Safer (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this unsettling thriller from Barry Award–winner Doolittle (The Cleanup), Boston transplants Paul Callaway and his wife, Sara, scare off a violent intruder their first night in their new home in Clark Falls, Iowa, where Paul has taken up a post as an English professor at the local university. As a result of this incident, the Callaways meet members of their tight-knit community, including ex-cop Roger Mallory, the neighborhood's unofficial protector. Though Paul is initially welcomed into Roger's circle of friends, Paul becomes suspicious when he discovers Roger is conducting secret surveillance of the neighborhood. Tensions mount between the two men, coming to a head after Paul is arrested for child pornography, a charge he's sure Roger helped concoct. Desperate to clear his name, Paul begins his own investigation into Roger's past. Despite Doolittle's admirably complex plot and empathetic hero, readers may question just how many skeletons a single small town can have in its closets. (Mar.)
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From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle A good thriller need not wallow in violence and murder. That was demonstrated as long ago as 1862, when Wilkie Collins published "No Name," the second of his three great pioneering novels of suspense (the other two are "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone"). The title refers to the bastardy of its heroine, Magdalen Vanstone, and the suspense centers on her machinations to regain her late parents' estate, which has been claimed by a greedy relative who is legally, but not morally, entitled to it. Can Magdalen infiltrate that relative's household in disguise and pick up information by which she might prevail? Or will the wily housekeeper see through Magdalen's masquerade? But Collins's non-sanguinary example isn't often followed these days, when authors tend to slaughter a character in the first few pages, followed by periodic sacrifices of more gore-smeared victims, to keep the reader's attention from flagging. So this reader perked up when Sean Doolittle opened "Safer" -- his fine thriller about the toll exacted by life in a security-conscious suburb -- on a different note. Paul Callaway and his wife, Sara -- academics who have moved from Boston to join the faculty at an Iowa university -- are hosting a party when the police unexpectedly drop in. "Is something wrong?" Paul asks the officers. Plenty, as it happens. Minutes later, he is under arrest for "suspicion of the sexual exploitation of a minor." That would be Brittany, the precocious 13-year-old next door. We soon learn that the case against Paul is practically a slam-dunk: The cops have pornographic photos of him with the girl. Bad as things may look for Paul, the reader is pretty sure he's innocent. He's the first-person narrator of the tale, after all, and a self-described "teenage book nerd in a grown man's body." His indignation at being charged with abusing Brittany seems genuine, and he has a sense of humor to boot. "Next to Boston," he observes, "the relative cost of living in Clark Falls, Iowa, seemed like a clerical mistake." Could such a practiced quipster really be a bad guy? It soon comes out that the Callaways' across-the-street neighbor, Roger Mallory, is a troubled -- and troubling -- soul. A few years back, his young son was raped and murdered (yes, an early-breaking homicide, but it happened offstage), and the harrowing experience has left Roger obsessed with security. A former policeman, he founded a local Neighborhood Patrol, which has become the springboard for a movement he touts regularly on TV. Paul himself has joined the group, and not just to be neighborly. On the night the Callaways moved in, a prowler walked into the wide-open house and assaulted Sara, who escaped serious harm only because Paul returned from an errand in time to chase the guy off. Otherwise, however, the Callaways were finding the neighborhood a good fit -- until, as we learn in a flashback, Roger showed up on their doorstep a month or so before the arrest to deliver a confounding message: Paul had to go. You heard that right: Roger invoked his authority as neighborhood czar to inform Paul that he couldn't live there anymore (it says something about Roger's screwiness that his ban did not extend to Sara). Paul interprets his arrest and the obviously doctored photos of himself and Brittany as Roger's twisted way of enforcing the diktat. Doolittle braids these elements into nerve-racking patterns. In a particularly disturbing scene, one day while Roger is out, Paul enters Roger's unlocked house to tend to the man's dog, which is in distress. Once inside, Paul looks around, opens a door and lets himself into a homegrown spy chamber, with live camera hookups to every house on the block. But when Paul calls the police to complain about the invasion of privacy, Roger calmly points out that, if Paul will check, he will see that on moving-in day he initialed a form authorizing the surveillance in the interest of -- what else? -- neighborhood security. To his nausea, Paul finds that Roger is right. In the book's fourth quarter, the author loses interest in his best creation, that creepy Roger, and allows Clark Falls to become something of an abattoir after all. But the violent, formulaic finish detracts only slightly from an enthralling and unsettling story. Doolittle has written four previous novels, and "Safer" is good enough to make me want to catch up with them all. Note: In the future, Patrick Anderson's reviews will appear on the first and third Mondays of the month.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press (February 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385338988
• ISBN-13: 978-0385338981
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #34,048 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Safer" Will Grip You In Suspense, December 24, 2008

By	TMStyles (California) - See all my reviews

(What's this?)

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.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to (Mr.) Roger's neighborhood, February 2, 2009

By	PT Cruiser "PT Cruiser" (CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

(What's this?)

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!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First Rate Thriller With a Literary Flair!, January 12, 2009

By	Kevin Currie-Knight "Education Grad Student" (Newark, Delaware) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

(What's this?)

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.