The Dark Door

Constance and Charlie #2

by Kate Wilhelm

Charlie and Constance must figure out who has been setting fire to abandoned hotels, restaurants, and schools around the country. Reprint.

Genres: Mystery, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Horror

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Kate Wilhelm’s first short story, “The Pint-Sized Genie” was published in Fantastic Stories in 1956. Her first novel, MORE BITTER THAN DEATH, a mystery, was published in 1963. Over the span of her career, her writing has crossed over the genres of science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy and magical realism, psychological suspense, mimetic, comic, and family sagas, a multimedia stage production, and radio plays. She returned to writing mysteries in 1990 with the acclaimed Charlie Meiklejohn and Constance Leidl Mysteries and the Barbara Holloway series of legal thrillers.

Wilhelm’s works have been adapted for television and movies in numerous countries; her novels and stories have been translated to more than a dozen languages. She has contributed to Quark, Orbit,  Magazine of Fantasy and ScienceFiction, Locus, Amazing Stories, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine,  Fantastic, Omni, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Redbook, and Cosmopolitan.

Kate Wilhelm is the widow of acclaimed science fiction author and editor, Damon Knight (1922-2002), with whom she founded the Clarion Writers’ Workshop and the Milford Writers’ Conference, described in her 2005 non-fiction work, STORYTELLER. They lectured together at universities across three continents; Kate has continued to offer interviews, talks, and monthly workshops.

Kate Wilhelm has received two Hugo awards, three Nebulas, as well as Jupiter, Locus, Spotted Owl, Prix Apollo, Kristen Lohman awards, among others. She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2009, Kate was the recipient of one of the first Solstice Awards presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) in recognition of her contributions to the field of science fiction. 

Kate’s highly popular Barbara Holloway mysteries, set in Eugene, Oregon, opened with Death Qualified in 1990. Mirror, Mirror, released in 2017, is the series’ 14th novel.

Reviews

[EmBe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meine Rezension zum Erscheinen auf dem Buchmarkt:
Ein mysteriöser und gefährlicher Einfluss geht von verlassenen, aus Holz gebauten Hotels in den USA aus. Dort gibt es auch immer eine Tür, die ins Nichts zu führen scheint. Die Familie von Carson Danvers wird Opfer dieses verrückt machenden Einflusses. Im Schutz einer fremden Identität beginnt er einen Rachefeldzug gegen diese böse Macht. Auf seine Spur setzen sich im Auftrag einer Versicherung ein Brandpolizist im Ruhestand, und auch dessen Frau, eine Psychotherapeutin, arbeitet bei der Aufklärung der Fälle wesentlich mit. Die beiden finden bald den Brandstifter und den Grund für seine Taten heraus. Sie bekommen den Einfluss sogar selbst zu spüren. Danach beschließen die drei, das, von dem dieser Einfluss ausgeht zu vernichten, bevor eine "Tür ins Dunkel" in den Händen von Wissenschaftlern zu einem unkalkulierbaren Risiko wird.

Die Ursache für den Einfluss ist eine außerirdische Sonde mit Fehlfunktion. Dies verrät schon der Prolog des Romans. Wäre nicht diese einleitende Erklärung, der Leser könnte glauben, er hätte einen Horror-Roman vor sich, denn Wilhelm versteht es, beim Leser Grauen durch die Schilderung der Wirkung der Sonde zu erzeugen. Der Prolog dient sicher auch dazu, die Aufmerksamkeit von der Herkunft der Einflusses auf die Frage, wie sie auf die Menschen wirkt und wie sie die durch ihn entstandene Situation meistern, zu lenken. Dies ist auch die Stärke des Romans. Die Autorin schildert mit psychologischen Einfühlungsvermögen sehr glaubwürdig die Gedanken und Taten der Figuren. Bei der Vielzahl der Figuren scheint sie jedoch manchmal die Story aus den Augen zu verlieren. Auch wird das Phänomen mit detektivischen Spürsinn und wissenschaftlichem Methoden eingekreist, wobei jedoch die Frage offen bleibt, warum einige diesen Einfluss anders, weniger stark spüren als die meisten. Dies ist insofern wichtig, da diese Menschen es sind, die etwas gegen ihn unternehmen können. Der Showdown zieht sich dann wie in einem Spielberg-Film endlos lange hin, was mir übertrieben scheint. Darauf folgt ein Epilog, der wieder die außerirdische Seite der Ereignisse zeigt. Epilog wie Prolog sind jedoch recht dürftig ausgefallen, so dass sie sich wie ein Alibi für den SF-Charakter des Romans ausnehmen.

Dieser Roman gehört sicher nicht zu den besten Romanen der Autorin. Kaum etwas Neues hat sie dem altbekannten Muster abgerungen, obwohl das Buch als Spannungsroman zu empfehlen ist.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this audiobook. While this is classified a science fiction, for the most part it has more of a mystery feel. A space probe from an alien planet has malfunctioned and is on earth creating madness, murder, and other unexplainable phenomena. Those touched by the probe rarely escape unharmed, but one man does escape. He has no idea what this evil is, but he knows it's patterns. He travels around the country trying to burn the evil out of abandoned buildings. I thought it was an enjoyable book as I followed along as the characters tried to understand and figure out how to stop this "thing".

[Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love a good mystery, and I have at least a basic appreciation for science fiction. If you combine them both somehow, you have a book I’m going to read with particular interest. Alas, the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, a division of the Library of Congress, doesn’t have the first book in the series available to download. I had no choice but to start with the second one.

In the prologue an alien probe has gone rogue and become lost to its creators. Those who govern that distant race of creatures instruct the designer to do no further innovation until he finds the probe and deals with it. That drew me in immediately.

On Earth, insurance adjusters throughout the United States fear that a serial arsonist is somehow running rampant through the country. Old, abandoned hotels become the target for arson.

Carson Danvers, his wife, son, and an insurance adjuster are visiting a hotel that fits the profile of these buildings. Danvers’s wife experiences something that feels like the migraine of all migraines, but it only lasts a short time. Then, without provocation, her son, Gary, pulls a gun and murders her. Danvers blacks out, and the insurance adjuster vanishes. When he becomes conscious again, he learns hospital officials think he is the missing insurance adjuster.

After he heals, he determines to investigate the fires even though he’s not an actual adjuster. He remedies that by becoming one. He involves Constance and Charlie in his investigations. She is a psychologist or psychiatrist—it was never entirely clear to me—and he’s a retired fire investigator and cop.

The group soon begins to connect the fires with horrific circumstances that surround them. People go berserk and murder one another within range of the abandoned buildings. Those who don’t kill others complain of blinding headaches and a sense of cobwebs in their faces.

The suspense will enshroud you as Constance and Charlie figure out how to destroy whatever it is that so horribly alters human behavior. The ending was excellent, and I remained immersed in the plot to the end.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very odd mashup of Sci-fi and murder mystery/police procedural, with metaphysical overtones (what is the nature of evil?) Somebody in a distant star system launches an "interspace" probe to detect other life. It seems to disappear, or to send back hard-to-interpret info. On earth, abandoned hotels seem to be the locus of strange energy that torments humans who get too close, and drives them homicidally mad. Charlie and Constance investigate (he is a retired arson investigator; all the hotels have burned down). Somehow, they intuit that a weird darkness in the hotels is responsible, and they intuit that it is likely of extraterrestrial origin. They help to detonate an explosive in the middle of the darkness to dispel it for good. On the alien planet, the probe's scientist notices that something has happened to it.
If you can make sense of this, you are a better man than I am, Charlie Brown. Read as a recorded book, fairly well read by Anna Fields. Once we are on earth, the characters and the investigation are sort of interesting. Back on the alien planet, it is all p[retty opaque.
Tracked this down as a result of a Katte Wilhelm obit in the NYT, which made her books sound interesting. Not sure if I want to pursue any more.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing premise. I liked the relationship between the characters, and how they were ordinary people with regular lives who stumbled into something incomprehensible. Reminiscent of early Dean Koontz.

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love Kate Wilhelm and like the characters in this book, but the book was not to my taste.

[Ebenmaessiger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overstay its welcome by 100 pages -- one of the unfortunate side effects of late-80s, early-90s genre bloat. Nonetheless, effective, at times, although book-ended by some serious narrative duct-taping, or an attempt to slide this within the science-fiction horror genre, although that’s but 15 out of the 350 pages. All the same, those 15 held some of the more interesting speculative elements of the whole thing, although I can't imagine anyone coming to this with a primary interest in sf'nal concerns would leave satisfied with those meager offerings. Indeed, the primary effect was one of moderate horror, a kind of amplified Shamylan-ian 'Happening' (an irresistible template for those with little else to say or a little desire to say it). And, as one generally uninterested in mystery, baffled by the insane leaps of logic made by our investigating crew in comprehending the central mystery ( "Hmm, there seems to be a central location, outwards from which emanates an insane-making signal. I've got it! It must be a portal sent from space by an alien civilization! ). And then just this miserable little paragraph here (pg. 253): “She knew he was evading her again, and he knew she was well aware that he had not yet answered her, and by now she must know that he would not. Could not, he corrected. There had been few secrets over the twenty-five years of their marriage, but now and then there was a secret. Now there was a secret, he corrected again. The others had not lasted long."

