Death's Door

by Ron Wolfe, John Wooley

Police officer Case Hamilton is brought back from clinical death by strange and unauthorized medical techniques. But something has come back with him; Case is not the man he once was. Death has taken a piece of him...and it wants more.

Genres: Horror

386 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1992

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

All in all, a pretty disappointing outing for the duo that wrote Old Fears but par for the course with the rather dismal Dell Abyss horror line. Our main protagonist is Case Hamilton, a tough cop with a bit of a mean streak and a short temper. Death's Door starts with him being shot and dying on the floor of a liquor store after he and his partner busted up a robbery there. It turns out he did die, albeit just for a little bit, until he finally stabilized. Now, Case works as a rentacop in a hospital.

Wooley and Wolfe take us on a rather meandering ride here, with many 'flashbacks' from Case's POV and the introduction of a fairly broad cast. We have, for example, a gang of losers hopped up on some new strange drug called 'mother's milk' who are up to no good; Case's estranged daughter who is now a cop; the 'famous' doctor who saved Case's life with some experimental new tech; a bunch of antiabortionist nut job protestors at the hospital where Case works, etc. There does not really seem to be anything holding this together for the first half of the book except they all revolve around Case, and even that link does not come until later.

It seems when Case died the first time (yes, he dies and comes back a second time), he had a heaven experience, meeting his father, mother, etc. in some Eden, but was 'rudely' pulled back. Nonetheless, Case is a changed man these days (the bulk of the novel is set three years after the prologue), his mean streak suppressed if not eliminated, and now he befriends the hospital staff with gifts of home-grown tomatoes and fresh eggs from his home.

I like Wooley and Wolfe's prose, which was probably the only reason this was not added to the DNF pile. A good editor would have easily trimmed a few hundred pages of bloat from this. After about the halfway mark things start to get a little interesting, when Case dies once again, but this times, comes back with something from the other side. The 'famous' doctor who operated on him both times is your basic cliche 'mad scientist' who fell in love with Dr. Frankenstein as a kid. The second time he uses some strange gizmo to 'tickle' part of Case's brain after he had been dead for several minutes...

If you are into 'romantic' horror and science gone wrong, read some Shelly and skip this turkey. 2 bloated stars.

[Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

So. Here we have a mundane horror novel about a man who comes back from the dead, only to find that someone has followed him back from the other side. What's odd about this book is this doesn't happen until some time after the second half of the book. He's come back from death's door once before, but that time around, all that followed him back was the sound of bells. This time, it's something more tangible, and murderous.

The characterization of the novel is weak, the plot isn't that engaging or original, and there's nothing all that scary about what happens in the book. This is all a shame, because the writing style of the two writers is actually pretty strong. They seem to understand the show-don't-tell adage, and the narrative flows well, it's just that what they choose to show and narrate simply isn't that interesting. I mean, these guys aren't poetic, nor will they receive any kind of accolades for their style, but compared to some of the other stuff I've read in the Abyss line, they seemed to have a better talent for writing than some of the other authors.

I wouldn't recommend this book, because the story itself drags down how well the writers tell us that story. Even during Abyss' initial run, this wasn't considered to be among the top tier books, but looking back some 20+ years later, it becomes even clearer.

Abyss #21

[Debra]

Stephen King endorsed the entire Dell Abyss Horror line. Here is his blurb:

"Thank you for introducing me to the remarkable line of novels currently being issued under Dell's Abyss imprint. I have given a great many blurbs over the last twelve years or so, but this one marks two firsts: first unsolicited blurb (I called you) and the first time I have blurbed a whole line of books. In terms of quality, production, and plain old story-telling reliability (that's the bottom line, isn't it), Dell's new line is amazingly satisfying...a rare and wonderful bargain for readers. I hope to be looking into the Abyss for a long time to come."

[Horror Guy]

First DNF in a while!

[Blake Kourik · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh.