The Hidden Eyes

Set in the New York City metropolitan area in 1973, the book follows the suddenly changing (dramatically) life and times of forty-something Victor B. Smigelski. Divorced—and the father of two—he’d led a rather uneventful life in the rent-a-car game. When hard times hit, he is forced to go to work as a security guard. The job holds much more adventure than he could’ve imagined. Twice, he winds up in the hospital after three physical confrontations in three different venues. His fiancée, June Bodner, is grossly upset over the perilous direction his life has taken. She urges him to quit! He vows to comply. But, economics being what they were, he remains with the security company. Further, he winds up in a disgusting role: monitoring a TV camera—in the employees’ men’s room! In that capacity, he overhears two members of a radical group planning to bomb the Statue of Liberty and other celebrated sites in the area! It’s all part of an alliance with other like-minded groups. They would stage such terroristic events all across the nation! Smigelski’s problem: no one will believe him! He finally manages to convince Lt. Royce Dane of the police bomb squad! Dane pursues the case and arrests the eleven people involved in the group. Dane’s problem: he has not gotten a warrant! He has heard the group assembling bombs! He has burst into their lair! The arrests, of course, are thrown out! The book, then, depicts the various problems Dane and Smigelski have trying to cope with these subhumans! Dane doesn’t make it! June and her two children are blown up! Smigelski’s wife and children barely escape the same fate! He is confronted by four submachine gun–wielding members of the gang! How he manages to cope with these traumatic situations is of more than passing interest!

George was born in Detroit, Michigan, in the early 1930s and grew up during a time before the microwaved dinner was eaten in front of the TV, expired nuclear-powered spy satellites dropped back to earth, or violence from half the world away was posted on YouTube two seconds after it occurred. It was a time when boys played baseball in sandlots, girls played house, teenagers went to family-rated movies, families enjoyed the same radio programs, and nothing was better than a great mystery novel. How things changed! In what is laughingly referred to as his adult life, our boy has lived in Detroit, Central New Jersey, Western New York’s Niagara Frontier, and San Marcos, San Antonio, and Houston, in Texas. He is the proud papa of seven kids!