Customer Reviews

Evil eye

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Once again, Michael Slade devilishly creates a truly psychotic killer, and involves his heroes in derring do and treacherous situations. In this opus, Nick Craven finds himself accused of murdering his dear old Mom. Add to this a crazed killer who is targeting the good old Mounties themselves. As with all Slade books, expect lots of background on the Canadian mounties and in this book, the Zulu war. Additionally, expect the usual shocks and twists, as no one (not even our favorite recurring characters) is safe in a Slade book. Poor Nick Craven----from this book on, he certainly does have a lot going against him! The identity of this killer is resolved only on the last two pages, and it is a definite shocker. Slade's style is still mesmerizing; you get used to all his background research because eventually it does tie in to the plot of the book. Once again, a skillful entry in the Special X series!

I was happy to see Slade pick a new character for the main spotlight, this time around pushing Nick Craven forward as the center of attention. As always, several plotlines are blended amazingly well .... This time around the flashback scenes involve the Zulu Wars, and it's nice to see Slade can handle action on an epic scale as well as the one-on-one murder scenes. You might get an idea who/what the killer is ahead of time, but in the end the identity isn't even close to what you expect. All in all another fine Special X book, although it's not like this series has ever let me down.

Evil Eye is the fifth in Michael Slade's epic Special X series and from the first page it never stops moving.

The elite Special X division of the RCMP is the best group of psycho hunters in the world, but now a psycho is hunting them. He knows their methods, he knows their habits, he knows their weaknesses, and now he knows how to kill them all. Could the unthinkable be true? Could the thin red line be rotting from within? Who can the members of Special X trust if they can't trust each other?

Evil Eye takes you from the Great White North to the darkest heart of Africa in a desperate attempt to discover the secrets of Evil Eye before Special X itself becomes the final victim.

Without fail, Michael Slade crafts an ingenious story and brings all the characters to life in this mystery/thriller. His ability to continuously amaze, impress, confound, and horrify his readers secures Michael Slade position as the greatest mystery writer of our age.

This book is 400 pages long. And in those 400 pages, there is enough sheer chaos in this book for three novels of this length.

Slade sometimes gets a bit too verbose, but one thing you can always count on is that things will be nothing short of anarchy with his settings and plots. And while there were a few characters that really could have been left out of this book, I was absoulutely blown away by how cunning, manipulative, and relentless Evil Eye (the main villain) was in this book.

Michael Slade has an amazing gift as a writer - he makes you want to root for the bad guys because they're so darn cool. This is one of those books.

Michael Slade (the pen name of three authors for the criminally insane in Canada), delivers another intelligent novel and thrilling read. I have read everything else by Slade and constantly feel like I am being both educated and challenged. Slade writes about the Candian police and both Canadian and national history. He never talks "down" to the reader. These books are not for those who skim, because Slade does not waste words; everything is there for either a present or future purpose, or to tie something to a past action (in other words, Slade does not write anything merely to "throw the reader off"; he is too smart for that and gives the reader the same credit). Slade promises an intensely absorbing and smart novel, and has you turning not until the last page, but to the last word!

It's taken me almost two years of giddy anticipation for Slade to come out with another Special X book, and I guess it did more harm than good.

Zinc Chandler manages to survive the traumatic ending of Ripper to help Inspector Nick Craven figure out who is trying to frame him for murder. A killer with a penchant for dead Mounties is on the loose, and it's up to the Special X group to bring him in.

I liked this book for several reasons. First, not only did several of my favorite Slade characters return, but some of the more interesting survivors from Ripper made it back into the pages. I was especially happy to see Katt DeClerq, a smart-alecked teenager I could especially relate to, play a major role. Of course, what would a Slade book be without pages full of occult references, a little Mountie history and buckets of blood and guts.

One of my least favorite aspects might seem a little strange, but here goes. Evil Eye reads almost like a serial continuation of Ripper, picking up story-lines left dangling in the back of a Sladist's mind. In fact, several (too many!) pages of Ripper are reprinted in Evil Eye as an attempt to help readers 'catch up.' As a Sladist, I enjoyed the soap opera quality of the book. However, I try to read a book objectively, as if I know nothing about the people or the subject matter. Evil Eye, while a good book, should not be the first Slade title a person picks up: too many inside jokes and references to previous books.

Another of Slade's trademarks, the gut-twisting, surprise last-word-of-the-last-page ending left me feeling a little ripped off. While there was a nice twist, it didn't nearly warrant the build-up it got.

I can't trash a Slade book, but this really isn't quite up to par, I'm afraid.

Evil Eye was the first Michael Slade book I had ever read. I had never even heard of this author until I came across this book. My genre was pretty much Stephen King and John Saul. I could not put Evil Eye down...After reading this book I have been on a Michael Slade Marathon..Looking for all the past books to catch up. I would urge anyone who likes Mystery/Horror to find a copy of any of Michael Slades Books and get comfortable.

I found Michael Slade many years ago with his book, Ghoul. Now whenever Slade comes out with a new book, I pre-order it. When it arrives I sit down and usually read it in one or two sittings. This book did not disappoint me. Far from it.

This book is hard to follow, as it jumps around a lot in time - starting in Africa in 1879 and jumping forward to the 1990s in Vancouver, Canada. There are too many plot twists. I finished the book because I was bored and had nothing else to read, otherwise I'd have stopped about a third of the way through. By the end I didn't really care who the killer was, I was just glad the book was done. I haven't read other books by Michael Slade, and this one doesn't inspire me to seek out any others by him.

Man I'm 15 years old and read two terrific books before this one. When I got into it I was a little confused on who was who but once I figured it out IT ROCKED!! It takes a lot to get me to like a book and Slade has it!