Death's Door

by Meryl Sawyer

Madison Connelly is tired of lies--and betrayal. First her husband and business partner leaves her for another woman. Then Detective Paul Tanner arrives to tell her that the man she thought was her father isn't. Madison wants answers...answers about her past that someone is going to deadly lengths to keep hidden.Falling for Madison isn't in Paul's job find the girl, bring her to his employer, Wyatt Holbrook, the end. But as Madison bravely agrees to cross over a dangerous threshold into Holbrook's privileged, secretive world, she'll need more than Paul's growing attraction to keep her safe. Because she's about to be drawn deep into a complicated web of intrigue, deceit--and murder.

Genres: Romantic Suspense, Suspense

428 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 21, 2009

Reviews

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paperback first published in 2009.

In Miami, Madison Connelly owns Total Trivia, an Internet gaming company. Madison's best friend is murdered. Paul Tanner is on disability leave from the Miami police department and helping out with his father's security company. Paul has tracked down Madison believing her to be the outcome of long ago sperm donation. Suddenly, all the donor's children are being murdered.

The author showed research to pull several story lines into the book -- lab drug testing, sperm donations, and identity theft. Trivia occurs too. Aside from the killer, there's more drama and romance than mystery. The killer seemed obvious. I'm a dog lover and had to skip over a couple of references to dog experiments. My favorite character in the book was dog Aspen.

[ElaineY · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 and a half stars; not quite four. Somehow, this lacked the sizzle I've gotten from other romantic suspense titles or, it could be I read it immediately after Leslie's Parrish's Fade to Black which outshone Sawyer's on several levels.

Though Death's Door's romance is more in the foreground than Sawyer's last few books, there wasn't anything particularly riveting about the protagonists. Madison's stubborn insistence that Wyatt isn't her biological father got repetitive and annoying. It would have worked more in her favor if the author hadn't repeated that again and again so that when the test results are revealed, there would have been some element of surprise. As a result it was like, 'yeah, she was right. So what?' for me.

Since that bit isn't all that critical to the story as I thought it would be, I don't mind mentioning it - but am still putting a spoiler alert for those who hate anything to be revealed.

And there was this scene towards the end - the villain is being eaten away in a vat of acid and the two protags are having a lovey-dovey moment right next to the vat...err, ugh. I guess such scenes are normal for movies and romantic fiction but I still think I would have gotten the hell outta there first since the cavalry had arrived and it wasn't my last chance to grope the hero.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Page. Turner.
This book had me absolutely zipping through the pages! With all the twists and turns, I really didn't know what to expect next. What a fun and playful way most chapters started with a trivia question, too!

[Christina Valleroy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good ending, but took alot to get there

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The entire time I was reading it I was expecting a big bomb to drop.. I was waiting for the excitement to pick up, but for me it never did. The plot was also cliche for a lot of romantic suspense books I read: the heroine and hero eventually fall for each other while trying to determine who the mysterious killer is that is offing all of Wyat Holbrook's donor-conceived children. THAT'S IT. I had hoped for more, but was truly disappointed!

The plot was lacking, the intensity was not there, the dialogue was somewhat weak as were the characters and the book was slow to pick up. The ending was REALLY cheesy. It almost felt like a waste of time. You learn nothing new and what I felt was the cincher was everyone being supremely beautiful with brains. A little unrealistic, don't you think?

I don't recommend this, overall. 2/5 stars.

[Ron Stokes]

I had inadvertantly joined a women's book club and received this book and "Deep Down" as a free trail offer. I have to say that although I wouldn't have picked these books to read on my own I was pleasantly surprised with the stories, how they unfolded and how they kept my attention (although I could have done without the intricate details of the love stories). Good book. Not much action, but suspenful.

[Xenos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good read by Meryl Sawyer! (My favorite by her so far is "Unforgettable" -- which is truly unforgettable -- and is the five-star standard by which I judge the rest of her books.) Though I figured out who the killer was about halfway through, there were more than enough twists and turns to make me doubt myself and keep turning the pages. Meryl does a great job of balancing romance and suspense, and continues to be one of my favorite authors of all time.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked the suspense and tension in this book and plan to read more by this author. The killer is fairly obvious, although the author tries to make you think it might be someone else. Still it’s a great, page-turning read.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a murder mystery/love story. What was nice about it was I didn't know who "done it" until the very end. That does not happen very often to me. This was an easy read so if you are looking for mystery with little thought I would recommend this.

[Rosalind]

Gave up on this one, didnt find it interesting at all.

[Ann Stank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gave up after page171. Too much technical talk. I was not really into the story.

[Darla Stokes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where to start? There is so much going on in this book. Our heroine, Madison, walks in on the murdered body of her best friend. Her husband left her for a co-worker, but they're all still running their internet-trivia-game business together, and her husband wants to add gambling to the game. There's a shady financier pressuring her to sell him her half of the business. An off-on-convalescent-leave cop, Paul (our hero), approaches Madison and tells her she's the daughter via sperm donation of a millionaire businessman/philanthropist who needs a liver transplant. There was shady stuff going on with the sperm bank. Oh, and there's a dog and yet another subplot about animal testing and activism. And those are just the main subplots. There are more, like Paul's and Madison's parents' issues, and Madison being the victim of identity theft. Good grief--I nearly forgot that the millionaire's offspring seem to be dying all at once, from what appear to be accidental causes.

It really kind of felt like there were all these little threads lying around that weren't enough for a story on their own, so they all got jumbled together. Kind of like making soup from all the odds and ends in the refrigerator.

The one thing that drove me up the wall, because it started early on and didn't let up until very near the end of the book, is that Madison insisted that her father, who's dead, is her biological father and it's impossible she could be the result of donated sperm, so she doesn't need to do any testing, because she just knows.

And the ending was ridiculous. The insanely multiple plot threads did not all come together in the end, and whodunit was distinctly unsatisfying.