Book Review: Dark Eye

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Dark Eye     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
William Bernhardt
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Woman Main Character   Police Procedural   Thriller   Serial Killer
Ballantine, Jan 2005, $125.95, 480 pp.

Alcoholic Susan Pulaski loses her job as a police psychologist for the Las Vegas Police Department because she rarely stays sober. However, she has no time to drown her latest sorrow with more drink because her former boss LVPD Chief O'Bannon, who fired her, needs her skills as a profiler to stop a clever serial killer who murders young girls and leaves behind a cryptic note.

Susan asks her ex-boss’ twenty-something son Darby, an idiot savant whose expertise happens to be encrypted messages to break the code. They soon find an Edgar Allen Poe cryptic, but have no idea what that means in the deadly modern context. Unbeknownst to Susan she plays a beleaguered heroine in a Poe work as the killer has a role for her that will end in her death if he directs the show.

Though exciting, DARK EYE seems to come out of the ingenious insane and inane serial killer 101 mould where a brilliant murderer leaves clues to play cat and mouse with the cops (the Son of Sam syndrome in literature). Still Susan is a delightful protagonist struggling with an alcohol dependency; Darby is perhaps the most interesting character though why didn’t pop turn to him to solve the puzzle? Though fans of serial killer police chess matches will enjoy the action-packed and exhilarating tale due to its cat and mouse demeanor, William Bernhardt readers will mostly sing Ben.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner

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