Dark Eye : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: exciting contemporary THRILLER
Review: Alcoholic Susan Pulaski loses her job as a police psychologist for the Las Vegas Police Department because she rarely stays sober. However, she has no time to drown her latest sorrow with more drink because her former boss LVPD Chief O'Bannon, who fired her, needs her skills as a profiler to stop a clever serial killer who murders young girls and leaves behind a cryptic note.

Susan asks her ex-boss' twenty-something son Darby, an idiot savant whose expertise happens to be encrypted messages to break the code. They soon find an Edgar Allen Poe cryptic, but have no idea what that means in the deadly modern context. Unbeknownst to Susan she plays a beleaguered heroine in a Poe work as the killer has a role for her that will end in her death if he directs the show.

Though exciting, DARK EYE seems to come out of the ingenious insane and inane serial killer 101 mould where a brilliant murderer leaves clues to play cat and mouse with the cops (the Son of Sam syndrome in literature). Still Susan is a delightful protagonist struggling with an alcohol dependency; Darby is perhaps the most interesting character though why didn't pop turn to him to solve the puzzle? Though fans of serial killer police chess matches will enjoy the action-packed and exhilarating tale due to its cat and mouse demeanor, William Bernhardt readers will mostly sing Ben.

Harriet Klausner



Rating:
Summary: His best work yet!!
Review: I've been a huge fan of William Bernhardt's for many years, especially his Ben Kincaid series. Once in a while he tries something different, and with each novel he's getting better and better. DARK EYES, in my opinion, is his best work yet, and I highly recommend it. I've heard it referred to as Silence of the Lambs meets Rain Man, and the person who said that hit the nail right on the head!

Susan Pulaski is a psychologist who is also grieving the loss of her husband, which results in her becoming an alcoholic though she's not yet ready to admit it. After a violent incident that happened during one of her drinking binges she winds up in detox and then things go from bad to worse. She loses her job, her house, and custody of her niece who she's been raising for years. Desperately trying to get her life back in order she asks for her job back, but all she gets to be is a consultant on the case of a crazed serial killer obsessed with the works of Edgar Allen Poe who is kidnapping & killing young girls. He sends coded messages that even the experts can't solve.

Then she meets Darcy O'Bannon, a twenty-five year old autistic savant, who just happens to be the son of her boss Chief Robert O'Bannon, and her life changes. Darcy is able to solve these coded messages and together the two of them try to find a way to catch this killer. The relationship between these two characters is so touching that I was simply mesmerized by it, as well as the whole story.

I've read many, many novels in my day and finding a story in which I feel so much compassion for the characters doesn't happen everyday, but it did in this novel. I was so taken in by them that I could help but cry at the end. I think an author who can write like that has a truly great gift, and William Bernhadrt has definitely become that type of author.

DARK EYE will scare you out of your wits, make you laugh, then make you cry and you won't want it to end. Do yourself a favor and read it today.

Janet Slezak



Rating:
Summary: BORING READ
Review: If anyone looks at my review history, they'd find I'm highly
critical of most books. Why? For $20 I expect a good read.
I latched onto Bernhardt with "Murder One," and even bought
some of his previous books, therefore, i was looking forward
to this one. Almost every character in this book is
dysfunctional, it was like watching the movie "The
Tannenbaums." Definitely not a page turner, not even
suspenseful. Come home W.B., and live up to your potential.

Rating:
Summary: 4 1/2 stars
Review: In a departure from his Ben Kincaid series William Bernhardt spins a tale about a psychotic serial killer loose in Vegas.
I thought it was riveting and suspenseful. It moved at a good pace. The characters had depth enough that you could understand how they felt.
I enjoyed this novel and am pleased that Bernhardt decided to go with something a little different.

Recommended

Rating:
Summary: One of Bernhardt's best
Review: In a departure from the Ben Kincaid series, William Bernhardt has constructed a story that provides thrills, excitement, suspense, and a large dose of humanity. All of the characters are truly human - complete with foibles, addictions, neuroses, and issues. Bernhardt has created characters that could easily be our neighbors, friends, or even family.

This is an intelligent literary thriller. Bernhardt isn't afraid to stretch the vocabularies of his readers. I had to pull out Webster's a couple of times. But, the effort was well worth it.

Continue the Kincaid series, but free-standing novels like DARK EYE are welcome additions to my bookshelf.

Rating:
Summary: Please bring back Ben Kincaid
Review: Susan Pulaski is really screwed up. She just lost her husband and the Las Vegas police force just gave her a pink slip - not to mention a trip to detox.

While combatting her addiction, she meets a female autistic savant who basically helps her enter the mind of a serial killer.

Premise sounds good. Actual story is not. I feel as though the writing is incredibly controlled and the whole plot just does not flow for me. The main character is kind of on a constant whine and basically, this whole plot just does not work.

