A Blind Eye: A Novel - Softcover

Ford, G.M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380816229 ISBN 13: 9780380816224

Publisher: Avon, 2004

Synopsis

Beneath the rotting floorboards of an abandoned shed are human bones -- lots of them -- the last things a runaway rogue true-crime writer and his photojournalist ex-lover expected to find when they took shelter from a vicious Wisconsin blizzard. The grisly nightmare Frank Corso and Meg Dougherty have uncovered is nothing they can turn a blind eye to. The hideous slaughter of a family, undetected for fifteen years, must be avenged, as the hunt for a killer carries Corso halfway across the country, and through a chilling history of violence, terror, and bloodshed. But becoming an instrument of justice has made him a target of a rage-driven maniac -- and it's leading to ashocking truth hidden in an isolated place where death lives ... and where no law protects the innocent.

About this title

Review:

Frank Corso already survived a defrocking by The New York Times, following his alleged fabrication of a major crime story. Having since re-created himself as a true-crime writer, he can ill afford to have his credibility questioned again. So when, in G.M. Ford's A Blind Eye, he is subpoenaed to back up his book-selling boast about a Texas high-society murder, Corso disappears into the upper Midwest with his photographer (and former lover), Meg Dougherty--only to stumble onto one of the most horrific stories of his career.

Seeking shelter after an SUV accident in tiny, blizzard-racked Avalon, Wisconsin, Corso discovers the bones of Eldred Holmes and his sons shoved beneath an abandoned barn. Neighbors thought the family had moved away 15 years before; instead, its males had been murdered. Bargaining with Avalon's sheriff to stay free of the Texas authorities, Corso agrees to investigate these killings. The solution may lie with Eldred's wife, Sissy, an exotic seductress whose skeleton isn't among the pile, and whose deliberately obscured--and bloody--trail leads the author and Dougherty to a slain nun in Pennsylvania, a family-destroying fire among isolated hill folk in New York, and a desperate, deadly ambush in northern Michigan. It doesn't take the rangy Corso long to realize that he's dealing with a protean and controlling killer, immune to remorse.

Ford is adept at dribbling out the sort of revelations that build fictional suspense. He enhances that with a mordant wit, oddball secondary players, and a protagonist whose gruffness is infrequently but intriguingly undermined by a warmth born of loyalty. Yet A Blind Eye, for all of its gripping darkness, pales beside its predecessors, Fury and Black River. The super-secret information source to which Corso turns here whenever he loses his quarry's scent is a contrivance beneath Ford's talents. And the assassination of an Avalon deputy, for which Corso is held responsible, is a complication with little purpose and no satisfactions. Fortunately, this book's chilling close makes the whole thing go down easier. --J. Kingston Pierce

About the Author:

G.M. Ford is the author of six widely praised Frank Corso novels, Fury, Black River, A Blind Eye, Red Tide, No Man's Land, and Blown Away, as well as six highly acclaimed mysteries featuring Seattle private investigator Leo Waterman. A former creative writing teacher in western Washington, Ford lives in Oregon and is currently working on his next novel.

About this edition

• Publisher: Avon
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0380816229
• ISBN 13: 9780380816224
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368