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, bizarre is the name of the game here. Retired arson investigator Charlie Meiklejohn and psychologist Constance Leidl get drawn into a strange case of arson fires set in abandoned hotels, seemingly randomly. The arson itself was odd, as it didn't seem to benefit anyone, but more compelling were the stories of behavior changes before the fires. People near the buildings seemed to go crazy, usually violently. Somehow the craziness was connected to these old buildings, but how?

The determined duo travels to the different towns and interviews witnesses. They develop a theory, they actually track down the arsonist, but that does not stop the action.

The story is a bit too much science fiction or maybe paranormal for my taste. I think Wilhelm does well with this genre and there is nothing wrong with her writing. It just isn't for me.

[Damian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not quite sure what to make of this book. The overall plot was interesting and the writing was good, in the sense that if you read a given paragraph it adheres to Wilhelm’s high standard. But it is oddly repetitive, which takes some of the heat out of an otherwise excellent premise. It possibly should have been pared down to a novelette or novella, though it’s not actually a very long novel.
But there is no question that you are left with vivid images, frightening situations and profoundly moved or changed characters who you care about.

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I keep changing the number of stars to give this book, from 2 - 4. I feel as though the ending was a little inconclusive. Although I just re-read it and there's more closure than I got the first read. Still, some things are not explained or known, and I guess that is true of other Kate Wilhelm books.

I have questions about what happened after the closing scene.

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars. Too weird for my taste but was last in this series & thought it might make sense at the end. It didn't. One other in the series was weird too - didn't like it either. Otherwise, I like this duo and would have enjoyed more who dun it than "whaaaa?".

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

not my genre

[Gman · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I was younger, I read SiFi all the time. It seems I have lost my taste for SiFi fiction. I Did not like it.

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kept listening, as I thought it was going to be a little mystery about people burning down hotels, but it did end up being a supernatural type science fiction.

[Stacielynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story, despite the somewhat unlikely plot. Neither a true ghost story nor sci fi — but certainly entertaining.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whew. Spooky business that destroys many lives. Can our sleuth-y couple make sense of it all?



P.S. What's that meme..?

I'm not saying it was aliens but ... it was aliens.

[Janejd · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have liked many of Kate Wilhelm books in the past. I listened to this one. I found it odd and confusing. Hard to follow.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The storyline felt like it was heading like a Dean Koontz novel! Very interesting suspense novel. Being a later Kate Wilhelm fan I was pleasantly surprised.

[Anna Hepworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

review coming later :)
(basically -- creepy, first contact isn't always intentional)

[Jay Goemmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel works on several different levels. The beginning and end are science fiction, the body of the story is a mystery with seemingly paranormal events (which are much more satisfying with the SF background laid first), and a detective mystery.

A good re-entry for me into Kate Wilhelm's excellent brand of storytelling. Now to wait for her SF collection "The Downstairs Room" to be re-released. ;-D

Oct. 3, 2012.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starting to read this book, I wondered what Charles and Constance had to do with space probes. I mean, Charles and Constance are not sci-fi. They have some idea of what is going on by the end of the book, but no idea of the scale.

It's not a gripping book, but if you like Kate Wilhelm, or have read other Charles and Constance books, and liked them, you will like this one as well.

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Think it might be a good book for me to listen to while painting. Pub Weekly says "Wilhelm is in top form as the thriller plot races along while characters teeter over an abyss of insanity and loss." Here's hoping.

Well, it was not a bad book to listen to while doing something else. If you like supernatural horror, that is.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised to have bought a science-fiction book, but it is nevetheless also a detective story, only with supernatural phenomenons. A good read, but I still much prefer the Barbara Holloway series.

[Lisabet Sarai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kate Wilhelm is, in my opinion, a sadly unappreciated author of science fiction, but this book did not measure up to some of her other novels. The book offers compelling characterization and a good deal of action, but it could as easily be a ghost story as sci fi.

[Thannasset · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mystery story, horror story, good intro to a detective team--all disguised as science fiction.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the quirky mix of mystery and science fiction. Kate Wilhelm does this kind of quick particularly well.

[Bill Rakowski]

Liked it.

[Timothy Neesam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finished it, but only just. Can't say much more than that. Started with a great premise, ended poorly. I'll leave it at that.

[Cindy B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love Anna Fields narration (RIP, Anna), enjoy Kate Wilhelm, like the interaction of the main characters just not a science-fi fan.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third Constance and Charlie book I have read. I was very surprised about the way this story went. Liked it and will read the next in the series.