Customer Reviews

Trick of Light

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

David Hunt, pen name of "Janek" novels creator William Bayer, has given us another dark tale of San Francisco photographer Kay Farrow. Farrow is grief-stricken by the hit-and-run death of her friend and mentor, Maddy Yamada. But she also wants to know what her mostly-homebound friend was doing in one of San Francisco's seedier neighborhoods in the middle of the night. Thus begins her quest which leads to a tony Mendocino gun club and also leads her forty years into her mentor's past.

As with all of William Bayer's novels, the writing is tight and the characterization is rich. Kay is a strong but caring woman. She has the ability to be violent and the means (she is an-almost black-belt in Akido and during the novel she learns combat-shooting) but to Bayer's credit he never uses this to advance the story.

I liked the book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to read a thoughtful, well-written thriller. It is way above the usual cliche-ridden mystery stories that seem to abound today. And, miracle of miracles, it doesn't even have a serial killer.

I loved "The Magician's Tale." I read it this summer in paperback and couldn't put it down. So I was thrilled when I learned that David Hunt had written a second novel featuring colorblind photographer, Kay Farrow. In fact, "Trick Of Light" is if anything better than the first book...and that's saying something! This time Kay tracks the death of her mentor, world-famous photojournalist Maddy Yamada, who appeared briefly in the earlier novel. Here, after Kay unravels Maddy's past, her life is explicated in all its magnificent strangeness and mystery. And here again Hunt captures the essence of my hometown, San Francisco, like no other novelist before. In both books you can literally feel the fog, smell the streets, delight in the shimmering Pacific Coast light. And as before Kay Farrow's noir vision of the city (for she is totally colorblind) distills it down to a special essence. A terrific tale beautifully told by a highly gifted writer. Suspense, mystery, memorable characters, a stunning tour de force. I can't recommend this book enough!

I think this is a briliant book, beautifully written, with a strong female protagonist who rings absolutely true to life. It is so superior to the standard run of mysteries that it's not funny! The story is compelling, the way it's developed is fascinating and the outcome is deliciously gratifying to the reader. Hunt has written in the voice of this character before in his terrific earlier book THE MAGICIAN'S TALE. Though the earlier book was permeated with a darker sexuality, this new Kay Farrow novel is perhaps more enticing. I found it almost Hitchcockian (if there is such a word!)and the San Francisco setting also reminded me of Hitchcock at his best (i.e. "VERTIGO"). A great read!

In David Hunt's newest thriller, we meet a cast of women who are invincibly prepared to meet any challenge that throws itself across the Bay area and into their path. Both our protaganist, Kay Farrow and her photojournalist mentor whose honor she endeavors to preserve are women of indestructible character and zeal. After the mysterious hit and run of Maddy Yamada, Farrow inherits her teacher's cameras only to discover suspect remnants of film left and undeveloped in one of Yamada's cartridges. Yamada is portrayed as the seminal photojournalist of her day stripping her subjects with her x-ray eyes and memorializing them with her camera which she weilds as thrifty as a loaded pistol. Seeing the negatives, Farrow becomes convinced that Yamada was once again seeking to reveal a truth, only this time,a dark and personal fear that long haunted the photographer. Equipped with black belt akido skills and literal x-ray vision (Farrow is stricken with color blindness but has the night vision of a fox), our guide rolls through the streets of San Francisco like a trolley car stopping at nothing to reveal the truth behind Yamada's death. The story is fast-paced and based on a unique motif (collectors of erotic guns) but the all-powerful women who dominate the landscape are somewhat unconvincing. Hunt throws in obsequious tender moments in an effort to reveal these wonderwomens' soft-sides but they read contrived. These are some tough broads and not the Chines mafia, a corrupt SFPD nor a murderous gun club will halt their vengeance. Overall, Hunt's ride is a good one as long as you hang on to the characters' coat-tails and not totheir hearts.

I bought "Trick of Light" several months after reading "The Magician's Tale" and after reading it find it to be a rarity -- a sequel that is as good or better than the original. The story line is very unique and in places somewhat erotic. I'm looking forward to David's (a pen name for someone I actually suspect is a woman) next effort

David Hunt has managed to write a first person female narrative in a way that probably few men can. He strikes just the right chord in Kay's poetic struggles with murder, love, identity, and most of all, the sense of wonder she finds looking through her camera lense. San Francisco itself plays a major role in this novel, and one can feel the vibrancy, as well as the lonliness, of this beautiful city. While there is a definate underlying tone of darkness, there is always a feeling of hope as well. By the end of this second novel in the series, one feels that they know Kay, and now want to continue following her in her quest for completeness. This is much more than a mystery novel, and its images and feelings will stay with you long after the book is over.

I didn't realize "Trick of Light" was the second book featuring heroine Kay Farrow. David Hunt's prose is certainly well-written, and as a male, his first person narrative in a woman's role is very good. However, at times, I found the "present tense" style a bit distracting and manipulative.
I found the novel a bit windy and long. There's a lot of superfluous narrative and descrption, and Kay's character vacillates between someone you like and someone who seems very self-oriented. Her love affair with Sasha, for instance..he obviously loves her a great deal, but she's content with just "using" him, as she doesn't feel the same towards him. She overcomes her fear of guns quite easily, too; and her quest to find out what happened to her mentor, Maddy, tends to get bogged down in lots of repetitive disclosures. The goings on in the apartment are never fully developed so that they seem frightening. When we learn that a gun (erotically decorated, no less) is at the heart of the murder, little is done to keep it suspenseful. There's also the continued dalliances of her boos, Josh, that takes the story into different areas without serving the main plot. All in all, a technically polished writer giving us a trite and not so interesting tale.

Erudite, I am not. But a reader, I am. This is good, real good. Don't want to spoil the mystery, but it is about a visual impared photographer who has to see between the black and white to find the truth. Stunning! Read it. Visualization come close to t.s. great fog

Hunter's mystery captures something uniquely menacing and lost about its setting, San Francisco. He obviously understands the city, as well as its twisted highbrow culture, politics and odd multicultural citizenry. I found the conclusion slightly predictable, but it was well worth the time.

Unlike most sequels, Trick of Light surpasses its predecessor. Through the eyes of the protagonist, a colour-blind photographer, the reader once more is given a unique view of the Bay Area and Marin County, but Kay has matured, and her perceptions are more profound and more centred than in Magician's Tale. There are subplots in this book; David Hunt again demonstrates his ability as an accomplished and always fascinating writer. There is, moreover, a spiritual strength to this book which was lacking somewhat in Magician's Tale. Through the discipline of aikido, which is portrayed in a lyrical manner by the author, Kay achieves a greater depth of self-awareness and being.