Blake Crouch Locked Doors

Locked Doors

Blake Crouch

St. Martin's, Jul 2005, $23.95, 288 pp.

ISBN: 0312317999

For two years back in 1990s, editor Karen Prescott was suspense writer Andrew Z. Thomas' girlfriend until the murdered bodies were found on his property. He insisted he was innocent, but no one believed him. Seven years since he vanished, his thrillers are being republished.

Hiding in the Yukon, Andrew knows that his twin brother Orson and an associate Luther Kite killed their mother, Walter Lancing, and others. They set up an ironclad case against Andrew ruining his life. Andrew killed Orson and he thought Kite too, but Luther has recovered. Using Andrew's "modus operandi", he tortures Karen and Walter's widow. He commits other vicious crimes that law enforcement and the media blame on Andrew. At the same time Luther terrorizes the East Coast, writer Horace Boone plans a clever plagiarism scheme, but Andrew reluctantly concludes he has to finish the job with Kite before dealing with an amoral author. Police Detective Violet King investigates the homicides she alone believes Luther is the loose cannon because she believes Andrew would never come out of hiding.

This is one of the best most realistic sequels this reviewer has read in several years as the events of 1996 (see DESERT PLACES) do not suddenly change with Andrew remaining in hiding and accused of heinous crimes. The storyline rotates perspectives with Andrew's first hand of how he sees what happened and its haunting repetition. The other chapters are third person, but serve as a chilling enhancement of Andrew's nightmare. With twists that will shock readers just when the plot seems to fall into a complacent norm, Blake Crouch writes a chilling thriller in which readers will consistently check to ensure they LOCKED DOORS.

Harriet Klausner.