As a child of the 1980s, I didn’t give skin care a whole lot of thought until I moved to Florida in my forties. Suddenly I was surrounded by women who’d grown up in the state, smoking and basking in the sun, and their faces were as leathery as expensive purses. Now, skin care is a huge business for all ages. Even my beautiful twenty-five-year-old stepson has a daily routine.
Skin care is the entry point of British author Emma Bamford’s second thriller, Eye of the Beholder. A take on the Hitchcock classic Vertigo, the novel centers around ghostwriter Maddy Wight, who’s been hired by Dr. Angela Reynolds to produce her book, Skin Deep. Dr. Reynolds is a millionaire dermatologist with a three-year-long waiting list of clients, and an estate in Scotland where Maddy goes to write the book. But Angela is way too secretive for someone who’s hired a ghostwriter for her autobiography, and she’s more interested in having Maddy keep an eye on Scott, Angela’s business partner, who is also recuperating at the Scottish estate. They bond over Angela’s dogs, and even while Maddy struggles to meet her deadline, she forms a relationship with Scott. But on the day of Angela’s book launch party, Scott is found dead at the bottom of a cliff on the estate.
Maddy is destroyed. She doesn’t believe Scott killed himself. She investigates, makes charts, calls everyone involved in the investigation. And months later, when she finally seems to be getting over it, she sees Scott coming out of a Tube station. Now what?
Bamford’s prose is beautiful, and her descriptions are faultless. Cloudy, overcast Scotland is the perfect setting for a story around a woman obsessed with the sun’s effect on the skin. I loved reading the book and spending time in these locations. While there were times I felt Bamford was heavy-handed with the symbolism, I appreciated how visual her writing was.
I’ve never seen Vertigo, and even so, I was able to predict the plot twist pretty easily. Readers of psychological thrillers are a savvy bunch, and we expect to be ahead of the protagonists (we know they’re in a thriller; they don’t), but I was still frustrated that Maddy didn’t pick up on any of the clues about Scott. While Maddy is a thoughtful, caring protagonist, I wondered why she got so attached to Scott, a man she knew for less than three weeks. I also found the villain’s motivation to be better suited for a story that took place in the 1970s rather than today, and many of the villain’s choices were puzzling.
Bamford’s overall meaning resonates, though, and works well with her plot. Whether the expression is “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” or “beauty is only skin deep,” the warning to pay attention to what’s under the surface is clear. Whether you’re the protagonist in a thriller or in your own life, remember that a shiny pretty surface can hide lots of flaws.
Also, wear sunscreen.
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