Review: THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER by Margie Orford (Canongate, 2022)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

When danger lies in the eye of the beholder, what happens when you reject its pull?

Cora carries secrets her daughter can't know. Freya is frightened by what her mother leaves unsaid. Angel will only bury the past if it means putting her abusers into the ground.

One act of violence sets three women on a collision course, each desperate to find the truth, when the people they love are not what they seem

A decade ago, Margie Orford had firmly established herself as the ‘Queen of South African Crime’ thanks to her captivating series centred on Cape Town journalist and part-time police profiler Dr Clare Hart. Book such as LIKE CLOCKWORK, DADDY'S GIRL, and GALLOWS HILL dragged readers into the Rainbow Nation’s seedy underbelly, explored tough issues such as violence against women and children, and showcased a fresh and exciting voice in African crime writing that demanded global notice.

Readers have had to wait several years for a sixth novel from Orford, and with THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER she delivers something outside her Clare Hart world in terms of setting and characters, while confronting some of the same tough issues. 

Cora Berger is a renowned painter living in Scotland who tries to turn trauma into art, whether capturing the stories of women who’ve survived war crimes, or her own troubled childhood in rural South Africa. But her fame has recently turned to infamy thanks to her ‘Forbidden Fruit’ exhibition, which sparked a public furore and had police questioning Cora’s now-adult daughter Freya. Has Cora’s often-edgy art crossed a dangerous line? Meanwhile, a young woman named Angel lives in the snowy Quebec wilderness, caring for wolves and trying to bury her past. When art dealer Yves Fournier disappears from his cabin, Angel is determined to find him. Cora, Freya, Angel, and Yves all have secrets, and as their lives entwine and collide, the consequences could be deadly.

Orford masterfully spins a chilling tale that takes readers into some uncomfortable, confronting areas, including child abuse and online pornography. As she did with her Clare Hart series, Orford centres her female characters and deeply explores real-life fears and salient issues such as abuse endured by women and children and its poisonous impact that lingers far beyond the violence itself. Orford is fearless in her storytelling, which given the content won’t be for every reader, but is very, very good.

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer who's interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at festivals on three continents. He's been a judge of Australian, Scottish, and NZ crime writing awards, and is co-founder of Rotorua Noir. He's the author of the HRF Keating award-shortlisted non-fiction book SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, and the series editor of acclaimed anthology DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER. You can heckle him on Twitter.