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BLIND EYE, A
by G. M. Ford
Avon Books, July 2003
304 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 038097875X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Frank Corso, a not entirely reputable true crime writer, was running from a warrant issued by a Texas grand jury who wants him to tell something he does not know. He took photographer Meg Dougherty to rural Minnesota on a wild-goose chase to get more material for the book he was writing. Stranded at OšHare Airport in Chicago by a snow storm, they rented a car to get to the nearest open airport in Madison, Wisconsin. As anyone who has lived through a Midwestern blizzard might expect, they didnšt get there. They crashed the car and somehow got to an abandoned farmhouse where Frank, ripping up the floor boards of a shed for fuel, finds three skeletons.

This sends the police, the FBI, and Frank and Meg off on a fascinating journey in search of what Frank calls a family serial killer. All he knows is her name when she lived in this small Wisconsin town, Sissy Warwick. Their search leads them to Pennsylvania and then to New Jersey to the Ramapo Mountains and an isolated inbred group of people called the White Jacksons. Meanwhile the police believe Frank killed a deputy sheriff in Wisconsin, the marshals still have the Texas warrant to execute, and the FBI just wants them out of the way.

This is a story filled with twists and turns and brilliant surprises. Ford is a master at plotting, at leading the reader down little byroads and then surprising her at the curves and turns. She canšt stop reading this book because the suspense is palpable and she has no idea what is going to happen next.

Frank Corso is a fascinating character. Discredited as a reporter in New York he came to Seattle and tried to live a private life but this proved impossible. The police have trouble believing him when they learn his background. He is wisecracking and unwilling to obey rules and regulations that he finds silly, but he has courage and his own sense of honor and most of all he wants to find the truth no matter how many roadblocks people put in his way. And he succeeds.

Meg is also a believable well-delineated character. The others are not, nor need they be. The criminals are elusive and shadowy and the police are simply police. There are two little girls whom we meet in between chapters every so often and, while we do not know who they are at first, we can feel great sympathy for the situation they are in.

Considering that Ford has moved the setting from his home base of Seattle, he does a very fine job with place. The snowy roads of Illinois and Wisconsin made me shiver in spite of the heat. The former industrial powerhouse of Allentown, Pennsylvania, now abandoned to those who canšt afford to go anywhere else, is clearly pictured. And the hills of New Jersey with the unusual remnants of a strange tribe is fascinating.

This was an excellent book. As always I enjoy Fordšs writing, his sense of humor, and his sheer ability to tell a great story.

Reviewed by Sally A. Fellows, August 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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