Customer Reviews

Safer: A Novel of Suspense

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I usually avoid plots where the protagonist is framed or caught in a web not of his/her making. Perhaps because the truth is known from the beginning and the reader must persevere through the unraveling of the story and the sinister plot that is afoot. Perhaps it is because this concept may be the most frightening possibilty each of us might one day face.

That being said, "Safer" is one great read. After recently discovering Sean Doolittle with "The Cleanup", I was ready to plunge into this new novel. It immediately captured my interest to the point that I sometimes didn't want to put it down until I finshed it. It is stylish, well-written, tightly plotted, and flows easily although it will soon have you gripped in suspense.

Paul and Sara Callaway move to a quiet cul-de-sac in a midwestern small town and begin new jobs. At first life is good and idyllic as they meet and develop relationships with their new neighbors and prominently, Roger Mallory..a retired police officer and sort of self-appointed caretaker of the local community, including the Neighborhood Watch.

Almost before he knows it, Paul is in a horrible neighborhood battle with Roger that will have far reaching consequences. As Paul ultimately finds himself accused of a heinous crime and begins to feel the walls closing in around him, he finds his options to escape the sticky web that has ensnared him to be few and dependent perhaps on a questionable attorney and his own will to fight back. It is this fight to prove his innocence against overwhelming odds that keeps the reader gripped in suspense.

In the course of the narrative, Paul proves himself not to be the brightest bulb in the box by making several stupid decisions and mistakes, especially one which alienates the support of his wife. His desperate attempt to prove his innocence begins uncovering a decade old crime and a deadly dark conspiracy to hide it. Quickly the reader is left to decide who can Paul trust? Why is he faced with obstruction everywhere he turns? Why are so many not who or what they seem?

"Safer" is a gripping read for many reasons, not the least of which is the helplessness and frustration experienced by Paul Callaway with which most readers can identify. It is also a morality tale regarding the intrusion of modern electronic and spying devices and the planned and unplanned consequences they have on the lives that they touch upon. In a way, it is also a commentary on the social structures and neighborhood interactions that develop in small developments in almost any city. I strongly recommend not only "Safer" but also any work by Sean Doolittle.

SAFER, the new suspense novel from Sean Doolittle, begins simply enough, with Paul Callaway and his wife, Sara, moving from Boston to a quiet Midwestern community. On the first night in their new home, they are the victims of a break-in, which marks the beginning of a paranoid suburban nightmare that strains all suspension of disbelief this reader could muster.

Doolittle uses a shifting timeline to tell the story, alternating between Paul and Sara's early days in the new neighborhood, and the present-day, and the shifts can sometimes be disorienting. In the flashbacks, Paul tells how the break-in caused him to join the local neighborhood watch, part of the massive "Safer Places" organization, run by their neighbor, Roger Mallory. Roger's a retired cop/lunatic control freak, whose son was abducted and killed a decade ago, and he takes the "Watch" part of neighborhood watch VERY seriously. Before long, Paul has run afoul of Roger, and been arrested for crimes allegedly committed against his thirteen-year-old neighbor.

The first half of the book is a tightly-wound little thriller, but by the last fifty pages, my credibility had been strained beyond the breaking point, until SAFER had become an almost INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS-esque exercise in paranoia, where everyone you encounter is a part of the plot against you. The final fate of Paul Callaway ultimately flew in the face of all that had gone before, and no matter how good a book is, if it falls apart at the end, it's got to be considered a failure.

When Paul Callaway and his wife, Sara move from Boston to the small suburban cul-de-sac neighborhood in Iowa, they have no idea what's in store for them. This seemingly friendly neighborhood with it's Safer Places Organization that turns out to be the neighborhood watch from hell, isn't at all what they bargained for. Roger Mallory, a former police officer may have seemed like a nice friendly neighbor, but Paul and Sara begin to have suspicions as soon as the story starts to unfold.

This books grabs you right from the first pages with Paul being arrested at a cocktail party in his own home, to flash backs telling what led up to this night. It's an exciting read with lots of plot twists and turns and not a dull moment. It's one of those books that kept me up til 3:00 in the morning because I just couldn't put it down until I found out what happened.

