OPEN HOUSE

by William Katz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 26, 1985

A competently written formula thriller that's without any distinctive tone or ideas, but nevertheless provides entertaining light reading. Like Surprise Party (1984), it concerns a New York City Police detective pursuing a psychotic killer. In this case, the detective is Leonard Anthony Karlov, a man who, as a result of his Russian heritage, harbors a deep fear of policemen--even though he is one. He is after a serial killer who gains entrance into the Upper West Side apartments of young women by disguising himself as a repairman, then kills them and leaves papier-mach‚ models of Venetian gondolas next to their heads, pointing west. Karlov soon learns that the gondolas were made to decorate a senior prom at a high school in Winnetka, Illinois, and were stolen on the night of the prom some 20 years before; he bases his investigation, therefore, on finding someone who holds a 20-year-old grudge connected with that prom. Katz adopts a rather standard device for building suspense: he writes alternately from the points of view of the killer, the detective, and an intended victim. Although the reader begins to care more about the victim than about the others, and becomes convinced increasingly of the killer's madness and Karlov's mere cleverness, the tension does build as these three characters' paths gradually converge. Because this device is so familiar, it allows one to guess pretty accurately how things will turn out; but it's standard precisely because it does work, and the ending of Open House is mildly suspenseful. By no means great literature, but enjoyable.

Pub Date: Aug. 26, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1985

Categories: FICTION