Hide Your Eyes by Alison Gaylin

". . . a unique and quirky story plot that keeps the reader in suspense to the end. . ."

The protagonist, Samantha (Sam) Leiffer, is an attractive, single preschool teacher and part-time theater box office employee. Taking a walk on Valentine’s Day, she sees a man and woman push an ice chest into the Hudson River. The man turns and faces Sam; his eyes are like a mirror. Sam feels “dead man’s fingers” or chills up her spine for no reason. It’s a bad premonition she believes.

When the chest washes up on shore and Sam learns that the body of a mutilated little girl lies inside, she goes into mystery mode. She wrongly suspects her gay friend’s lover as the murderer because he wears “mirror” contact lenses. The tension rises when a person wearing Sam’s oversized coat is shot, and then her neighbor is slaughtered inside Sam’s apartment. Then police detective John Hull, with whom Sam has an affair, is shot while in pursuit of the alleged stalker and murderer.

In the hospital waiting room, Sam pieces the information together and sets off alone in search of the murderer. She doesn’t need to go far because the murderer has kidnapped one of her students and is willing to trade hostages.

Hide Your Eyes lacks dramatic intensity at the beginning to suck the reader into the story. However, the ending is rich with suspense, and the author effectively weaves the threads of the “mirror” contact lenses and the validity of children’s make-believe stories through to the end of the story. Some of the colorful characters, many of which were not fully developed, were derived from Gaylin’s experience as a journalist covering the arts and entertainment.

Reviewer: Kate Padilla