The Eye of the Beholder

by Marc Behm

Published to tie in with a remake of the film, featuring Ewan McGregor, a crime novel in which a failed detective travels up and down America on the trail of a murderer, who may (or may not) be his daughter, covering up her crimes in a vain attempt to relieve his guilt. From the author of AFRAID OF DEATH.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Noir, Thriller, Ebooks, Suspense

213 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Marc Behm was an American novelist, actor and screenwriter, who lived as an expatriate in France.

Behm developed a fascination for French culture while serving in the US army during World War II; later, he appeared as an actor on several French television programmes, before moving there permanently.

Reviews

[Linda Strong · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a kind of quirky book written around 20 years ago. When I say quirky, I mean unconventional or unusual.

It has all the things that I look for in a good read .... death, sex, crime, cops or private investigator. What I didn't find was an ounce of credibility or a solid story premise.

This particular investigator is known as The Eye. He's a bit on the strange side. His daughter has been missing for many years ...taken away by her mother. He has spent a lot of time and a lot of money but hasn't been able to locate her. He fantasizes about her ... is she a good person ... a hooker .... married with children ... his head is all over the place.

When hired to locate a wealthy family's son's girlfriend he tracks the son and the girlfriend to a justice of the peace and they get married. Continuing with tailing them, he watches in the dead of night as she kills him and gets rid of the body. He does nothing. Still following her, he sees her with another man, another trip to a chapel and then on to their honeymoon cabin. Yes ..she kills him and buries his body outside.

The Eye is so taken with this mysterious woman, he digs up the body and re-buries it in the woods. He doesn't want her caught. He knows she isn't his daughter ... but what if? And catching her is the last thing he wants.. he likes to watch. The closer he gets, the more dangerous his fantasy becomes.

I didn't particularly like any of the characters. The story didn't make any sense to me. And the ending was just plain strange. If you're looking for something different, you might like this ... or not.

(WIKIPEDIA) Marc Behm was an American novelist, actor and screenwriter, who lived as an expatriate in France. Behm wrote the script for The Beatles' Help! and the film Charade. His best and most well-known literary work is the surreal love story cum hard-boiled crime novel Eye of the Beholder. He died in 2007.

Many thanks to Dover Publications and Netgalley for the digital copy. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

[Diane Hernandez · Rating 1 out of 5]

A mysterious private investigator known only as the Eye falls for a woman he is hired to follow in the Eye of the Beholder.

Unfortunately, the woman is a serial killer. The Eye ignores this single flaw and even helps the woman by hiding a few bodies deeper so she won’t get caught.

Written in 1990 by an American living in France, this is a strange little book. There is no character development or even motives. There also is no plot other than what I mentioned above. Unfortunately, I can’t recommend Eye of the Beholder. 1 star.

Thanks to Dover Publications for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Tom Vater · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, this is one of the greatest love stories of all time. Stay away from the movie, I suggest, it is pretty awful, but this tale of a PI following a serial killer for 25 years across the US, watching her kill and not doing anything other than dreaming and drooling, is a real winner. Written by the guy who also wrote Help, the Beatles movie. Unlikely factoid but true. Excellent book.

[Jack Tripper]

Here's the cover of the 1981 Ballantine Books mass-market paperback.

[Ivana Books Are Magic · Rating 1 out of 5]

(This review might contain spoilers. I tried to avoid them but I can't promise anything.)

I read EYE OF THE BEHOLDER last night. I wish I didn't. I surely wouldn't have missed anything. Long story short, I didn't like this novel. I felt the writing was rather sloppy. The idea behind it isn't bad, but it is not well developed. The main characters in this one (only two) are so cliche it hurt. The lonely private eye and the cruel but fabulously beautiful black widow. The plot - wait, what plot? Is there even a plot? It is a story about a lady that kills to get money out of people and a guy that watches her do it and does nothing. I mean what else happens? If you decide to read it, it might seem different to you but in my opinion not much happens in this one.

