cover image Eye of the Beholder

Eye of the Beholder

Brian Lysaght, Brian Lysaught. Simon & Schuster, $21.5 (331pp) ISBN 978-0-684-80078-3

Recent front-page headlines about fugitive financier Robert Vesco can only help this smart, crisp thriller, which has been constructed around a Vesco-like figure by former federal prosecutor Lysaght (Special Circumstance). Fugitive financier Robert Vargo has been given until June 30, 1991, by his Cuban hosts and Colombian masters to repair recent damage to his American drug operations by the Drug Enforcement Agency. That means returning to the U.S. and setting up another drug smuggling venue in Los Angeles. To track him down, the feds call in beautiful Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Beck, whose prosecution of Vargo was thwarted when he killed her witnesses and fled the country; they also want her to cut a deal with her former lover, attorney Robert E. Lee Baker, who is serving a 15-year sentence for having aided and abetted Vargo. The ultimate fate of this pair's relationship may be the only predictable aspect of this accomplished novel, which is distinguished by a deceptively dry narration and a willingness to forgo formula for some delightful surprises. The suspense builds to a major revelation that has been carefully seeded yet made invisible by Lysaght's deft storytelling; a story told this well, and this intelligently, deserves a wide readership. (Sept.)