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BLIND EYE
by John Morgan Wilson
St Martin's Minotaur, October 2003
288 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0312309198


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Benjamin Justice, a 45-year-old HIV positive disgraced ex-journalist is determined to deal with his past by writing his autobiography. Ben grew up in Buffalo and was raised a Catholic. His parish priest, Stuart Blackley, abused him when he was 12 and 13 years old, and tossed him aside when he reached 14. Justice feels he must confront Father Blackley.

He gets some information from the Buffalo Diocese that indicates Blackley molested several other children before being transferred to Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the priest died 11 years previously in a hiking accident, and the LA hierarchy refuses to release records that old. They have enough problems dealing with abuse of the previous 10 years.

Since the Los Angeles DA is trying to get the earlier records also, Alexandra Templeton, a 32-year-old reporter and friend, tells Ben she will write an article to that effect. Her fiancé, Joe Soto, a columnist for the same paper, will write a column of Blackley asking "What is the Diocese hiding?" As Templeton and Soto are leaving a restaurant one night after the material runs in the paper, Soto is run down by a grey four-wheel drive vehicle, and killed instantly. Alex and Ben try to trace the killer.

This is the fifth book in the Benjamin Justice series. I've not read the first four, but I didn't feel as though I had missed anything important. We learn that Justice lost the love of his life in 1990, to Aids. He fabricated a story about their relationship and his death which won him the Pulitzer prize. His distortions were discovered and he had to return the prize. He wanders the streets of West Hollywood, remembering better times.

Wilson's characters are alive and the denouement is shocking. I wouldn't mind having Templeton and Justice on my side. And his approach to the scandalous behavior of so many priests is refreshing. He shows both kinds . . . those who care and those who do not honor their vows. I read this book in one day. I haven't done that in a long time.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, December 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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