It is incredibly difficult for me to write this as I am a HUGE Ben Kincaid fan. Its hard for me to believe that the man who writes Kincaid also wrote this.

Please stick to writing Ben Kincaid more often and these "out of series" books never.

Rating:
Summary: One of Bernhardt's Best
Review: This book demonstrates Bernhardt's maturing abilities as a storyteller. I've long been a fan of this writer, having read almost all of his books.

Bernhardt avoids some of his own cliches in Dark Eye. The Ben Kincaid novels, while fun, fell into a pattern and the characters into roles they can't break out of. As delightful as the Kincaid books are, Dark Eye breaks the rules Bernhardt has played by before. This results in an unfamiliar, dangerous and believable set of characters, a new setting, a different type of killer, and stakes higher than Bernhardt has gambled before.

Las Vegas is the perfect place for such a gambit. Bernhardt creates a world that is easy to inhabit in this book. I'm not sure how 'real' it is to the actual Las Vegas, but that doesn't matter. The characters of this book wouldn't fit in Ben Kincaid's Tulsa universe, or vice versa. Many writers fall into the trap of just setting their characters down somewhere and having them do whatever they do. In Dark Eye, Bernhardt's Las Vegas shapes the people and events of the story. If these people lived somewhere else, the story would be different.

Susan Pulaski's growth as a character throughout the book is fun to watch. Her reactions to Granger, one of the supporting players, are a barometer of her mental health. At the beginning of the story, Susan is suspicious of everything Granger says aand does. In Susan's eyes, he is unlikeable -- and that's all he is. Although Granger's behavior doesn't really change, Pulaski comes to realize that he's more than just a one-note person in her life -- he's capable of both pettiness and nobility. He's a complex person.

This is true for all of the major characters of this book. Darcy O'Bannon, the autistic son of Pulaski's boss, could easily fall into the role of sainted disabled person who overcomes odds to save the day. And Darcy really does contribute to the solving of the case -- many times. But he while he is a fully-realized character, he is not a whole person. His autism sets him apart.

What sets Pulaski apart is is her grief over the loss of her husband that has led her to becoming an alcoholic. At the beginning of the book, Pulaski's life is torn apart. She loses everything, her home, her job, her family. Like Darcy, Pulaski isn't whole.

But together, these two damaged souls become a formidable team that has a real chance of stopping a killer that has terrorized Las Vegas. Unless, you know, he kills them first.

I don't know if Bernhardt plans to write any more books about these characters, but if he does, there is a major problem. Susan Pulaski can get better, but Darcy O'Bannon's autism is with him for life. This disparity could cause serious tension between these two.

I think this is one of Berhardt's best books, and I highly recommend it.







Rating:
Summary: Bernhardt has hit the bull's-eye once again
Review: When one thinks of William Bernhardt, one almost immediately thinks of Ben Kincaid, Bernhardt's Tulsa, Oklahoma attorney who does a poor job of running a law firm but is a vociferous and forceful advocate. Kincaid has been Bernhardt's primary focus for the past several years, and as a result, his readership might be forgiven for forgetting that Bernhardt has written a number of stand-alone novels as well. DARK EYE, his latest novel, is one of these --- though it may well be the beginning of a new series, and his best work to date.

DARK EYE introduces Susan Pulaski, a Las Vegas police psychologist who is reeling from the sudden death of her husband. Pulaski is self-medicating with alcohol, a process that results in a fateful action and leads to her losing literally everything she holds dear, not the least of which is her job. When a brutal murder takes place, however, police chief Robert O'Bannon reluctantly retains Pulaski as an independent consultant due to her superior talent as a behaviorist.

Things take a dramatic and interesting turn when O'Bannon's son Darcy becomes involved in the case. Darcy, in his mid-20s, is afflicted with autism, and while he is socially awkward, he touches a chord with Susan on a personal and professional level. Darcy's unexpected talents include eidetic memory, incredible math skills, and an uncanny ability to solve puzzles. As the brilliant but brutal and disturbed murderer strikes again and again, Darcy and Susan become Sin City's only hope of stopping his reign of terror --- one that he plans to bring to an apocalyptic climax with a terrible act of destruction.

DARK EYE reads as if Bernhardt wrote it while typing with one hand and holding a stopwatch in the other. The novel's point of view changes regularly back and forth between Pulaski and the murderer, with occasional, manic commentary from Darcy. This technique would have resulted in confusion in the hands of a lesser writer; Bernhardt, however, skillfully delineates his characterizations so that such confusion is non-existent and the narrative flows move forward, and together, at a rapid rate.

Though DARK EYE would seem a daunting read at almost 500 pages, it moves along more smoothly and quickly than many books half its length. The contrasts between Pulaski and Darby accentuate their common ground, and Bernhardt (bless him) seems to leave the possibility open for another professional collaboration between them in the future. Bernhardt, who already has a winning protagonist going with Kincaid, has hit the bull's-eye once again. Highly recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub