Often called the private eye novel to end all private eye novels,
this is quite unique in combining a fascinatingly baffling puzzle
and a wonderfully realised love story with a metaphorical descent
into the underworld. In just 200 odd pages, Behm covers thirty
years and a massive body count as his private eye (a disturbed
and sociopathic figure) relentlessly tracks down the bisexual
serial murderess whose speciality is disguise. As his protagonist,
always referred to as The Eye, follows the killer as she murders
her way through a series of moneyed partners, we are taken on
a nightmare odyssey through every state in the US to a dark and
disturbing climax. One thing is certain: the reader is quite unlikely
to encounter anything like this again. This is unquestionably
a dazzling one-off.
