Customer Reviews

Eye of the Beholder

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In "Eye of the Beholder," by David Ellis, a sadistic assailant murders and mutilates six young women (two students along with four runaways and prostitutes), each in a different manner. One of the victims is heiress Cassie Bentley, the spoiled daughter of influential and wealthy parents. Detective Joel Lighter is the investigator and the prosecutor is First Assistant County Attorney Paul Riley, who quickly realizes that this investigation could launch his career. Much to Riley's relief, the matter is quickly resolved when a part-time handyman, Terry Burgos, who had been stalking one of the victims, is arrested and confesses to the crime. Riley successfully argues for the death penalty and Burgos is executed eight years later.

Another eight years pass, and the Burgos trial is a distant memory. A reporter named Carolyn Pendry airs a documentary in which she argues that Burgos did not belong on Death Row in the first place; he was clearly psychotic and should have been treated in a facility for the criminally insane. A mysterious man watches Pendry's program, someone with a secret agenda and murderous impulses of his own. This individual embarks on a new killing spree that raises a disturbing question: Was the right person put to death?

Fifty-one year old Paul Riley has changed over the years. He now belongs to a large law firm and commands impressive fees for defending white collar criminals. His chief client is Harland Bentley, father of Cassie, one of the six women that Burgos allegedly killed. Riley is in love with the governor's daughter, Shelly Trotter, but she is reluctant to commit to a long-term relationship. Soon Paul starts receiving a series of cryptic notes that appear to have a connection to the Burgos murders. Even more horrifying, additional killings convince both the police and Riley that someone else may have had a hand in the crimes for which Terry took sole responsibility. Detectives Michael McDermott and Ricki Stoletti look into the latest crimes, and they reluctantly work with Riley (whom they don't trust), trying to locate a shadowy figure who kills silently and disappears without a trace.

David Ellis goes back and forth in time between 1989 and 2005. In addition, he frequently changes point of view between the first and third person. As the story drags on for almost four hundred pages, the plot becomes increasingly turgid and confusing. The resolution is so convoluted that it takes many pages of exposition to explain who did what to whom and why. Although "Eye of the Beholder" has its fair share of thrills and moments of suspense and sheer terror, Ellis tries to do too much. He populates his book with a host of underdeveloped characters, creates at least a half-dozen red herrings that go nowhere, and then scrambles to tie up all of his loose threads. What should have been an electrifying thriller is instead an irritating and jarring tale of a monumentally dysfunctional family, a homicidal maniac, and a lawyer caught up in a gothic drama that he doesn't begin to understand.

In the summer of 1989, six women were found in the basement near the maintenance lockers of Mansbury College. All the women were tortured and each died in a different manner ranging from strangulation to near decapitation. One of the victims, college student Ellie Danzinger had gotten a restraining order out against Terry Burgos, a part time handyman at the college. Whey they went to his home, they found enough evidence to convict him for five of the killings. The case of the sixth girl he killed Cassie Bentley, daughter to a mega-mogul billionaire was never tried to her father's influence. In 1996, Terry is killed but his last words, cryptic though they might be, were to the prosecutor Paul Riley: "I am not the only one".

In the present, a series of murders are linked to the killings in 1989. Paul Riley, now the head of mega powerful law firm, receives strange notes from the killer, has his finger prints on one of the victims and is forced into part of the new case with it evidence similar to the case that solidified his reputation. Looked upon from a fresh perspective with new information, Riley finds that the 1989 case didn't reveal all its secrets and someone wants them to stay buried.

This is one of the most energizing and emotionally satisfying police procedurals of the year. David Ellis makes his characters come alive so that readers will either root for or detest them; no one will remain detached. There is plenty of action and the changing from the eighties to the nineties to the present is smooth so that the readers are never jarred out of the storyline. The protagonist as he ages from a man who sees life as black and white to a person who realize there are subtle greys has to make some decisions as he confronts his greatest success with the realization it is also his greatest failure.

Harriet Klausner

This was a really good read it sucked you in from the first page.

the story was told in such a way you kept thinking you had solved it

then there was another twist.

have to say housework suffered as I only took 2days to read it.

I will now be looking for other books by david ellis

Full disclosure requires me to begin my review of EYE OF THE BEHOLDER by mentioning that David Ellis and I share the same hometown of Springfield, Illinois. We also are both attorneys who work in some capacity for the State of Illinois. Similarities come to an abrupt halt at this point because, although I write about and review books, I only wish that I could produce mystery novels as ingenious and enjoyable as those that flow from the pen of this talented Springfield lawyer.

Ellis serves as legal counsel for the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. For those of you familiar with the Machiavellian nature of Illinois politics, it may be that experience that provides Ellis with the imaginative and enthralling characters and plots that are produced in his novels. Several of Ellis's works are comparable to those of John Grisham in that they only tangentially relate to the legal profession. Lawyers are central figures in the mystery, but they don't spend a great deal of time in courtrooms. I make this observation not as criticism but simply to let readers know that EYE OF THE BEHOLDER is about lawyers and the law, though it's much more mystery than courtroom fiction.

