The Eye of the Beholder - by Margie Orford (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

When an art expert goes missing, three women fighting to regain control of their lives realise their future is about to become as dangerous as their past in this brutally compelling thriller

'Subtle, chilling to the bone and very contemporary' PETER JAMES

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 the three women on a collision course, each desperate to find the truth. In a nail-biting thriller set between the scorched red soil of South Africa, the pitiless snowfields of Canada and the chilly lochsides of western Scotland, each woman must contend with the spectres of male violence, sexual abuse and the choices we each make to keep our souls.

Review Quotes

A hard-hitting, affecting novel about women who refuse to allow men off the hook--DECLAN BURKE "Irish Times"

A subtle, confrontational and disturbing read . . . mirrors contemporary society in a thought-provoking way--Margaret Von Klemperer "Sunday Times, South Africa"

A suspenseful and wise study of surviving sexual abuse and trauma. Orford's prose is piercingly beautiful--KIM SHERWOOD

A tale of love and abuse that is as powerful as it is elegant - and it grips like a vice, too--IAN RANKIN

An immersive and chilling experience that compels the reader to confront the rage and shame the victims feel . . . hard to put down, even as it makes your blood curdle--Mamaputle Boikanyo "Mail & Guardian"

Margie Orford invented the genre and mastered it--POPPY SEBAG-MONTEFIORE

Orford truly understands the transformative effect of violence for those who survive it and those who visit it upon others. It gives her writing visceral power--DAMIAN BARR

Subtle, chilling to the bone and very contemporary. Margie Orford has a quietly understated, beautiful literary style--PETER JAMES

The acclaimed 'Queen of Crime fiction' in South Africa takes a further step into the dark. The result is as compelling as it is frightening and deeply thought provoking. The Eye of the Beholder is sure to play a key role in the ongoing debate about what women and men are, and can be, for each other in these violent times--JACQUELINE ROSE

Utterly brilliant. Gorgeous, unflinching and a total surprise--FIAMMETTA ROCCO