Review: The Tarnished Eye

Minnesota author Judith Guest hasn't written a lot of fiction. Her first, ORDINARY PEOPLE, an acclaimed and best-selling debut, was transformed into a popular, award-winning motion picture. Now we have only her fourth. She may not write fast, but she certainly writes well.

THE TARNISHED EYE is variously described as a novel of suspense and it is that; as a fine police procedural, and it is that, too. It is also a finely conceived observation of human dynamics. It is not a long novel. Guest's spare, precise style lends itself to this kind of page-turning story with its careful, nuanced prose, multi-layered characters and intricate human dynamics. Yet a reader is not drawn to rush pell-mell through the action. Rather, one settles in, appreciating the language, the individual scenes, the thoughtful, careful way in which Guest hovers over the characters, examining, illuminating, observing even minor characters. "The driver of the yellow Link-belt Tractor is waiting on the road. 'What a bitch, gettin' up that hill!' he shouts. Stu turns to snap a picture of the rig." A few words that tell us a great deal about two minor players.

THE TARNISHED EYE has its roots in a still unsolved multiple-murder that took place in Michigan many years ago. The novel follows the sheriff of Blessed, Michigan, Hugh DeWitt, who is still struggling to cope with the death of his infant son three years earlier. His wife, Karen, who has coped better with the tragedy of SIDS, now struggles to support her husband and her marriage.

DeWitt is faced with a multiple homicide. An entire family has been wiped out in their expensive, almost palatial, nearby vacation home. Perhaps this is the final; crushing blow for Sheriff DeWitt, an experienced, dedicated, rural sheriff who is beginning to believe hope for the human race is a lost cause. Written in present tense with multiple points of view, the novel is a masterpiece of structure. What happens next is a finely wrought example of good, careful police work, putting Guest in league with author Michael Dymmoch.

Steadily, carefully, coping with a media frenzy, unhelpful fellow law enforcement agency colleagues, and a host of odd and wonderful idiosyncratic minor characters, DeWitt and his small agency gradually put the pieces together, working against the possibility that the killer may have other targets, until they arrive at a final, surprising, solution. This is an eminently satisfying and wonderful novel.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Carl Brookins - RAM

Book Review: The Tarnished Eye