The novel opens with protagonist Paul Riley in the situation that most young prosecutors dream of but rarely experience. Riley is in charge of the investigation and ultimate prosecution of Terry Burgos, a serial killer whose macabre crimes are the type that make both media headlines and legal careers. For Riley, the Burgos prosecution does just that, but on the night that he's executed, Burgos whispers last words to Riley that will haunt the prosecutor.

The story jumps ahead over a decade, and Riley is now a successful attorney with powerful clients and political connections. With a nod of his head, Riley can become a federal judge. But new crimes eerily similar to the Burgos killings threaten all of his success. Because of his intimate knowledge of the Burgos case, Riley is called upon to assist authorities in the new investigation. In that task, Riley has to go back to his 15-year-old investigation and second-guess decisions made in the original prosecution. Riley must ask himself the question that prosecutors fear most: "Did I send an innocent man to his execution?"

In the Burgos prosecution, Riley kept some secrets --- perhaps to achieve justice, but perhaps also to assuage some politically powerful people. Now, years later, those secrets begin to unravel and the onion-like peeling away of them threatens people Riley knows both personally and professionally. As the novel unfolds and secrets are exposed, readers will find many surprising twists and turns as authorities rush to solve a mystery that reaches to the highest levels of power. Ellis creates intricate plots but gives readers ample opportunity to solve the mysteries. After reading his newest book, you may want to go back and re-read sections to find some clues that you may have missed along the way.

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER is an entertaining book that will have you thinking about some significant legal issues, from the death penalty to the notion of equal justice. It should be near the very top of your summer reading list.

--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman

Seems like the author built up a lot of intrigue, didn't know how to resolve it neatly. So multiple psychotic characters are invoked. I always feel disappointed when authors create inconsistent situations & try to explain it all by the action of lunatics. It's a copout. There's one interesting twist for which I give the book 2 stars but overall, all that suspense fizzles out with the utterly unconvincing ending.

It is a shame when lawyers, especially lawyers with great reputations, write legal thrillers that are wrong on the law, or, at the very least, stretch verity so the brooks are much too broad for leaping (to paraphrase Housman). Sadly, although it is a good read and a page-turner, the ending of Eye of the Beholder is both contrived and maudlin.

I will not map the broad brooks, chasms really, because that would give away part of the plot. I can, however, quote the protagonist's musing about the insanity defense, which he gets wrong (clearly ignorant or oblivious to its history): He says that a person whom he prosecuted for murder "didn't fit the definition of insanity, as that definition was written by a bunch of politicians who didn't want to appear soft on crime."

Actually, the definition to which he refers was formulated by academics and those who wanted to give courts greater leeway to excuse persons committing serious crimes than the rule it replaced. The academics who drafted the insanity defense Ellis bemoans were hardly hard on crime--au contraire, they were in the forefront to devise many ways criminals could escape responsibility for their crimes. And their insanity-defense rule did precisely that.

I give Eye of the Beholder only two stars because although it held my interest until it veered at the end, it could and should have been much much better, and much more concurrent with reality. Other lawyer/writers are able to carry it off (William Lashner's superb Victor Carl series is a sterling example). Too bad David Ellis cannot.

I have to say that nothing about this book worked for me, so why I finished it is a mystery. The plot was not exciting, the writing was just okay, the tangled threads of the plot ended up in a jumble, and the ending was not satisfying. This author has written better books.

This is the first book that I have read by the author. I find it to be an excellent read. It keeps you working until the end about who and what and how. I will read more books by this author.

J. Robert Ewbank, author of "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"

Great aspect of this book is that the whole book is written from the bad guy point of view. Very unusual and a nice twist.

This is by far the best David Ellis book I have read and really could not put it down.

In 1989, prosecutor Paul Riley put away Terry Burgos for murdering six women, including billionaire heiress Cassie Bentley and her roommate, Ellie Danzinger. It was an open and shut case, with Burgos confessing early on, and a mound of incriminating evidence at his home. Cassie was not included in the charges, the reason being if somehow Burgos got off, then there was still one last murder to hang on him. Also, the Bentley family requested privacy, and didn't want Cassie's name or past come out in trial.

15 years later, there's another serial killer, and he seems to have taken a page out of Burgos' book, killing according to song lyrics. This time the police know how the next victim will die, but they have no clue who the next victims are. Riley knows that the cases are connected, and both a sense of duty to find the truth, and the haunting feeling that he might have put away the wrong person drive him to find the truth.

The plot is complex and has many twists and turns. However, unlike many mysteries and thrillers, this one is not confusing; Ellis is great at laying everything out in due time and leading the reader correctly. The novel was filled with suspense and was definitely a page turner. I liked how Ellis frequently bounced between 1989 and 2005; it helped me understand the plot much better, and made the read all that more interesting. I still haven't figured out if I like the ending or not, but I can say for use that I did not see it coming. Overall, I thought this an excellent novel and I can't wait to read the rest of Ellis' books.