlikable and you find yourself only rooting for him so that he's more tolerable and his wife and friend, which are very likeable, are treated better. There's a compelling darkness to the story that you can't help but continue to see if there is any sort of light or redemption. As the pages turn however things become darker and grittier as Hood's character is further corrupted. There is a supernatural element involved that is never explained or explored beyond the surface but I think that adds to the tale. I did think it ran on long in the end but I kept hope there would be some payoff. There was some minimal glimmer that was not worth the work it took to get there. If you read this and haven't read Blunt's Cardinal series do yourself a favor and just find it. If you read this and have read and hopefully loved the Cardinal series know this has elements you are familiar but nothing astounding.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my personal favorites! A dark tale of a struggling artist who strikes a Faustian bargain with a mysterious man who promises him his heart’s desire.

[John Mccormick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giles Blunt is the author of the popular critically acclaimed 'Cardinal' series of books, this is his debut novel.
A somewhat disturbing grim quirky little somewhat supernatural story, but I enjoyed it for all that. A character driven story were all are very much either good or bad no one inbetween. Absorbing with some tension filled set piece moments and graphic violence.
Recommended
P.S. Can any of my fellow readers please explain why Giles Blunt books are so expensive?

[Sharif Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A modern Faustian psychological drama that deftly blends the New York art scene with the dark world of murder and unchecked ambition, COLD EYE adds a chilling touch of Dostoyevskian CRIME AND PUNISHMENT to the canvas of fable-story with startling prose that is itself a work of art.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe this is the first book written by author, and I did enjoy it, except for the ending. I liked the supernatural undertone throughout, but I wish it had ended with the arrest of the main character.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scary, I couldn't put it down.

Fell in love with this author years ago. COLD EYE reminded me why. I loved this book. Creepy,scary, it hit all the right spots. Highly recommended!!!

[Everett 7 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disturbing

For the first novel, it was very realistic and disturbing, particularly towards the ending. Later novels proved Giles to be one of my favourite authors.

[Geoffrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

underwhelming

[Race Bannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat predictable, and made me recall
some fairy tales from my youth, including
the horror. Nonetheless, I did not deduce
the ending but it was rather
lame in my opinion.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A graphic, hard to put down, bulldozer of a book. I have been reading the John Cardinal/Lise Delorme series by this author and have enjoyed them a lot. Thought this was another in the series. However, it turned out to be a deeply disturbing psychological thriller with supernatural elements and many references to The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Hood is an artist whose subject area is painting violence, especially murders. He's got a "cold eye," and paints from a distant perspective, often obscuring the murder in a corner a la Breugel. Along comes a horridly diseased looking dwarf (Belleisle) who offers to help Hood achieve the fame he believes he so richly deserves. But the more he gets what he thinks he wants, the unhappier he is, and the more Hood changes for the worse, while Belleisle only seems to grow more beautiful and refined.

I rarely enjoy books in which the main character is repellent. Often books with a repulsive main character have LOTS of repulsive characters, but this one didn't fit that mold. Many of the more peripheral characters, such as Susan (harpsichordist & Hood's wife), Leo (his studio partner), Vivian (model & aspiring artist), Sam Weigel (artist & drunk), even Lauzon (detective) all were well drawn, interesting, nice people that you wanted more of. Hood was pretty repellent right from the start, and yet, it was hard to look away from his relentless slide into chaotic, bloody hell. Maybe the reader WANTS Hood to get his comeuppance. Or maybe we've all known someone who seems to want to throw away every good thing they have with both hands and we just can't understand why. (But yes, I am a rubber-necker at car accidents.)

The mystery of just who or what Belleisle is -- how he brings Hood down -- WHY he does -- is never really explained. And the ending sequence with Hood on Death Row is so chilling, I could feel actual panic building as I read. I had to keep skipping my eyes to the bottom right hand page to calm myself. Be advised, this book contains very little pleasure or satisfaction, but it was a compulsive read.

[Leigh Mccullough]

This isn't really a review but a complaint, many UK or Canadian authors have the books published under a different title & worst some books aren't released at all. It makes it hard to follow someone like Mr Blunt.
I love this guy, his books are kind, thoughtful, complex, and damn good scary mystery/crime novels & I thought I owned all of his books.
But it looks like I missed this one.
It means searching the web @ different book stores & paying more because it is shipped overseas.
I have also bought the same book twice because the title was different.
I would love to find a book lover who is also a techie with free time on their hands who would run a website just for these issues. I know that there's links to authors homepage or book stores that break it down Abe helps as does Amazon but they are scattered around.
Did I just hear someone volunteer?
What a great site, thanks Good Reads

[Peter Sutton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I understand writing a distasteful novel that mirrors the distasteful acts of its main character, but I really didn't care for this book. I will say, I have never read any book which had a less sympathetic main character. While the implication is he is swayed in some way by "the devil", or at least responds to that part of his character which is susceptible to evil, the bottom line is he just comes across as an evil person who in the end gets his just dues. Do not recommend the book, I found it not particularly interesting except for the one note as outlined above.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thriller - Nicholas Hood, struggling Greenwich Village artist, is known for his paintings depicting murder. In a Faustian setting, he begins to consort with the mysterious Bellisle, who sends him to locations of impending deaths. As his paintings become more famous, he is drawn more into participating in the deaths.

[Victor Isaranucheep · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the worst books I've ever read. I have little to say about it other than avoid at all costs.