Even if you don't usually like crime/suspense novels, this one is different because Sean Doolittle does such a great job writing and the characters are so believable. I plan to read his other books, Dirt and The Cleanup based on reading this one. Two thumbs up!

Not sure if this is the same guy who wrote horror novels in the late '80's or early '90's but...
SAFER is a nearly perfect crime novel.
Has all the necessary traits:
Great plot with twists galore...
characters that are real, believable and act consistent throughout the novel...
a climax that is a bit out of left-field but otherwise satisfying...
and just great dialogue.
A realy brilliant and complete novel...highly recommended.
Now I am off to order all of his other books.

Paul Calloway and his wife have just moved to a new town, which is usually a stressful event all by itself. The new neighbors seem nice enough, but their nosiness quickly begins to feel suffocating to Paul, and he begins to distance himself from them. That adds to the stress, especially since his wife seems to be more on their side than on his. Then he's arrested and charged with molesting one neighbor's 13-year old daughter. With no friends or other support network and with even his wife expressing doubts, Calloway struggles to defend himself against the lurid charges.

A fascinating story, told by a master story-teller. The "deus ex machina" ending is kind of unrealistic, which was disappointing, but it's still a very good read.

With Safer, Sean Doolittle has written a complex, strange, and engaging thriller that is a cut above the type found in the book section at your supermarket. The characters are well developed, the plot is very unique, and the writing is both engaging and thought-provoking. This is definitely the more artistic, thoughtful thriller.

Safer is the story of a "sexual misconduct" suit that gets out of hand, steadily building in intensity until it culminates in (at least) one death and a neighborhood in shambles. Written in the first-person present tense, this novel Paul Callaway's story of his attempt to clear his name from allegations of enagement in child pornography with a neighbor's child. Callaway knows he is innocent, but must clear his name and find out the identity of the framer, and the reasons for the frame. Little does he (or we) know that what he uncovers is much bigger than anyone supposes.

I found this book very interesting and often struggled to put it down. The characters (particularly Paul Callaway) are very well drawn and you will definitely be taken for an emotional ride (Doolittle is quite good at creating characters and situatiosn sure to get under your skin).

Anyone looking for "not the average thriller" will doubtless find this book to their liking. I look forward to reading it again.

"My wife, Sara, and I are hosting a faculty party at our home when the Clark Falls Police Department arrives to take me into custody." - Opening line to SAFER

SAFER engaged my attention at the first sentence and retained it throughout. It was only by the end did I take a step back from a total buy-in and award four stars instead of five.

Paul Callaway and his wife, both academic professors, only recently moved to a small college town in western Iowa on the banks of the Missouri River. On their first night in their new residence on circular Sycamore Court, their house is invaded by an intruder and Sara attacked, the man only driven off after Paul strikes out with a golf club. The police and neighbors are most helpful and solicitous, of course, especially Roger Mallory, an ex-cop now head of the local Neighborhood Watch. Why, good old Rog even has a total security system installed in and around the Callaway's home at no charge. Feeling somewhat obligated, Paul joins the security group.

But Paul and Roger have a falling out and the former resigns from the Watch.

Then, Paul is arrested on most serious allegations filed by a neighbor's underage daughter. Is he guilty as charged, or was he framed?

SAFER isn't classic literature, but it's a book you may not be able to put down even if you have better things to do. Paul's ordeal could be yours, especially if you live in an inbred housing enclave with no through street.

My reluctance to award five stars comes from the confusion regarding Roger's motives vis-a-vis Paul. At the end of the tale, I couldn't state for sure what these were since there are the complications of a subsidiary plot involving the past murder of Roger's young son by a an apparent child molester. I think, perhaps, there were one too many plots.

And what was neighbor Pete up to that Roger would tell him "time to end it", and Pete answers, "or what, you'll tell on me?" That mystery, maybe just a red herring, is never solved.

I did note that Paul's trashy reading interests have been captured by a book series about an "ass-kicking drifter." I suspect these are the mostly excellent Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child beginning with Killing Floor (Jack Reacher, No. 1).

I almost never give five stars to mysteries. This is the exception. I have always enjoyed Sean Doolittle's books but, until this one, they were very good, not great.

The book grabs the reader at the onset when an English professor is arrested at his Christmas party for child pornography involving his 13 year old neighbor. The mystery slowly unfolds with the narrator - Paul Calloway, the professor - flipping from present to past and the events leading up to his arrest. Although the mystery unfolds tauntingly slowly, the tension continually mounts as more is divulged. The professor lives on a friendly cul-de-sac. But all is not as it seems. As the skin of the onion is pulled back, there is a certain tension that borders on terror - all of this could really happen in a closely knit neighborhood. Calloway is set up and the set-up is completely plausible.

This is a unique psychological thriller/mystery. The writing is excellent and Doolittle sets up every scene so well that it was truly difficult to put the book down. Paul Carroway is a great character. He is a perfect everyman with strengths and weaknesses, a wife he loves and a rocky marriage. He accomplishes no extraordinary feats of strength nor mental gymnastics. He almost falls on the solutions. The perpetrator of the set-up is also perfectly drawn. A facade of perfection with roiling demons deep below the service. The ending is a bit rushed, but not diminish the rest of this very good yarn.

This is a highly recommended fast-paced mystery. As noted, the scariest part of it is that everything in it is possible.

Everyone wants to live in a town where everyone knows each other, where everyone keeps an eye out for their neighbor, a place where you always belong. But what if this idyllic community slowly turned into a Brave New Neighborhood? What everyone knew you more than you would like, your neighbors kept to close an eye on you, and when they didn't like what they saw, decided that you were no longer welcome?

Doolittle takes a handful of modern paranoid fears and combines them into a tight, engaging, and suspenseful tale of abusive power and overly cautious neighbors.

When Paul Callaway follows his wife and her new job of assistant dean to a cozy little midwestern town, he already feels a little out of place. He tries his best to fit in with his new neighbors, but quickly finds himself clashing with the local community's version of John Walsh; the father of an abducted and murdered child who now spearheads civic response teams and neighborhood watches.

Paul's marriage begins to fray at the edges, and his disagreement with his manipulative neighbor turns into a full blown feud. Then he discovers that there's much more going on behind the scenes than anyone imagined, and before he knows what's happening, he's being arrested on charges of sexual misconduct with his neighbor's teenage daughter.

What follows is a journey into the substantive fears of the modern man. Exactly how much of our lives is under surveillance? How many freedoms do we willingly and unknowingly sacrifice in the the name of security? How do you prove your innocence when a minor falsely accuses you of sexual improprieties? Can one man really prevail against the system when the system has it out for him?

Everyone just wants to feel safe. But as Paul Callaway soon discovers, sometimes the safer you feel, the more at risk you truly are.

Like any good suspense novel, the key is believability. Doolittle keeps everything within the realm of reason, and has no trouble convincing the reader to play along. The personalities are distinct but never overblown, the events that take place are always feasible, and the motivations of the characters are never questionable.

As with the best suspense novels, it is scary because you believe it could happen to you.

"Safer" is a compelling and entertaining crime fiction novel. It's a story about a middle-aged professional couple who relocate from the East Coast to a neighborhood in an small Midwestern town and become involved in criminal incidents which have their roots in hereto for never explained 10-year-old murders.

The residents who live in the suburban cul-de-sac with the protagonists, Paul and Sarah Calloway, are ostensibly normal suburban folk, except perhaps for Roger Mallory, a retired cop, who is a bit too friendly. The Calloway's find out way more than they would like to know about Roger and their other neighbors, as Paul is falsely charged with a sordid sex crime involving the 13-year-old daughter of one of the neighbors, discover the entire neighborhood is subject to surreptitious surveillance, and realize that Roger and the police department are engaged in a conspiratorial enterprise.

The characters are sufficiently well drawn to be credible, but it is the plot which holds the reader's interest - from Paul's attempts to get exonerated, the discovery of the neighborhood's secrets, and the multiple murders, both past and present. The prose is light, but brisk and witty. The ending, however, was disappointing as it was confusing and cramped and showed insufficient motivations for some characters actions.