Kathy Herman Eye of the Beholder

Eye of the Beholder

Kathy Herman

Multnomah, Sept 2005, $12.99, 300 pp.

ISBN 1590523490

Guy doesn't approve of his wife's friends which include a Moslem woman, a mentally challenged couple and an elderly neighbor who loves to gossip. This puts a strain on their marriage because Ellen is determined choose her own friends. When Guy's legal partner takes him and his secretary Kinsey out for a celebratory dinner, the assistant becomes so drunk that he lets her to spend the night at his apartment on his couch.

Soon after someone breaks into his apartment but luckily Guy isn't here. His Seaport home and Tallahassee apartment are broken into after Guy finds a pouch of cocaine in his couch. Kinsey denies knowing anything it and believes the break-ins were the work of a disgruntled client. When explosives are found on a boat owned by Moslem extremists, tensions in Seaport mount; when a Jewish and Arab student are killed and the local mosque is desecrated, it looks like the town will erupt into bloodshed. Guy wants Ellen to stay away from her Moslem friends even as he becomes more enmeshed in problems that threaten not only him but his family as well. It will take a miracle for racial tensions to ease and for Guy and Ellen to come to an understanding about their differing perceptions of people.

The Second Seaport novel addresses the social issues of racial prejudices and the fear Americans have for Moslems, even those who are American citizens. This storyline is wrapped around a thrilling suspense storyline involving drug trafficking. Guy is much more intolerant than Ellen who reaches out a hand to almost everyone. To his credit he understands and regrets his prejudices and the pressure he put on his wife. Katy Herman writes another mesmerizing entertaining work.

Harriet Klausner