BOOKS
AND SO I TOOK
THEIR EYE
When a body is found on the black-sand beaches of Guatemala, it sparks a chain of events that ripple across the globe.
From an Italian tailor crushed under the weight of his father’s legacy to a mother challenging local snobbery on the cricket fields of England, a vengeful Bolivian priest chasing Che Guevara’s ghost, to a Bay Area therapist blind to his own advice, the lives of a seemingly unconnected group of strangers become fatefully entangled in murder, arson, betrayal, and love.
Guided by the ancient creed of "an eye for an eye," And So I Took Their Eye is a gripping collection of interlinked stories exploring what happens when justice is taken into your own hands—and ultimately, what it means to be human. Set against the legacy of U.S. imperialism in Latin America, the hollow virtue-signaling of Silicon Valley progressives, and the ways toxic masculinity—both overt and insidious—shapes the lives of people and the systems they are trapped in, this collection examines abuses of power in a world fractured by inequalities.
As these characters confront these brutal truths, morality blurs, forcing them to question the meaning of belonging and the lengths they’ll go to carve out their place in an unforgiving world.
And So I Took Their Eye is influenced by Shehan Karunatilaka's Chinaman, Rodrigo Fuentes’s Trout Belly Up and the writing of Fernanda Melchor.
Throughout the collection, the stories introduce knowable, nuanced characters. They come to life on the page...the ways in which the stories intertwine add an additional level of intrigue to an already compelling cast of characters. A thoughtful collection that situates engaging characters in an array of distinctive settings.
— Kirkus Review
And So I Took Their Eye is an origami of short stories. Each fold reveals further depth, truths, revelations, and even a sense of slowly-building horror that moves from past events and choices to present-day conundrums. It’s no light feat to interweave personalities and places like this... and soon prove impossible to put down... a treasure trove of insights that deserves slow, careful inspection. Compelling, shifting in its viewpoints and delivery, and thoroughly mind-boggling, And So I Took Their Eye defies pat categorization and rests its appeal upon the unexpected. Prepare to be amazed.
— D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, (Book of the Month) Midwest Book Review
And So I Took Their Eye is a collection of ten short, subtly interwoven stories. The excellent collection starts off with “A Gringo Died Today.” In this masterpiece of short fiction, Davies Crisp writes in a fractured recollection of a terrible crime that will have dark repercussions...And So I Took Their Eye is a fantastic short story collection. The interconnections unfold deftly and allow readers new perspectives on what they’ve read previously. Besides the plot connections, the overarching theme of “an eye for an eye” ties the stories together. “An eye for an eye” is the vengeful call we have all felt in our gut at some point, but Davies dives deep and beautifully into this notion in quite a thought-provoking way.
– Reader Views (5-Star Review)
Ben Davies Crisp's stories are arresting: the prose sharp and unrelenting, his characters’ ‘true colours’ revealed with an arch wryness. Davies forces us to re-think all that we do not want to see—in our societies, in our cultures. Bravo!
—Alicia J Rouverol, Dry River and I Was Content and Not Content, nominated for the OHA Book Award
Ben Davies Crisp writes with precision, curiosity, and a willingness to get close to the nerve. In And So I Took Their Eye, he plays with form—his stories appear as letters, therapy notes, and fractured timelines—to track how vengeance plays out across countries and communities. The stories are tough, honest, and threaded with grace. Along the way, Crisp defines his own voice in his homage to the shapes, tones, and rhythms produced by writers he loves. These are stories about what we carry, what we can’t undo, and what lingers.
– Matthew Clark Davison, Author of Doubting Thomas and co-author of The Lab: Experiments in Writing Across Genre.
Few short story collections have the richness and complexity of a novel. Ben Davies Crisp does. It is a haunting journey around the world in ten stories, and although written before the US elections of late 2024, it prophesies a world of hatred and vengeance rarely tempered by the spirits of mercy and justice.
– Edward Stanton, award-winning author of Wide as the Wind, Frail Blood, & VIDAS: Deep in Mexico and Spain
And So I Took Their Eye was described as "specially recommended for group discussions" by the Midwest Book Review. If you would like to discuss it at your book club, please explore these question prompts.
BLACK
SAND
BLACK SAND is an 80,000-word literary thriller that combines the atmospheric intensity of Fernanda Melchor’s Hurricane Season and Laurent Mauvignier’s The Birthday Party with the sharp social critique of The White Lotus.
On the black-sand shores of Guatemala’s Pacific Coast, a once-quiet fishing village is engulfed in flames. Amid the chaos, two bodies are found on the beach. Yet as the fire spreads and buried secrets surface, it becomes clear that neither the deaths nor the blaze are what they seem. As the mystery lingers, so too does a deeper question: who profits from paradise, and who is left behind?
Arena Negra was once a sleepy village known only to the families who lived there and the occasional passing traveler. Everything changes after an American nonprofit worker inadvertently puts it on the map. Developers soon follow, supported by powerful local interests and a Californian tech entrepreneur determined to transform the coast into a playground of exclusive resorts, casinos, and private enclaves. While some villagers embrace the promise of wealth and opportunity, others resist, setting off a battle for the village’s soul, where idealism collides with greed and necessity, and only one vision of the future can prevail.
At the center is Carlos Hernández, a magnetic local surfer and activist whose campaign evolves from peaceful protest toward armed rebellion. As Carlos finds himself drawn into a dangerous conflict with a powerful local family, the California tech entrepreneur driving the transformation, and gangs arriving from the city to exploit the new riches, old loyalties fracture, buried histories surface, and the line between resistance and violence begins to disappear. What begins as a fight for the village’s future quickly escalates, spiraling toward the devastating night that will forever change Arena Negra.
Told through nine interwoven voices, Black Sand is a literary mystery with the propulsion of a thriller, exploring the aftershocks of rapid change, the corrosive reach of Western capitalism, and the human cost of “progress.” At its heart, it is a story about belonging: to a place, to a people, and ultimately, to oneself.
The novel is informed by my twelve-year relationship with a Guatemalan village, the legacy of the 1954 CIA-backed coup, and my work creating and directing an artist and writing residency in Guatemala. The book has received a full sensitivity read from a Guatemalan author.
Davies Crisp is currently querying this debut novel. If you are interested, please reach out at bendaviesauthor@gmail.com