Death's Door

by Gail Lukasik

On the eve of tourist season in the resort community of Door County, Wisconsin, a killer is targeting young blond women, leaving their strangled bodies along the desolate Mink River. The killer ritualistically arranges the bodies to mimic sleep, except for the long blond hair, brushed over their faces. And his deadly calling card--a purple band wound around the victim's finger--a macabre symbol of love.
Leigh Girard, former Chicagoan and reporter for the Door County Gazette, is pulled into the murder investigation when she finds the first victim. Haunted by the grisly crime, she decides to write a letter to the killer begging him to stop. After the letter is printed in the Gazette, Leigh's nightmare really begins.
The killer breaks into her house and leaves a cryptic letter on her bed, hinting at his identity with a literary clue. After the police arrest a young fisherman for the murders, Leigh discovers another anonymous letter slipped into her mailbox. The letter contains another literary clue. With the police convinced they have the murderer, and Leigh convinced they don't, she races against time to decode the killer's clues before he kills again.
Not until Leigh's life is in jeopardy does she discover the horrifying truth: the killer has been living on the peninsula for years, dormant and waiting for the right catalyst to unleash his murderous compulsion.
With as many twist and turns as the Mink River, Death's Door is an eerie mystery thriller set against the wild beauty of the Door County peninsula in springtime.

Genres: Mystery, Suspense

ebook

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Gail Lukasik's latest book, What They Never Told Us: True Stories of Family Secrets and Hidden Identities Revealed, tells the stories of ordinary people who made extraordinary discoveries about their parentage and/or race and ethnicity. It's the followup book to her best-selling memoir, White Like Her: My Family's Story of Race and Racial Passing.

Severance Magazine gave What They Never Told Us a glowing review. Click the link to read: https://severancemag.com

Her fifth mystery novel, and first gothic historical mystery, The Darkness Surrounds Us, was praised Publishers Weekly, who said of the book: "Lukasik delivers a gripping ghost story of pandemics past in this well-crafted gothic mystery. With unpredictable plotting and superior atmospherics, this is an early-autumn treat fit for late-night devouring."

Gail's memoir, White Like Her: My Family's Story of Race and Racial Passing, captured national attention leading to her appearance in the documentary History of Memory, which won the X Award at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. https://garage.ext.hp.com/us/en/moder...

Gail was inspired to write White Like Her after her appearance on PBS's Genealogy Roadshow where her mother's life changing secret was revealed.

The Washington Post named White Like Her as one of the most inspiring stories of 2017.
She was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and was a dancer with the Cleveland Civic Ballet Company.

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leigh Gerard continues her prickly self as a journalist and self-appointed crusader detective in Door County. This is a convoluted story that starts with a missing girl but quickly progresses to murder. Gerard ticks off most everyone, sours on her boyfriend, and seems to be healing from the traumas that pre-date the first book. I found this less uneven than the first book, but a weird trick of light led me to read the word “crackpots” as “octopus” and now I fear that to me, our heroine will always be the one who believes the world to be full of octopus.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story, #2 in a series of mysteries, takes place in Door County Wisconsin. It is a peninsula wedged between Lake Michigan and Green Bay in northern Wisconsin, and is a very popular vacation area for Midwesterners. I've spent many summer vacations there and am very familiar with the area that the story takes place, so I was very interested in reading the book. I was shopping at a local bookstore and the author was hosting a book signing, so I took the plunge.

A young girl is killed and her body found by a local reporter, who delves into the investigation. The reporter has her own baggage, unfinished business with her estranged husband, and a history of cancer, side plots which do nothing but muddy the story. The reporter eventually becomes part of the investigation, as she becomes a target of the killer. Lots of twists and turns in the plot make this one a page turner.

I'd really like to give this book 3.5 stars. Great plot, well thought out story...but at times, the dialogue felt stiff and awkward. The story could have been fleshed out more, and the sidelines of cancer and relationships could have been eliminated...they were not necessary to the story and they never worked. It was fun to read a story placed in an area which I am so familiar, and I look forward to the next entry in this series.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second in the Leigh Girard, small town reporter series set in Wisconsin's Door County. I enjoyed it enough that I have already queued up the third in the series (and to date the last.)

[Wisterious Woman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't have much too say--just wished I had stopped reading it.

I agree with Robin Gifford's review. There were a lot of loose ends especially since I didn't read the first book in the series. The ending was weird and didn't make a lot of sense to me.

The story didn't really pull me in as a mystery and I didn't like the main character. She is separated from her husband for reasons unknown and sleeps with men that she knows little about. We actually don't find out too much about her because she keeps her past hidden. We just know that she lives in other people's houses and is a borderline alcoholic. Sex after breast cancer seemed to be one of the main themes in the book.

There was a whole sex-offender scenario going on as well. She makes a big deal about an 18 year old having consensual sex with a 14 year old. What if he had been 20 and she was 16? In the 50s teenage girls often married college men. She acts like the man might be a dangerous sex offender as an adult and is a real slime ball. Another guy is accused of having sex with a patient. In certain circumstances that might be a bad thing but in others it is not. She doesn't seem to know all the details but sits in judgement on him even though he has put all of that in the past. It didn't really relate to the mystery in any case since none of the women killed were sexually assaulted.

I won't be reading anything else in this series.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book turned out to be better than I expected it to be. It's the story of a small town newspaper reporter who is assigned to do a story about a missing teenage girl. The story develops into a double murder and the reporter just won't let the story go, even when the police think they have the murderer in custody. I found it annoying that the police were so incompetent and that the main character was so unlikable but the story was well written and entertaining nevertheless. My main complaint is that the ending seemed rather abrupt--the story was suddenly all wrapped up nice and tidy while I was still ready for it to go on.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book had my attention from the first page and kept me tied to it through the character's (Leigh Girard) first person narrative. This technique was so well done that I felt Leigh's ambition, frustrations, dreams and sorrow. The imagery was so clear that one could almost hear the waves splashing on the shore and the wind rustling through the trees. I now want to canoe the Mink River and witness the elusive Hine's Emerald Dragonfly, rent 'A River Runs Through It' and perhaps try and understand King Lear.

[Robin Gifford · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was very predictable. I didn't like the personality of the main character Leigh, I just couldn't relate. Also, I was confused with her multiple, random relationships. The author left a lot of loose ends in that aspect. The book was kind of slow in some areas and there were so many different characters that it was hard to keep track at times. The end was disappointing and sort of ended abruptly.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite liked the mystery. However, I had a little difficulty with the heroin. She doesn't seem like any woman that I have ever come across. She's quite rude to people that she has no reason to be rude to. And she doesn't seem to fear anything…things at any reasonable man or woman would naturally be afraid of! The story was pretty good though!

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give this book a 4.5 rating if I could. I did enjoy this book and it was a good who did it. it was fast paced and I enjoyed the characters. while the ending came quick it seemed, the book definitely left me wanting to read more. I would recommend this book to others.

[Mendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even better than the first!

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

a lot of characters sometimes confusing as to who was who. Otherwise a good read.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a vacation home in Door County where this murder/mystery takes place so I was very interested in reading this novel! It was a good read but a little confusing at times.

[Cherie Zamel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love that the story takes place in Door County Wisconsin.

[Lizzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good mystery. I thought the ending was somewhat contrived. I'm not convinced all the loose ends were neatly tied.

[Nann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good mystery with enough twists and turns to keep me guessing. I especially enjoyed the Door County setting with some Chicago thrown in.

[Gabi MacNaughton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. Liked the ending because it was not predictable!

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good story, going to check and see if she wrote any more books.

[LJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book set in Door County. Suspenseful.