Don't open the door!

by Ursula Curtiss

Death came to call on three women in a quiet town. It came in many guises - a note, the phone, a knock at the gate. It lurked in lilac bushes and abandoned toolsheds, peered through curtained windows, and struck with relentless fury!

The town locked its doors and huddled down to sleep - while a lonely girl battled a dreadful caller who had the face of a trusted friend!

Genres: Gothic, Mystery

180 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Daughter and sister of, respectively, US mystery writers Helen Reilly and Mary McMullen. She worked as a copywriter and columnist before becoming a full-time self employed writer.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's something I find immensely appealing about Ursula Curtiss's strange amalgams of dark comedy, psychological thriller and social satire. The writing's often a bit bumpy (sometimes, I suspect, because copyeditors tried to out-think the original text) and the characterization can be a bit skimpy, but the end product's nevertheless very pleasing.

Don't Open the Door! is set in one of those communities where just about everyone's pretty chi-chi yet there are pockets of abject poverty. Our main viewpoint character is Eve Quinn, a successful copywriter who's decided to retreat to rural anonymity for a while to get out from under the skirts of a foolish engagement. Through force of circumstance, she has been compelled to look after her ghastly, overwhelmingly spoilt three-year-old nephew Ambrose; luckily she has the assistance of occasional daily home help Iris Saxon to look after him.

But then there's a brutal murder in the neighborhood, and then another . . .

There isn't a perceivable motive for the killings. Neither of the dead women -- married sisters -- were precisely friends of Eve, although both were acquaintances. It seems there was some dark secret in the sisters' shared past, a secret known only to Henry Conlon, Eve's landlord and new neighbor . . .

The novel is not an exercise in sustained mystery: somewhere before the midpoint we're told who the killer is. And for a long time there's no great suspense -- just a constant flow of entertainment enlivened by lots of little revelations and mini-cliffhangers. In the final few pages, though, there definitely is a buildup of suspense, and it melds quite excellently with the earlier merriment.

Curtiss won't be everyone's cup of tea. But she is mine.

[Nattie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book definitely qualifies as a page-turner. Finding out who the baddie was early on didn't dampen the suspense. I think it actually made things more thrilling.

I have plenty to say about the story, but I can't quite figure out how to do so without spoiling some things, so I'll just leave it at that.

[Ginger · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is obscure, sometimes difficult to determine what she is talking about. The ending is a bit weak, yet the plot is very well done.

[Margaret Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting study in human behaviour, a close up examination of the complexities and hidden motivations (and fears) of typical Americans. The last two chapters, however, feel rather pro forma...as if the author had used a string of murders as an excuse to examination this group of people and now, done with that examination, just wanted to sweep the capture of the murderer out of the way in a confusingly perfunctory and unconvincing manner.

[Joann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a fun mystery. This is a serious book. Hard to understand his motivation...