 Following a very favourable experience with Chills, I was thrilled to learn that Mary SanGiovanni was returning to Kathy Ryan, the police detective with special knowledge and understanding of the occult. As you may have seen from my review, Ryan was a big part of what I’d enjoyed about that novel, and I was eager to see how she’d fare in another outing - she seemed well suited for an extended series, given her interests and MO. Kathy Ryan is a part of Behind The Door, but as with Chills, the novel is about far more than her, and indeed she doesn’t even show up in the narrative until around the one third mark. Instead, we are introduced to a cast of characters who all live in the town of Zarephath, Pennsylvania - a town with a brilliantly-conceived secret. There is a door, freestanding out in the woods near the town. And if you have something you need to change about your life, you can have it. Just write a note explaining what you want, and slide it under the door, and in three days, you’ll get it. There are rules, of course; word your wish very, very carefully, don’t ask for people back from the dead (you can - but don’t), never ask for a second wish… and, of course, never, ever open the door. It’s an obviously brilliant conceit, and SanGiovanni weaves a sharp portrait of small town America, it’s flawed, human inhabitants, and this warping force that keeps them and binds them. There’s shades of King’s Needful Things here, but SanGiovanni is doing something different, in some ways darker; at its core, this is a story about secrets, and guilt. Most of the users of the door want something taking away, not gaining, and the author really digs down into the concept, interrogating what it means to wish a part of yourself dead and gone… and how if feels once you manage it. Metaphors abound - addiction, self destructive impulses, self image issues, damaging relationships - but SanGiovanni keeps it admirably grounded in the real, letting the characters go through what they go through and reporting it without judgement or pity. There are some dark characters here, too, and I found some of the portrayals quite challenging. SanGiovanni doesn’t look away from imagining some of the worst things humans are capable of, and some of these characters will stick with me for a good while yet. Of course, things start to go seriously wrong, and at that point Ryan is called in. Here, SanGiovanni’s familiar style from Chills is once again deployed to great effect, with the cast facing increasingly escellating peril, and some fine horror set pieces - including an escape from a garage that is incredibly cinematic and high energy. The circling of the survivors, and the final race against time, is also an incredibly tense, exciting affair, with the outcome feeling in doubt right up to the final few pages. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my second SanGiovanni novel. Behind The Door contains more of the great writing that made Chills so good - brilliantly drawn characters, escalating horror, a sense of unknowable, malevolent forces gradually pushing the world further and further off kilter - but the central conceit, and the way it lays bare the pyches of the townsfolk of Zarephath, adds a whole new dimension to proceedings, and prevents this being simply a well-written retread. My only really quibble is I could have stood to see more Ryan - though she becomes pivotal to the story in the final act, she felt a bit distant from the narrative for the first half of the book. But that’s complaining about what the book isn’t, rather than what it is, which I’m not sure is fair. This novel more than delivers on it’s outstanding premise, and will leave you with scenes of horror, and psychological questions, that are complex and memorable. And anyway, I’m sure Kathy Ryan will be back. KP 29/8/18  Occult specialist Kathy Ryan returns in this thrilling novel of paranormal horror from Mary SanGiovanni, the author of Chills . . . Some doors should never be opened . . . In the rural town of Zarepath, deep in the woods on the border of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, stands the Door. No one knows where it came from, and no one knows where it leads. For generations, folks have come to the Door seeking solace or forgiveness. They deliver a handwritten letter asking for some emotional burden to be lifted, sealed with a mixture of wax and their own blood, and slide it beneath the Door. Three days later, their wish is answeredfor better or worse. Kari is a single mother, grieving over the suicide of her teenage daughter. She made a terrible mistake, asking the powers beyond the Door to erase the memories of her lost child. And when she opened the Door to retrieve her letter, she unleashed every sin, secret, and spirit ever trapped on the other side. Now, it falls to occultist Kathy Ryan to seal the door before Zarepath becomes hell on earth . . .  
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