From Publishers Weekly First novelist Gottesfeld weaves an intricate mystery that grips readers from the opening chapter. The hackneyed convention of the disheveled, hard-drinking, down-on-his-luck journalist playing detective is given a new spin in the character of Charlie Halleran, a Vietnam veteran whose crazed wife killed his beloved daughter. He's drawn into the mysterious case of Alice, a girl he hears pleading for help on a Los Angeles radio call-in broadcast, because it resembles a story of child abuse and murder he covered in New York 18 years earlier. Charlie bulldozes his way into the increasingly tangled life of Rena Halbrook, the on-air psychologist, and insists on getting involved in Alice's case. As the tale races toward a gory climax, the reader learns about the links between childhood sexual abuse, adult violence and post-traumatic stress syndrome. Neither the message nor the execution are subtle, but the book's slam-bang pacing and avid dishing out of nasty details make it effective. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more
D**S
Great first novel.
Having read a few books recently that were a bit of a struggle to finish, 'The Violet Closet' was a refreshing change, as this is a book that motivated me to keep reading until the very end.A radio psychiatrist starts receiving disturbing phone calls both on and off the air, so decides to investigate further as to the cause and caller. The identity of the caller is established relatively quickly, but this person has been dead for eighteen years.With the help of various people around her (and some drawn to her), she starts trying to trace the movements of the people involved in the death of the caller and thus the identity of her mysterious present-day caller.The story moves along at a nice pace, with the author keeping this reader interested until the end. The focus of blame shifts from one character to the next, with all seeming plausible suspects until they are ruled out one way or another.The final twist when everything is revealed was good - I had not deduced who the caller actually was until the final chapter.The eleven page Epilogue seemed a little excessive, but I remember reading somewhere recently that the US market likes having all the loose ends tied up at the end of a book, with no threads left dangling.I could have managed without it, but thats a minor point.
L**E
A must read!
Da hurt...Da kill...Help Me! These are the last words little Alice said as she called into Rena Halbrook's radio show. As Charles Halleran, veteran reporter, hears the little girl's plea over his car radio, he remembers another little girl named Alice who died in New York eighteen years before. Can there possibly be a connection? Charles teams up with Rena in a desperate search to uncover dark secrets from the tragedy from striking again.They race against time as their hunt leads them on a spine-tingling chase from the placid streets of Beverly Hills to the burnt-out tenements of the South Bronx. And the more they learn, the more certain they become that what they don't know could definitely hurt them...This was a great book, suspense until the last chapter. Hard to put down. Great author! Gary only wrote 4 or 5 books. Does anyone know what happened to him? I have enjoyed all of his books.
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