"EYE OF THE BEHOLDER" by David Ellis (A-)

"Eye of the Beholder" is a complex, gritty crime mystery that portrays a web of intrigue that stretches back fifteen years and then resurrects itself to wreak havoc on those who thought that the past would stay in the past and that the dead wouldn't be telling any secrets. The old dictum that truth will out is certainly in play here.

The innocence of the idyllic New England campus of Mansbury College was shattered in June of 1989 when the mutilated bodies of six women, two of them coeds, were found in the basement of the college auditorium.
The case was swiftly solved by a mountain of clues that implicated Terry Burgos, the handyman for the college. Then Burgos practically confessed to the crime. He evidenced just enough premeditation to show that he wasn't insane, and he was later executed after a lengthy appeals process.

Paul Riley, the first assistant county attorney and lead prosecutor, stayed with the case until its certain conclusion. Then he went into private practice and built up an elite law firm thanks to the sponsorship of billionaire Harlan Bentley, the father of one of the murdered Mansbury coeds. While Riley was certain that Burgos was guilty, there was always a gnawing doubt in the back of his mind that there was a missing piece to the puzzle.

Nothing happens for fifteen years, and then in 2005 a news reporter calls Riley out of the blue and asks for an interview about a pending case. That topic turns out to be a ruse, for she instead pumps him for information about the Burgos murders. It turns out that she is the daughter of the newswoman who had followed the case fifteen years before. Apparently someone has suggested to her that a seemingly unrelated 1989 break-in at a clinic might have been to cover up facts related to the Burgos case.

Something clicks somewhere and the horror begins anew with the body count rising from a new serial killer. More disturbing is the fact that the suggestive lyrics of a song that served as the inspiration for Burgos are being repeated once again. There is clearly a link between the two serial killers, and Paul Riley finds himself drawn into the thick of it. He knows more than anyone else does about Terry Burgos, but, more dangerously for him, some of the clues point to his personal involvement in the commission of these new crimes.

Like Scott Turow before him, David Ellis is another attorney from Illinois who is trying his hand, very successfully, it would seem, at a second career of writing crime novels. This is his fifth novel, and he has won the Edgar Award for one of his previous works.

Similar to several other authors that I have read recently, Ellis spends considerable time in this book delving into the mindset of the villain in an effort to make the enormity of his criminality appear all the more vivid and horrific. This is a very touchy area for an author to get into, for if it is too graphic, then reading the book will become an unpleasant task instead of an enjoyable treat. Suffice it to say that Ellis skates uncomfortably close to the boundary of good taste in his quest for a story.

However, the real weakness in this novel is with the lead character. Paul Riley is an attorney who gets caught up in the crime wave perpetrated by a serial killer who has many motives, one of them apparently being either to implicate him or to elicit his involvement. The mystery is, which?

Unfortunately, Riley's character as it is written and his day job as the head of an elite law firm doesn't lend itself to great interest in spite of the fascinating banter that he has with his long time secretary. More of their interaction would have been highly desirable to create additional interest, but we don't get it. Nor will Riley's current occupation easily place him in the path of future crime scenes. Unless I am gravely mistaken, this will be his sole outing as a lawyer with a sideline duty as a detective.

Riley's weakness as a lead character aside, there happens to be two other characters in this book who are fascinating in their own right. Unfortunately, even though Detectives McDermott and Stoletti are the lead police officers in the investigation, they are only minor players in the story. Nevertheless, they are finely crafted individuals who both have fully fleshed out characters and personalities, flaws and all. They are far more interesting to me than Riley, and my considered opinion is that they deserve a crime novel of their own. I hope that author David Ellis will soon grant my wish. 2007, G. Putnam's Sons, 394 pages.