We do learn some details from their (the killer's and the Eye's) past and that's it. So, they both (at some point in their lives) suffered loss of someone they cared about...I mean who didn't? That doesn't explain anything. Talk about no motive! In addition, there is no character development that I could see, no insight into their souls...not to mention that of their victims. Well, it is clear why their victims are there. I'm using 'their' on purpose since the guy (called only the Eye in this novel) clearly participates in the killing by virtue of not doing anything to stop them. For the record, I'm not protesting against the theme of the novel. I don't mind reading about a serial killer. I don't mind the genre. I actually like the crime/thriller genre. I'm voicing my dislike for the way the story was written. Two words: bad writing. The writing attempts to be poetical but fails miserably, at times it feels like a bad copy of On The Road.

If there was a plot in this one, I missed it out completely. Variation in murder is the only thing that could be said to be interesting- and that didn't interest me at all. I don't read crime/thrillers to read about the murders, I read them expecting to read about motives for murders. I read them because I want to know what makes people do things, basically I want (and expect) these kind of novels to contain a bit of psychology. I want to feel I learn something about human behaviour. If you take your average Agatha Christie novel and compare it with this one, you will see just how much more intelligent and meaningful it will feel in comparison. In comparison with this crazy Eye protagonist and his badly written stream of consciousness, any book will seem better. I won't comment the ending much to avoid spoilers, but I will say it's a shame that it didn't come earlier. The whole story seemed to drag terribly. Murder one, murder two, murder three, etc...I kept hoping that the black widow will get herself killed and that the private eye will stop being such a poor excuse for a human being.

The femme fatale is the basis of this novel really...and in my view her portrayal was horrible. We never learn exactly what makes her tick. We're clueless as to what makes her so attractive to men. I mean will your average Joe really marry a woman he just met and hand all his money to her just like that because.....Marc didn't feel the need to explain it. I won't even comment the no sex before marriage part- in what century are we here? The writer says that our femme fatale is exceptionally beautiful so that might explain a part of her attraction...At some point in the book, it is even revealed that she reads a lot. Yeah, men will stand in line to marry a girl they just met because she has read a lot of book and doesn't look bad. Seriously, on what planet? At the same time, it is stressed she is socially awkward, clumsy and can't keep a job. That is supposedly the excuse for her killing...or is it? She could have robbed all of those men without killing them. If money is what she is after, why not? It is never suggested that she enjoys killing. I mean I couldn't make any sense of this lady. There wasn't even an attempt of psychological profiling in her case. Just this idea that we should care about her because she is a serial killer. Alright, being a serial killer does make you different but I don't see how it makes one interesting. I know that some people see it differently, but I don't. I know there is a whole industry that feeds on human fascination with serial killers, but if you ask me that's just messed up. This whole assumption that a person is somehow exceptional if they kill people....yeah, that's pretty messed up.

There was only one interesting point in the whole novel (page 73 in the edition of this novel) and that is when the Eye interviews the killer's psychiatrist. But even that didn't make such sense. It raised my hopes up, but by the time the interview was over, it all sounded fake. Throughout the novel, there is occasional effort to make the serial killer (aka femme fatale) a bit more sympathetic but it wasn't very well written. There is this notion she is clinically insane (that is supposed to make us feel for her I guess) supported by the claim that she has 'visions', but then as she actually spears the life of some of her victims, it becomes possible she is not crazy at all, just cruel (and greedy). As I said, her portrayal is a mess. Hence, the book is a mess.

P.S. This novel was turned into a rather well known film. I remember how (years ago), I saw the trailer to that film and really looked forward to seeing it. I also remember how disappointed I was when I had seen the film. I considered it a waste of my time. I can conclude the same about this book.

[Jamie (Books and Ladders) · Rating 3 out of 5]

See this review and more on Books and Ladders!

