Dark Eye

William Bernhardt's Dark Eye is billed as a "provocative thriller," and it certainly delivers on its promise as it leaps into the sordid, brutal world of a Las Vegas serial killer with all of the heart-stopping shock of a Polar Club plunge into icy water. Bernhardt's novel is a work of psychological suspense featuring Susan Pulaski, a tormented, alcoholic cop on the trail of a serial killer who finds "divine inspiration" in the works of Edgar Allan Poe.

Recently widowed and still grieving the loss of her husband, Susan's personal demons threaten to consume her private and professional life. When a drunken bender causes her to mistake the son of a wealthy family for a wanted criminal, her subsequent brutal "arrest" of her "suspect" leads to a brief commitment in a detox center and a pink slip from the Las Vegas police department. Despite her skills as a psychologist and profiler, the police department simply couldn't afford the risk, especially with the boy's family screaming for her head and threatening to sue.

Susan is a complex character, a compelling portrayal of addiction. Self-deluded, argumentative, and often downright unlikable for her deceptions and inability to see the reality of her situation, she is literally a human train wreck careening around Las Vegas looking for trouble. But Bernhardt doesn't pull any punches with his character; he doesn't let Susan off easily or simply let her have a little drinking "problem." Often, alcoholic characters are portrayed in detective fiction in ways which suggest the addiction can be easily shaken or isn't that much of a problem (the idea of the hard-drinking investigator is a frequent image). In Susan Pulaski, we see the often ugly reality of addiction and the destructive seeds it sows. She's caught up in something she can't shake; more, something she doesn't want to shake. When in the middle of another drunken evening she lets some guy in a bar take her out back and essentially assault her, it's not just pathetic and sad; it's also a reflection of her desire to feel "something" in order to feel alive.

Article Author: W.E. Wallo

W.E. Wallo is a book and movie junkie whose writings have appeared in a variety of print and online publications.

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