Blind Spot

Mercer, Judy

ISBN 10: 0671034243 ISBN 13: 9780671034245

Publisher: Atria, 2000

Synopsis

Troubled by a case of product tampering that has left her friend blind, L.A. journalist Ariel Gold teams up with her charming southern grandfather to investigate. By the author of Split Image.

About this title

Reviews

How people react to sudden, personal tragedy is the question at the center of Mercer's latest Ariel Gold page-turner, which opens when Ariel's friend and yoga teacher, Laya, is blinded by a bottle of eyedrops that contains a corrosive chemical. The incident sends Laya on a soul-searching mission and prompts Ariel, an L.A. television news correspondent, to search for answers about why Laya was maimed. What the police are treating as a product-tampering incident is actually tied to the beating death of a man later identified as James Price, a crime that Laya witnessed and did not report. She was seen by one of the killers, however. Meanwhile, Ariel has her own identity questions. An amnesiac with only a few years of memory, she is confused when a San Rafael woman named Dorothy writes her letters referring to old conversations and dropping ominous hints about a murderer. Is Dorothy a forgotten old friend or a piece of the Price murder puzzle? The plot lines converge when another witness to the Price murder is beaten to death, and Laya enrolls in the Marin Guide Dog Academy in San Rafael. Until this point in the story, the suspense is undercut by the leisurely pace, but once the tale tightens up, it moves swiftly to a tense and satisfying conclusion. Even so, the plot takes a back seat to Ariel, the book's winning element, who is desperate for memories of her dead twin sister, Jane, and slowly comes to terms with her lost past. In her, Mercer (Split Image; Double Take) has created a modern and believable heroine who finds herself in a strange world where every incident may reveal the secrets of her unknown personal history. When Ariel's vulnerability takes center stage, the novel acquires complexity and resonance, but when her amnesia becomes irrelevant, the novel's title could well refer to Mercer's lack of vision about what makes her main character unique and fascinating. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

More is less in this overblown fourth round of murder and maiming for amnesiac Los Angeles TV correspondent Ariel Gold (Split Image, 1998, etc.). A predawn phone call warns Ariel that her yoga teacher, Laya, has been blinded (permanently?) by maliciously tainted eyedrops, presumably to prevent her from identifying the two miscreants she saw beating a man to death in an alley shortly before. Back at her desk at TV newsmagazine Open File, after her initial struggle to get independent Laya to try psychotherapy and a cornea transplant, Ariel gets an even more disturbing message in a letter marked PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL. The writer, identifying herself only as Dorothy, worries about a mutual acquaintance whos killed once and may kill again; she begs Ariel to call her. Obviously Ariel is supposed to know both Dorothy and the suspected murderer, but her amnesia makes unearthing any memory of them an intolerably extended exercise as she questions her wealthy grandfather and networks with his socialite friends, dividing her time between L.A. and the Bay Area. Ariels silky doggedness in pursuing every lead, no matter how unpromising or unfruitful, suggests a police procedural with the long-suffering police replaced by a well-connected celebrity newscaster whos got resources. Its an incongruous mix, made insufferable by the inconsequentiality of most of the chitchat. Mercer, who seems less interested in wrapping up either case than in continuing the process of unfolding her heroines family romance, pads the package as if she were being paid by the word, and both plotlines end up fizzling out in a shower of anticlimactic sparks. Lacking the architectural skills to sustain an almost 500-page novel, Mercer takes a big step back into well-upholstered fluff that makes Mary Higgins Clark look like a master. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Back in her fourth outing, Ariel Gold is reconstructing her life, cleaned from her memory by a brutal attack. Then a friend is blinded by contaminated eye drops, and Ariel swings into action.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Mercer's two-word thrillers--Fast Forward (1995), Double Take (1997), Split Image (1998)--have developed a substantial following, thanks to believable characters, sound plotting, and, most of all, plenty of suspense. The characters and suspense remain pluses in her latest effort, but the effect is somewhat undermined by a weak plot. Series star Ariel Gold, a TV reporter still struggling with the amnesia she developed in the first book, is on the trail of the tainted eye drops responsible for blinding her friend Laya. Meanwhile, she tries to solve the mystery of a cryptic letter sent by a "friend" she can't remember. Mercer's attempt to tie these two disparate plotlines together falls flat, and a weak ending adds to the disappointment. This is the weakest entry in an otherwise strong series, but Ariel remains a compelling character, and most fans will want to keep up with her adventures. Jenny McLarin

Edition details

• Publisher: Atria
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0671034243
• ISBN 13: 9780671034245
• Binding: Unknown Binding
• Number of pages: 448