This was weird and not in a fun way. I'm not sure this was worth even the $3.95 I paid for it on Audible. More thoughts soon.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A noir masterpiece even if it was published in 1980(and was made into a disappointinig movie).

The strangest, most heartbreaking detective you will ever want to meet who is in love with a black widow murderer who doesn't even know of his existence as he follows her all over the USA cleaning up after her murders and protecting her from the police. Just wonderfully creepy. I have read it three times, as well as his other great book, Queen of the Night.

Funny thing about Behm: He also wrote the screenplay for the Beatles movie Help!

[Bob · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another of those "hard-to-find cult classics" that should stay hard to find. I think I'm just tired of the genre, even if this one does add the twist of an obsessive detective who stalks and even participates in the femme fatale's serial murders.

[Solim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Speechless. Love this book. Emotional roller-coaster.

[Ian Mond]

What the fuck is this book?! No, but seriously. What. The. Fuck.

As I was reading Eye of the Beholder, it occurred to me that no publisher other than a small or micro-press would release this novel today. I could be wrong. Maybe the publishing industry is patiently waiting for the next “stalker”/“black widow” mash-up. Somehow, I don’t think so.

Behm puts us in the very troubled head of the Eye—obviously not his real name,* but I love that Behm goes with such an on-the-nose and ridiculous moniker—a private investigator working for Watchmen Inc.** He’s been put on ice by the company, having shot and killed the last person he was following. But then his boss hands the Eye a new assignment: follow the loafer son of the wealthy Mr and Mrs Hugo. Unemployed for ten months, Paul (that’s the son) has found himself a girlfriend, and the Hugos, who have never met the young lady, want to know more about her. Minolta in hand,*** the Eye tracks down Paul and the mysterious girlfriend and, through the camera’s lens, watches Paul withdraw eighteen thousand dollars from the bank, meet his striking girlfriend in the park (her name is Lucy), marry said girlfriend at City Hall, and head to Camden Lake for a honeymoon where beautiful Lucy murders Paul and buries his body.

The Eye is smitten. He starts to follow Lucy—not her real name—wherever she goes, watching as she, black-widow style, seduces and murders men (after draining whatever cash she can). In the Eye’s twisted mind, Joanna—he discovers that’s her real name—becomes his estranged daughter, whom he hasn’t seen since he divorced his wife more than a decade ago.

What we have here is the skeeviest, most deranged unrequited love story between a stalker and his psychopathic victim. The lengths the Eye will go to keep Joanna in frame are only matched by Joanna’s skill at luring wealthy men to their deaths. In a section of the novel that feels inspired by the character of De Lacey in Frankenstein, an exceedingly rich blind man shows Joanna true kindness.**** It nearly ends her black-widow days until things go tits up.

This is a propulsive, yet deeply disturbed novel that proves—if it still needed proving—that it doesn’t matter if your protagonist is unlikeable; they just have to be interesting. And the Eye and Joanna, royally fucked up though they are, are immensely interesting. But Marc Behm’s true genius is that, against all logic and narrative common sense, he sustains the bit until the last punch-in-the-gut page.

I understand that the film adaptation departs significantly from the novel (beyond the basic premise of the Eye—who is wrongfully given a name!—tracking Joanna). Not surprised. Even with the demise of the Hays Code in 1968, no one in Hollywood would be brave enough to make a faithful adaptation of this messed-up, one-of-a-kind, brilliant novel.*****

*Though I did imagine a world where his parents did name him Eye to match his surname: Ball.
**Also genius.
***The Minolta is owned by Watchmen Inc. There’s a running gag of the Eye’s boss, Baker, asking for the Minolta back—more worried about the expensive camera than the Eye’s state of mind.
****Yes, this whole section is a tad obvious. The one man she falls for is the one who isn’t drawn by her physical beauty or can “see” that she’s a monster. But, because most of the novel is mediated through the Eye (and his Minolta, until he loses it), it’s not sentimental at all.
*****I want to read more Marc Behm, but I feel they will all pale in comparison to this cracker of a novel.

[Marisol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Primera vez con este autor desconocido para mi, de las pocas historias del género de novela negra donde no hay misterio ni asesino que buscar.

En una historia original tanto en su estructura, como en el objetivo de la narración.

El detective es El ojo, un ser invisible que carga con una foto escolar de 15 niñas, una es su hija pero él no sabe cual es, esto nos habla de una relación que fracaso de tal manera, que la esposa y la hija desaparecieron y la ironía es que él nunca pudo encontrarlas.

El ojo recibe un encargo de vigilar a un junior, que anda con una novia que entra en la categoría de no aprobada por los padres.

Iniciando la vigilancia, el ojo ve al junior sacar mucho dinero, encontrarse con la novia, casarse y morir a manos de ella.

Inician los cuestionamientos, porque el ojo no detuvo a la criminal, porque no informo del crimen.

El ojo deja todo y se dedica a seguir los pasos de la chica, que son bastante movidos e incluyen más asesinatos, robos, cambios de identidad, amagos de cambio de vida, apuestas, juergas, y viajes, todo esto por años, tantos que el ojo envejece y ella también.

Al final uno se pregunta o reflexiona sobre la extraña fascinación del ojo por Joanna, tuvo algo que ver esa hija perdida, que no conoce pero con la que habla en sueños, la extraña razón de nunca tener un contacto real pero ese seguimiento que parece acrecentó la locura y la espiral de destrucción de Joanna.

Realmente fascinante como se logra ese vínculo entre dos seres por toda una vida, sin casi conocerse, porque Joanna intuye que alguien la sigue pero como nunca lo atrapa y se convence a sí misma que no es nadie, más bien un espíritu que la acecha, y el ojo tampoco hace mucho por contactarla, como si ese reconocimiento mutuo fuera a destruir el encanto.

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it a lot. It's the story of a detective who becomes obsessed with the black widow he's been investigating, to where he starts spying her and covering her tracks. However, this isn't the tale of voyeurism it appears to be: the characters are mostly stereotypical, but they aren't dead. They suffer and change under the passage of time, and the pressure of the strange game of cat and mouse they're playing, leading into the bitersweet final arc I liked so much.
Now, the execution isn't perfect. The author takes plenty of daring choices with varying degrees of success that make it a horrible novel to recommend to someone blindly; however, I still appreciate it for its originality and the interesting ways in which it twists the tropes of noir to tell the story it wants to tell.

[Martin Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a story about a private investigator who follows the destructive path of a female serial killer across the country over at least a decade if not longer; what's fascinating is this story is told with these characters almost entirely isolated from each other over the course of the entire novel.

Other readers have mentioned they find the characters "flat" and the writing uninspired; I think this is general misunderstanding. I wouldn't presume to know the author's mind, but in reading it, I didn't feel as though the author purposely wrote poorly. Simply because a reader doesn't enjoy the work doesn't mean it was a mistake on the part of the author. I think his style and voice was deliberately chosen; he makes several allusions to previous literary works, which indicate he is familiar with a number of classics, and more than capable of delivering a different style than what he chose.

Hamlet features prominently throughout the book. Just as Hamlet's father is an ever present ghost through the story, so is Maggie, the progratonist's long lost daughter. One could also draw the parallel that the story of Hamlet is a dramatic thriller of sorts with a touch of the supernatural thrown in -- much like this story. Allusions to astrology crop up in The Eye of the Beholder, with frequent horoscopes, in which we're led to wonder if it's mere coincidence, or there to give us the impression the very fates are at work with these characters and their lives.

At one point, the main protagonist known only as "the Eye" takes an alias of "Ed Dantes." The reference to The Count of Monte Cristo shouldn't be that much of a stretch to a reader familiar with Dumas. The Eye and Joanna Eris are constantly going through life under various guises with differing goals.

In addition, it's noteworthy that Joanna Eris's name is not an accident. The author must have known very well what he was doing when he chose it for this character. From the wikipedia entry, "Hansen makes the observation that the Trickster is nearly always a male figure." Of these characters, it would appear the lone female trickster is "Eris."

I enjoyed it; it should be understood this is a noir. It's a mistake for a reader to apply the general rules of more popular, commercial fiction to this oddling of a book. If potential readers enjoy books which stick to rigidly assigned gender roles for men and women, books that go out of their way to "please" the reader by engaging a style of language more commonplace and flowery, this is not the book for you.

However, if you enjoy stories off the beaten track, stories that attempt to shake off cliches and try something different and attempt to do so through a very stripped down, readable and matter-of-fact prose that makes no apologies for itself, this may be of interest, particularly for the noir enthusiast.

There's also a movie made in 1999, a remake from a 1980's French version featuring Isabelle Adjani; it differs from the book in several aspects. Many people did not particularly like it, but as I've already observed, if you don't like books telling unconventional stories about people pushing the boundaries of accepted cultural and social stereotypes, you probably won't like movies that do the same. However, if you find yourself in the other camp, it might be worthwhile to mention.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

review of
Marc Behm’s Eye of the Beholder
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - September 16, 2023

For a prolonged while I was reading Lee Server’s excellent Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers. That was so scholarly & so, to this reader, fairly & accurately written that I became newly interested in most of the writers presented that I didn’t already know. Marc Behm was a writer who I got interested in enuf to quickly order something by online. Hence, Eye of the Beholder.

&, yes, I liked this. It had a compelling basic plot premise: a detective, in the course of what seems to be a simple job, discovers a serial-killer woman. After murdering the man he’s been employed to watch over, instead of turning her in to the police he becomes fascinated by her & follows her from place-to-place, from murder-to-murder, learning her ways & never informing on her. Behm’s telling of this is excellent. Early on, already caught up in the paranoia, the detective fears that he’s been poisoned:

“God, he had to take a monstrous fucking leak! Well, all right, go ahead—nobody could see him, it was too dark. He unzipped with dead icicle fingers and squirted all over his trousers and shoes. Fuck all! What was he doing? Where was the motherfucking Minolta? The ice cream must have been poisoned! His cock was shriveling up. It vanished inside him! It was gone! Gone!”

“Two little girls came across the grass and hovered before him. He smiled at them. One of them picked up the camera, handed it to him. He took it, gurgled. Three old crones sitting on a bench on the other side of the green were gazing at him like a trio of basilisks. He could see them at least. But they could see him too. People looking at him!” - p 9

The detective doesn’t want people looking at him, his success depends on his ‘invisibility’, on his looking so unremarkable that even the killer that he’s shadowing doesn’t notice him. The detective witnesses the killer committing one crime after another, putting himself in the potential position of star witness.. w/o ever going there.

“The Porsche stopped in the middle of the Camden Bridge. Lucy stepped out of it, threw the valise into the river and then her wig. She took another wig from her purse, pulled it on. Now she was redhead.” - p 16

Evidence disposal. The detective, referred to as “The Eye”, is used by the author for inserting some pulp references.

“He remembered the stories in magazines he’d read faithfully every month when he was a boy, G-8 and His Battle Aces. The Mark of the Vulture. Fangs of the Sky Leopard. Flight from the Grave.. Ed Billings lived around the block. He read The Shadow.. Simonozitz, over on Second Street, bought Doc Savage.” - p 27

The killer starts to get wise that she’s being tailed.

“He saw her as he started down the stairs. He retreated silently into the upper hallway and climbed out a window. He jumped down into a backyard, ran across a lot into the adjacent street.

“She sat there until nine, watching the stairway. When the day man arrived, she had him ring his room. There was no answer.

“She left.

“He was on the platform of the Kings Highway station when she took the train back to Manhattan, but she didn’t see him.” - p 46

“The Eye went outside. The Porsche 927 was in a corner on the blind side of the parking area. He picked the lock of the trunk, lifted it open. A blanket covered the floor. He pulled it aside, revealing a Bowie knife in a rubber sheath, an army bayonet in a scabbard, a five-inch hunting knife, its point sticking in a cork, a moon knife, three king-sized switchblades, and a pair of brass knuckles. They were laid out in a neat row, like an army of butcher’s tools in Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory.

“Ken. Yes, he remembered him now. There was a shoe box, too; he opened it. It was filled with dozens of sachets, needles, a spoon, two syringes, and a jar of blue devils. He closed it, re-covered everything with a blanket.” - pp 88-89

Lucy & Ken have picked each other up. The trunk contents cited above are Ken’s, he’s a sadist. Lucy’s a serial killer. Neither knows about the other.

The Feds have finally started becoming wise to Lucy. The Eye, by now, is protecting her, covering up traces of her crimes when she’s too sloppy.

“The Rockport Post Office provided the Eye with her federal Wanted poster; he hadn’t realized just how hot she was. The composite ID portrait was an almost exact facsimile of her face. The nose strip was off, but the rest of her features were a perfect likeness. She was identified as Ella Dory AKA Mrs. Jerome Vight AKA Mary Linda Kane AKA Mrs. Rex Hollander AKA Ada Larkin. Ada Larkin! That really jolted him. It meant they’d traced her as far as Miami. How? The bastards” - p 140

Eventually, the hot young serial killer deteriorates.

“One afternoon she found a quarter on the sidewalk, and he finally understood.

“She was looking for money!

“On her next excursion he managed to drop a hundred-dollar bill on the pavement in front of her. When she saw it, she just couldn’t believe it. She stood transfixed for an instant, then snatched it up and ran off with it, escaping like a bank robber into the other end of town.

“Instead of spending it all on booze, as he thought she would, she had her hair cut and bought a new skirt, a blouse, and a pair of shoes.” - p 154

If you like crime fiction, as I do, & you haven’t read this yet, I definitely recommend adding it to yr ‘must-reads’.

[Spiderorchid · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea is great, the writing not so great. Especially the second half of the novel suffers from loss of momentum, and the characters are a bit flat. All in all entertaining but probably not a book I'd re-read. I recommend "Mortelle randonnée", the movie based on the book (with Michel Serrault and Isabelle Adjani) - same storyline, much better writing.

[Martin Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it, but it is an essentially plotless road trip in the company of two sociopaths (one of whom is also a serial killer). The flat, affectless style didn't pull me in to the tale, but it did at least make The Eye come to life and give some indication of his love for the woman he watches for years.

[Belda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought the book because I love the movie so. The book is so different, yet retains the "ambiance" I so loved in the movie. Well written, with great imagery.

[Neer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had there been a rating less than 1 star, I would have given that. Totally avoidable.

More here:

http://inkquilletc.blogspot.in/2014/1...

[Lesley]

I can usually read anything but just cant get into this one! Don't care enough to finish.

[Tono Barona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buen libro que te hará viajar por todo Estados Unidos de arriba a abajo y te mantendrá enganchado hasta la última página.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books operate on frequencies beyond conventional storytelling, and Marc Behm's "The Eye of the Beholder" is one of those rare works that trusts readers to feel what cannot be easily explained. This forgotten masterpiece achieves something truly special. It captures the hypnotic pull of esoteric magnetism through the journey of a private eye whose professional surveillance transforms into something far more primal and mysterious.

What begins as a straightforward tracking assignment becomes an exploration of instincts that exist outside rational explanation. Behm understands that some human drives tap into archetypal currents, territories where psychology meets something closer to magic. The protagonist's shift from tracker to guardian, from observer to protector, feels less like character development and more like witnessing someone fall under an ancient spell.

