The Locked Door

Allow me to first state that I have never put a book classified as a thriller in my personal "Did Not Finish" category pile. I always finished reading a book all the way through if it's a thriller, but sadly, this book is the first.

I got to Chapter 4 and the description of a nurse as "mocha skin" was what did it for me. Personally, that's lazy writing and I was not fond of that. It was the final line that pushed me closer to an aneurysm. So take my review thus far with a grain of salt, as I did not finish this book, I did not read it all the way through, and the choice of narrator for the audiobook was not the best decision.

Allow me to get into the depths of this review by trying to summarize the premise fairly quickly: Nora Davis is the daughter of notorious and infamous serial killer, Aaron Nierling, who was known as the Handyman and kept the bodies and bones of his victims in his basement. Now Nora is fully grown, a successful general surgeon, living a life of solitary and trying to separate herself from her past as much as possible. That is, until one of her patients turns up dead in the exact same manner as her father’s victims, and Nora fears that someone knows who she is and wants her to take the fall for this crime. She fights to make sure the police can’t pin anything on her but appears to keep her own set of secrets she would like to keep buried.

Right off the bat, this premise caught my attention and I was intrigued. I've heard this kind of story a thousand times over and it never gets old, because the story can be told in many different ways. The idea of whether we are the same kind of monsters as those we are related to has been churned into different ways, dating all the way back to Greek mythology, and even further to Mesopotamia era. It's a great idea, a great storyline to run with, and I'm all for it.

So long as the writing and characterization supports this story. That's where this book falls flat on its face, in a rather hilarious way that I only ever witnessed while watching an episode of Ridiculousness. In fact, this book could fit into an entry on that show, if it was possible.

Let me get on my soapbox about the writing, and it can be summed up in one single word. Lazy.

I can be more than understanding of a writer and author that is still getting their feet wet in the literary world. I can excuse the pacing of a story or if it feels like I'm reading fanfiction over an original piece. But I draw the line at lazy writing and lack of effort in editing and rereading.

As stated prior, I cannot stand when authors and writers use food to describe a person's skin tone, especially those with darker complexions. It is so overused, cliche, and screams of microaggression and stereotyping. If you want to know how to describe people of color in your writing, my best advice is to read works by people of color, do your research into the diverse cultures, and don't fall back into lazy phrasing. Tell me the character has a darker skin tone, that's perfectly fine, I've seen some authors even use terms like "beautiful dark skin" which is also fine. Others lean towards specific cultures and locations. I recall one author describing a character of theirs as "being from the Islands" and another described a character simply as a "Rastafarian," which also works.

There is also an inconsistency in the story with the timeline. The back of the book describes that Nora was eleven years old when her father was first arrested, and the police came to her doorstep. But in the book itself, it’s mentioned frequently that she was ten years old, and then again she was eleven. The first thing I’m wondering is “which is it? Was she ten? Or was she eleven?”

The writing style is a complete contrast and contradiction to the themes, premise, and the overall arching storyline. The story is told from a first-person point of view, and reading it, while listening to the audiobook, feels like the story is told from the perspective of a teenager, maybe late teens, early twenties. Not a woman in her mid-thirties, a general surgeon that works in the medical field and lives a life of solitary. The maturity of the main female character is far too young for what she is supposed to be.

It felt like the pacing in these chapters read is all over the place. We have Nora, the narrator and main character, throwing us immediately into learning her father is an infamous serial killer, and that people around town know who he is, but don’t know her. Then we are introduced to a bartender who she right away points out seems to be familiar, and a patient that has an unhealthy love interest in her, and practically stalks her home. It gives too much of a fanfiction, “every male character is going to fall in love with me” kind of deal. It’s just off for me, and takes me out of the story.

Then we are told from Nora’s point of view things that are either repeated constantly throughout, or irrelevant to the story. For instance, we learn right away that Nora’s favorite drink is old-fashioned, which is fine, but there is a full paragraph in the first chapter explaining why, and it is then mentioned several times throughout. Like a constant reminder “hey, I like old-fashions,” “just a quick reminder, this is my favorite drink.”

Another that I felt was unnecessary was learning what type of car her partner at work has. Like, how is this relevant to us? Do we really need to know that he drives a Tesla? How is that important? Is it to show us how much money you make as a general surgeon? Why is this important?

Word proximity was another big issue for this book for me. Nora says the phrase “Yeah, well…” three times in only a couple pages. And then again when a car is following her, the author says “that car is following me” and again “that bastard is following me.” There is too much “tell” and not a lot of “show.” And too much info compacted into a short span.

Phrases in the narration such as "Hmm" and "Mmm" when the character is NOT speaking really through me off. I understand that the

Also, the line “It’s funny because…” is not funny. If you want to make a joke, don’t explain the joke, otherwise it’s not funny. It just doesn’t feel like a psychological thriller, and it’s hard to invest in the character and dive into the story, as it feels like I’m reading a social media status over a work of fiction.

It wasn't a good read for me, for the few chapters that I did manage to push through. Perhaps a different kind of reader or a different person, but not for me.