Fear and Loathing

August 25, 2014
At the start of Norman’s absorbing, disturbing seventh Sam Becket thriller (after 2012’s Eclipse), Gary Burton and his Chinese-American wife are entertaining another couple on their Miami Beach patio facing the Intracoastal Waterway when four armed men step off a boat and interrupt the party. The intruders tie up the Burtons and their guests, place them in the garage, and stand by as the victims slowly die of carbon monoxide poisoning. A note left at the scene addressed specifically to Becket, an African-American detective married to a white woman, promises more slayings. Becket and partner Al Martinez dive into the bizarre case with few leads. As the body count increases, so does the threat against Becket—including a separate danger for adopted daughter Cathy, blissfully pursuing her dream job in France. Becket finds himself struggling to keep perspective and protect his loved ones from harm. Tight prose combined with well-drawn characters and skillfully evoked locales ensures a satisfying, high-pressure ride.

December 24, 2012
Norman’s sixth outing for Det. Sam Becket of the Miami Beach Violent Crimes Unit (after 2011’s Hell) features a hunt for a serial killer that’s too familiar to be satisfying. The psycho in question, dubbed “Black Hole,” has just struck for the fourth time. In each case, the murderer sedates his female victim before shooting out her eyes. This grisly story line isn’t improved by subplots that prove no more compelling, such as one that involves Becket’s child psychologist wife, Grace, who’s attending a conference in Zurich and befriends an odd young man after saving his life. Most readers’ antennae will be quivering from the outset, and their patience will be increasingly tested by Grace’s slowness at figuring out that something is amiss with her new friend. An even duller diversion is provided by Mildred, Sam’s stepmother, whose fear of cataract surgery eventually proves relevant to the plot only in a contrived manner, unfortunately typical of the entire novel.