The genius of Behm's approach is how he renders this inexplicable compulsion without over-explaining it. The narrative moves with dreamlike logic, pulling readers into the same magnetic field that ensnares his characters. You don't just read about obsession, you feel yourself drawn into its orbit. The boundaries between hunter and hunted, watcher and watched, dissolve until you're no longer sure who is protecting whom, or from what.

This is a book that operates on multiple levels simultaneously: psychological thriller, meditation on identity, and something approaching modern mythology. Behm captures phenomena that most writers can't even name. Those moments when duty becomes devotion, when surveillance becomes sanctuary, when the professional becomes profoundly personal through forces that defy explanation.

The prose itself seems to pulse with that otherworldly magnetism, creating an atmosphere where the extraordinary feels inevitable rather than contrived. Behm has crafted a work that lingers long after the final page, not because it provides answers, but because it so perfectly articulates questions about the deeper currents that move through human experience.

“The Eye of the Beholder" stands as a testament to the power of mystery, not puzzle mystery, but the genuine mystery of why we're drawn to certain people, certain paths, certain destinies that seem to choose us as much as we choose them. This is essential reading for anyone who believes literature can capture the inexplicable forces that shape our deepest selves.

A haunting, hypnotic thriller that deserves rediscovery.

[Chris Browning · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to read this as a reasonably conventional pulp crime novel then you absolutely can, even though it stretches incredulity to do so. For me it’s blatantly clear that whatever happens to the Eye in that incident in the park at the end of chapter one is some sort of mental collapse which means he combines his target with his long missing daughter. You can even read it so that parts of it are literal, so the Eye obsessively follows a succession of women who he is determined to believe are his target or his daughter, who the target stands in for. As such it’s an incredibly rich book about a breakdown, a man whose obsessive desire to solve puzzles but inability to solve the simplest of all problems - where his daughter is - leads him to creating some sort of nightmarish version of reality. It most reminds me of the last half of the final episode of the third season of Twin Peaks, where Cooper travels into “the real world”. There’s a same sense of reality unravelling as a man obsessively searches for something without really knowing why. It’s an astonishing book, but good luck to anyone who tries to read it as a conventional crime novel because it’s about as unconventional as you can get

[Michael P. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writer of the Wikipedia entry for this book would have us believe it is a great piece of literature. HA!

This is one sick-ass book. Both the protagonist and antagonist are blatantly psycho: she has Daddy issues, hers died when she was eleven, and he has daughter issues, he lost his when she was young, leading him to become a kind of distant Daddy to her. Their dysfunction functions for many, many years during which she increases her score as a mass murderer and thief and he somehow manages to protect her without the her knowing that he exists. Though he sometimes walks all but beside her, she never makes a connection nor recognizes him when he finally introduces himself.

Give me a break! There are also a couple of big honking coincidences that no author should perpetrate against the public. The concept and plotting of this book are unforgivable, it is, however, written in a very readable style and that is why I finished it even as I rolled my eyes.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although there is a detective who calls himself "The Eye", this is not your usual mystery story. He becomes obsessed with the woman who kills her husbands or the men she picks up. This story is not long but it can seem to go on and on. It ends rather abruptly; but I wasn't expecting the ending.

[Michele Rios Petrelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good, but I preferred the screenplay over the book, yet appreciated the extraneous details outlined in this non-stop tension of murder, betrayal and obsession.

[Ash A · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an interesting story and strange writing style. Very Noir

[Paul Markham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe 4.5 stars. This is very good and entertaining throughout. A unique (to me) plot line and no indication of what the ending would be.

[Lector45 · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst books i ve ever read. Malísimo, incomprensible, pesado, un verdadero plomazo. Se pierde el hilo, no hay sentido en ninguna parte. Κάκιστο, χωρίς νόημα.

[Andrea Lillo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Si alguien encuentra el sentido de este libro está invitado a explicármelo porque yo no lo veo

[Bernard Convert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Une cavale interminable et improbable. Une filature tout aussi interminable et improbable. Ca demarrait pourtant bien.