Eye Contact
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4.4 • 5 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Reporter Mark Manning searches for a killer and stumbles upon a stunning conspiracy
Chicago Journal reporter Mark Manning has been called in to replace a colleague on a big story. Famed Swiss astrophysicist Pavo Zarnik has just stunned the science world with his announcement that he's discovered a tenth planet in our solar system. Manning is skeptical of Zarnik's claims and believes he's a fraud. His suspicions grow when his fellow reporter—award-winning journalist Clifford Nolan—turns up dead, his laptop missing.
Now, Manning is covering two breaking stories and coping with the not-entirely-unwanted advances of twenty-something reporter David Bosch. In a committed relationship with architect Neil Waite, Manning is determined to resist temptation. But he soon has bigger things to worry about. On the edge of a far-reaching political conspiracy, Manning matches wits with a killer whose agenda is about to become chillingly clear.
Eye Contact is the second book in Michael Craft's Mark Manning series, which also includes Flight Dreams and Body Language.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Obvious and unconvincing, the latest appearance of Chicago journalist Mark Manning (introduced in Flight Dreams, 1997) is less a mystery than a platform for exploring gay sexuality. Manning is skeptical of astrophysicist Pavo Zarnik's announcement of the discovery of a new planet. He also doubts the authenticity of Zarnik's claims to be a renowned Eastern European scientist. The fatal shooting of a fellow reporter, also investigating Zarnik, ups the ante. Personal complications ensue when Manning is assigned a bodacious and flirty young assistant whose charms prove a potent distraction from the reporter's relationship with his loftmate, Neil, an architect who's redesigned their plush condo. All this happens on the eve of a gay-rights festival that is agitating the local Christian fundamentalists. Craft makes the identity of the limping killer obvious, gives his characters wooden, expository dialogue and grounds Manning's investigation in flimsy evidence (e.g., Manning suspects Zarnik isn't really from Eastern Europe because his personal hygiene is impeccable and he eats peanut butter). Manning's moral quandaries are generally convincing, but overall there is more gay sex--some real, some imagined, most graphically depicted--on these pages than mystery. Readers seeking narrative satisfactions will likely be disappointed.
