Rating: 
Summary: A Tarnished Eye
Review: Who Done It?This book is based on true crime, several in fact. It's a fictionalizied or factionalizied "who done it." If you have any information which may help in solving the true crime this story is based on please go to: www.unsolvedhomicide.com Peace
Rating:
Summary: A Tarnished Eye
Review: Who Done It? This book is based on true crime, several in fact. It's a fictionalizied or factionalizied "who done it." If you have any information which may help in solving the true crime this story is based on please go to: www.unsolvedhomicide.com Peace
Rating: 
Summary: There's no way to put this mystery down once you've begun it
Review: You hear (or read) the name "Judith Guest" and you think ORDINARY PEOPLE. And that creates ... expectations. About the last thing you expect is a mystery. One can sympathize with Guest's publicist, who must spend time in equal shares explaining what THE TARNISHED EYE, Guest's newest book, is and is not. The best place to begin for our purposes would be to state that it is not a disappointment; it is indeed very, very good. Guest's prose is spare, which is not to say it's simple. She simply does not waste words, and uses them well. Her narration --- here she uses the third person present --- compels and commands reading; there is no way to put down THE TARNISHED EYE once you have begun reading. Guest's tale is based on two true-life crimes that occurred in Michigan in the 1960s. One of them --- the brutal murder of a family of six in northern Michigan --- abruptly intrudes into the life of Hugh DeWitt, the Sheriff of otherwise idyllic Blessed, Michigan. DeWitt, still grieving over the loss of his infant son years before, is emotionally ill-prepared to investigate the carnage that he finds at the summer home of the wealthy Norbois family from Ann Arbor. DeWitt nonetheless doggedly investigates the matter, and soon finds that suspects abound. Paige Norbois was having an affair, while her husband Edward had discovered that his business partner was embezzling from the company. One of their sons had a confrontation with a couple of ne'er-do-wells from the town on the night of the murders, and a local handyman is caught absconding with evidence at the scene of the crime. DeWitt's investigation takes him to Ann Arbor, which is awash in terror, thanks to the serial murders of four young women. DeWitt is troubled by some of the similarities between the Ann Arbor murders and the Norbois killings. When Norbois's business partner commits suicide, it appears that DeWitt's investigation has come to a close. It is in fact, however, only beginning. DeWitt's plodding but methodical investigative style is extremely effective. He never draws his gun, or even raises his hand in anger throughout the course of THE TARNISHED EYE. Indeed, all of the violent acts giving impetus to the investigations take place off of the page, but the overriding impression is that DeWitt is a force to be reckoned with, a man who should not be underestimated. Guest is not a prolific author, but what she perhaps lacks in quantity she makes up for in quality. THE TARNISHED EYE, as with all of her work, has been worth waiting for and will hopefully expose her to a new and wider audience. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Rating:
Summary: I remember the event
Review: You hear (or read) the name "Judith Guest" and you think ORDINARY PEOPLE. And that creates ... expectations. About the last thing you expect is a mystery. One can sympathize with Guest's publicist, who must spend time in equal shares explaining what THE TARNISHED EYE, Guest's newest book, is and is not. The best place to begin for our purposes would be to state that it is not a disappointment; it is indeed very, very good. Guest's prose is spare, which is not to say it's simple. She simply does not waste words, and uses them well. Her narration --- here she uses the third person present --- compels and commands reading; there is no way to put down THE TARNISHED EYE once you have begun reading. Guest's tale is based on two true-life crimes that occurred in Michigan in the 1960s. One of them --- the brutal murder of a family of six in northern Michigan --- abruptly intrudes into the life of Hugh DeWitt, the Sheriff of otherwise idyllic Blessed, Michigan. DeWitt, still grieving over the loss of his infant son years before, is emotionally ill-prepared to investigate the carnage that he finds at the summer home of the wealthy Norbois family from Ann Arbor. DeWitt nonetheless doggedly investigates the matter, and soon finds that suspects abound. Paige Norbois was having an affair, while her husband Edward had discovered that his business partner was embezzling from the company. One of their sons had a confrontation with a couple of ne'er-do-wells from the town on the night of the murders, and a local handyman is caught absconding with evidence at the scene of the crime. DeWitt's investigation takes him to Ann Arbor, which is awash in terror, thanks to the serial murders of four young women. DeWitt is troubled by some of the similarities between the Ann Arbor murders and the Norbois killings. When Norbois's business partner commits suicide, it appears that DeWitt's investigation has come to a close. It is in fact, however, only beginning. DeWitt's plodding but methodical investigative style is extremely effective. He never draws his gun, or even raises his hand in anger throughout the course of THE TARNISHED EYE. Indeed, all of the violent acts giving impetus to the investigations take place off of the page, but the overriding impression is that DeWitt is a force to be reckoned with, a man who should not be underestimated. Guest is not a prolific author, but what she perhaps lacks in quantity she makes up for in quality. THE TARNISHED EYE, as with all of her work, has been worth waiting for and will hopefully expose her to a new and wider audience. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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