Rating: 
Summary: On the trail of a twisted killer.
Review: "A Blind Eye," by G. M. Ford, features the tough and taciturn Frank Corso, a true crime writer who is on the lam. Corso is wanted in Texas as a material witness, and he decides to lie low until the warrant for his arrest expires. Along with his former lover, photojournalist Meg Dougherty, Frank gets into an accident on a Wisconsin highway during a heavy blizzard. When Dougherty and Corso take shelter in an abandoned house, they discover the grisly remains of a murdered family. Corso is manipulated by the local sheriff into investigating this crime, which leads him to several states in his pursuit of a very unusual serial killer. "A Blind Eye" explores the pathological side of human nature, especially the way in which horribly abused children sometimes grow into deeply disturbed and violent adults. Corso is a terrific character. He is strong, courageous, and eerily intuitive, and his girlfriend, Meg Dougherty, is gutsy and tenacious. The secondary characters are also well-drawn. G. M. Ford's plot is intricate and engrossing, and he ratchets up the tension to an agonizing level prior to the hair-raising and electrifying finale. "A Blind Eye" is a powerful and unsettling thriller that may give you nightmares.
Rating:
Summary: On the trail of a twisted killer.
Review: "A Blind Eye," by G. M. Ford, features the tough and taciturn Frank Corso, a true crime writer who is on the lam. Corso is wanted in Texas as a material witness, and he decides to lie low until the warrant for his arrest expires. Along with his former lover, photojournalist Meg Dougherty, Frank gets into an accident on a Wisconsin highway during a heavy blizzard. When Dougherty and Corso take shelter in an abandoned house, they discover the grisly remains of a murdered family. Corso is manipulated by the local sheriff into investigating this crime, which leads him to several states in his pursuit of a very unusual serial killer. "A Blind Eye" explores the pathological side of human nature, especially the way in which horribly abused children sometimes grow into deeply disturbed and violent adults. Corso is a terrific character. He is strong, courageous, and eerily intuitive, and his girlfriend, Meg Dougherty, is gutsy and tenacious. The secondary characters are also well-drawn. G. M. Ford's plot is intricate and engrossing, and he ratchets up the tension to an agonizing level prior to the hair-raising and electrifying finale. "A Blind Eye" is a powerful and unsettling thriller that may give you nightmares.
Rating:
Summary: On the trail of a twisted killer.
Review: "A Blind Eye," by G. M. Ford, features the tough and taciturn Frank Corso, a true crime writer who is on the lam. Corso is wanted in Texas as a material witness, and he decides to lie low until the warrant for his arrest expires. Along with his former lover, photojournalist Meg Dougherty, Frank gets into an accident on a Wisconsin highway during a heavy blizzard. When Dougherty and Corso take shelter in an abandoned house, they discover the grisly remains of a murdered family. Corso is manipulated by the local sheriff into investigating this crime, which leads him to several states in his pursuit of a very unusual serial killer. "A Blind Eye" explores the pathological side of human nature, especially the way in which horribly abused children sometimes grow into deeply disturbed and violent adults. Corso is a terrific character. He is strong, courageous, and eerily intuitive, and his girlfriend, Meg Dougherty, is gutsy and tenacious. The secondary characters are also well-drawn. G. M. Ford's plot is intricate and engrossing, and he ratchets up the tension to an agonizing level prior to the hair-raising and electrifying finale. "A Blind Eye" is a powerful and unsettling thriller that may give you nightmares.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't turn A Blind Eye to this gripping mystery
Review: A Blind Eye is G.M. Ford's third book featuring Frank Corso, a disgraced New York Times reporter turned best-selling author of true-crime novels. (Maybe that's a career Jayson Blair should consider.)
As the book opens, Corso and his assistant (and former lover), Meg Dougherty, are on the lam, hiding from a Texas grand jury that wants to ask Corso questions he doesn't have good answers for. In their effort to escape, the pair winds up in a remote location in snowy Wisconsin, where they stumble upon a grisly crime scene.
That discovery leads them onto the trail of a twisted serial killer who preys on entire families, including her own. Don't worry, though; this isn't another lame, exploitive manic-killer book that uses its crimes to titillate. Ford is too classy an author for that. True, the villain is one sick woman, but she's largely in the background while the focus of the story is on Corso.
A Blind Eye is an excellent example of a well written crime novel that tells a straightforward, interesting story without pretensions or cliche. At times it goes off in unnecessary directions (like the killing of a deputy that made no sense at all), but that weakness is a minor one. The gripping suspense and stunning climax make this book well worthwhile.
Reviewed by David Montgomery, Chicago Sun-Times
Rating:
Summary: Solid, but not Ford's best
Review: After finishing Black River (without a doubt, a 5-star book), I rushed out to pick up A Blind Eye. Corso is a fantastic character as usual, the new setting is a nice change of pace (rural and wintry rather than urban and rainy), and the dialogue is spot-on. However, the plot is not nearly as tight and fast-paced as the earlier book. There are a number of segways and subplots that slow it down, and are really unnecessary. Whereas Black River had its moments off the main plot (e.g. the Cambodian man's story), it never seemed to detract from the core story. ABE was still an entertaining read. But the plot felt a little watered-down by the constant side trips. (Quick note--the Melissa-D thing was implausible, yes, but it's *fiction*, people. A couple of speculative elements don't hurt.)
Rating:
Summary: Exciting action--very well written
Review: All he has to do is stay away from the Texas Rangers for a few more days--until the Grand Jury term expires and he can go home. But a freak snowstorm strands writer Frank Corso, along with sometime-girlfriend and photographer Meg Dougherty in an airport and Frank decides to brave the blizzard rather than wait to be arrested. Stuck in the blizzard, Frank and Meg discover evidence of a seventeen-year-old murder. As part of a bargain to keep him away from the Rangers, Frank agrees to look into the old murder and Meg reluctantly goes along. What they find is a story of abuse, incest, and a girl's attempts to control her environment at any cost. As they get closer, they wonder whether this girl, now a woman, might kill again--and whether they can stay alive themselves. Of course, getting closer depends on staying ahead of the Rangers, the FBI, and the local Sheriff who has her own issues.
Author G. M. Ford writes a page-turning and compelling story. Frank, with his little problem with the truth, makes an intriguing character--bad enough to be sympathetic but heroic enough to make him admirable as well. Ford's writing grabs the reader by the throat and pulls them through an exciting adventure. Readers who enjoy action, a bit of psychological analysis, wise-talking heros, and a quirky bit of romance will definitely want to get their hands on A BLIND EYE.
Rating:
Summary: Corso is back and well worth the read!
