Andrew Thomas is America’s most wanted serial killer, having left a trail of bodies from North Carolina to Wyoming. Seven years, however, have passed since his twin brother, Orson, and several others were found butchered in a remote Wyoming cabin, and the trail of the famous thriller writer seems to have gone as cold as the air outside his new abode in the Alaskan Yukon.
In “Locked Doors,” Durango novelist Blake Crouch’s sequel to his creepily excellent debut, “Desert Places,” the protagonist, now known around the don’t-ask-don’t-
tell town of Haines Junction as Vincent Carmichael, seems resignedly content with his new life. It is more a Life of Kaczynski than Riley, as Carmichael rarely ventures from his woodsy cabin and has none of the material perks of his former life as a best-selling horror novelist.
But for a framed man whose mind probably should have become a twisted wreck thanks to his sadistic, late brother, Carmichael has moved on rather nicely. He moonlights as a chef, savors the nightly molten Yukon sunsets and even spends an hour here and there at the local library checking e-mail and anonymously kibitzing in chat rooms.
But Carmichael’s carefully crafted new world is about to become blown apart. Surfing the Net one day, he comes across a headline from a North Carolina news site: “Family Slaying Linked to Andrew Thomas.” While the rest of the world believes
Thomas has come out of hiding to kill some former neighbors and kidnap his ex-girlfriend, Carmichael knows it could only be the work of one Luther Kite. A former protégé of Thomas’ brother who apparently survived the killing spree that freed Thomas from their murderous clutches, the long-haired Kite is back and ready to take his revenge.
If it were a movie, what follows might best be summed up as “The Fugitive” meets the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”
Knowing Luther is baiting him, Carmichael knows he must re-enter the world of Andrew Thomas and quickly hatches a plan he ultimately hopes will most certainly not be for the benefit of Mr. Kite. Along the way to an island off North Carolina’s Outer Banks where he believes Kite is holed up with his captives – who now include the widowed wife of a friend killed – there is nuisance. One is in the form of young Horace Boone, who recently dropped out of a college creative writing course only to see a potential blockbuster book flash before his eyes when he recognizes Thomas in a Haines Junction bookstore. While Thomas hits the road to find Luther, Boone tries to keep up to record the details for what is sure to make quite a splash on the literary scene.
A young and newly pregnant detective from Davidson, N.C., also stumbles onto Thomas’ trail, and she, too, becomes part of the chase that ultimately leads to the Kite house of horrors. It turns out that Kite has also enlisted some help for the awful misery he plans for
Thomas and anyone else who gets in the way.
Written in 69 short chapters, the book moves at breakneck speed, which is an, unfortunately, all too accurate analogy for some of its characters. As in “Desert Places,” Crouch has little use for subtlety in detailing the pain inflicted by his tormentors. It is not for the weak-
stomached.
When the story moves to the foggy, desolate Outer Banks, Crouch is at his terrifying best. You can feel the cold mist on your skin and see the creepy shadows barely illuminated by a distant cabin’s flickering light. A great horror novel takes you to a place so scary and vivid as to make you thankful you are not actually there, and Crouch does this well.
The only weakness to “Locked Doors” is the somewhat clumsily developed subplot of Horace Boone. And there are some “Oh, please” moments. For a serial killer who is No. 1 both with the FBI and the New York Times best-seller list,
Thomas sure moves about with ease. He hops flights in busy airports and rents cars. He retrieves items from a storage facility in his real name that probably would have been first on the FBI’s to-do list of real-life places to search for clues on a killer. And, shouldn’t more law enforcement personnel be on the case here than a rookie detective?
All in all, though, Crouch’s second installment will have you checking the locks on the doors at night.
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-820-5454 or adater@denverpost.com.