Review: At the opposite end of the spectrum from lightweight Robert B. Parker type work is author G. M. Ford. First with the Leo Waterman series and now with the Frank Corso series, his novels consistently feature multidimensional characters, complicated plots and intense writing. This is the third novel in the Frank Corso series and is simply an intense spellbinding read that occasionally is highly disturbing in its background themes of death and child abuse. If you haven't read him before, you really need to read FURY and Black River before you read this one as they lay the foundation for the Corso character. As the novel opens, Corso and his good friend Meg Dougherty are stuck at Chicago's O'Hare Airport thanks to a blizzard. The blizzard rages outside while a very frustrated Corso rages within which is not a good thing in this day of terror alerts and increased security concerns at the nation's airports. Being a disgruntled angry passenger has consequences these days and he can't afford them. Corso needs to leave as there is a warrant out for his arrest and his warrant has now caught the attention of the cable news outlets. A Grand Jury in Texas issued the arrest warrant because in his latest true crime book, author Frank Corso claimed to know where a body in Texas was buried. Unfortunately, his source that told him that he knew has now vanished so Corso has nothing to tell the Grand Jury. If the Texas Rangers find and arrest him, he can be held indefinitely on a "material witness" charge. But if he can remain uncaught for a little more than a week, the Grand Jury will dissolve and with no Grand Jury, the warrant for his arrest will become void and unenforceable. Then he can go back home to Seattle and let his attorney handle it without fear of arrest. In the meantime, with his picture popping up every few minutes on various cable stations on airport televisions, it is past time to leave. Since planes are out of the question, Corso and Dougherty rent an SUV and venture out into the blizzard. That small acts sets in motion a nightmarish discovery of the legacy of a very sick serial killer, a man hunt involving the FBI as well as other law enforcement types, crooked cops, and a string of bodies and destruction in their wake. This novel is extremely intense and occasionally disturbingly graphic in depictions of death and child abuse. More of the Corso character is revealed as well as his good friend Meg Dougherty. However, the author never lets the character development get in the way of the intense, griping story. This is a real page tuner that will get your blood pounding as the book works toward one heck of an ending. While I much prefer the Leo Waterman character, the intense and complex enigma of Frank Corso is fast becoming a real
favorite.
Rating:
Summary: Twists...twists...twists
Review: First G.M. Ford book I've read. Very entertaining with likable characters. Dialoge reveals quite a sense of humor. Starts out a bit slow but going to the end is worth the trip.
Rating:
Summary: Chilling thriller!
Review: G.M. Ford's third Frank Corso novel, "A Blind Eye" is an intense, dark, fast paced mystery thriller. Two Texas marshals have a material witness warrant that Corso (a true crime writer) is eager to avoid. On the lam with his amazonish photojournalist, Meg Dougherty---a blinding snowstorm drives them to an abandoned Wisconsin farmhouse for shelter. Buried in shed, they discover the skeletons of the Holmes family---murdered fifteen years ago. The small town sheriff makes a deal with Corso. He investigates this coldest of cases---she misleads the Texas marshals. The harrowing search for the family serial killer leads to Pennsylvania, the Ramapo Mountains of New Jersey and Michigan. The journey to uncover the elusive and shadowy criminals is fascinating and filled with brilliant surprises. The supporting cast---an isolated, inbred group known as the White Jacksons, the Texas marshals, the sheriff and the surprisingly cooperative New Jersey FBI SAIC---is strong and inventive. The wisecracking Corso is positively enigmatic, with his own sense of honor---always striving to unearth the truth, no matter the roadblocks. The ending is absolutely chilling. A willing suspension of disbelief is the perfect supplement to Mr. Ford's agile plot and tough situation resolutions.
Rating: 
Summary: GM Ford's Blind Eye needs to be recalled.
Review: Having read the 6 Waterman novels - all are great fun and well done (very Parker like). And the first two Corso mysteries were also wonderful. Blind Eye was a like a stick in mine. Ford's Melissa-D pure c**p as a plot element and did not help drive the story but only severed to weaken the plot and distract the reader from what was done well. Ford seems to have been unable to resolve a key issue in his novel without the introduction of omnipotent data provider - Melissa-D - that only 12 people in the world are said to have access to. The plot issue would have and could have been solved by any online "get info on your..." provider for about $500.00. What done well (or almost well) were the main plot, fleshing out and developing Meg more, tangential characters were not all one dimensional, and Wisconsin parts of the book. The Texas sub-plot could have been much better. The interaction between Corso and the FBI, Texas Rangers, New Jersey State police and all others in law enforcement strain the bounds of credibility. The false identification and everything relating to it please see the Melissa-D comments - substitute fake ID for Melissa-D. (I will grant that Abdul Garcia is funny) While this reader is willing to suspend his disbelieve I am not willing to become a paranoid, intellectually challenged Luddite. Ford's next novel will need to be great to makeup for Blind Eye in order to keep me as a reader and more importantly a buyer - I have purchased all of his novels thus far.
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