Charter Books 1987
Jorge Saralegui was born in 1953 and is still alive, which we’re always happy to hear. He was born in Cuba and grew up in New York. He spent a little time in my neck of the woods, graduating from Antioch College along with Lawrence Block, Rod Serling and Leanord Nimoy. Though he wrote three novels, Last Rites in 85, Shadow Stalker in 87 and Looker in 1990, he is most well known as a film producer having a hand in such movies as Speed, Independence Day, Broken Arrow and Die Hard with a Vengeance. In 2005 he teamed up with Clive Barker to form the production company The Midnight Picture Show.
(Video review if you don't feel like reading:)
The basic premise: Prison psychologist Jack Sanderson vouches for the early release of a convicted murderer named Daniel Doppler. Doppler’s wife is in the hospital due to an insulin mix-up that put her in a coma, and he wants her released back into his care. After a couple of conversations with the locals Jack gets doubts about Doppler’s rehabilitation. Jack stops the process. Turns out Doppler is a psychopath and vows vengeance. Stalking terror ensues.
What we have here is an 80s erotic thriller noir wherein a young middleclass couple have their lives turned upside down by a sadistic sociopath who uses and intimidates anyone who is unlucky enough to cross his path.
The setting is 1980s San Francisco tenderloin district. A wretched hive of scum and villainy. The story is peppered with a plethora of absolutely enjoyable unsavory characters. And it’s 80s as fuck so when someone is wearing a band shirt it’s something like Pere Ube. Punks are mentioned hanging outside the Mubuhay Gardens. This thing screams peep shows, neon lights, street drugs, hookers and the like. Hell, one of the main characters is a teenage runaway who works in a peep show, endlessly pops lipstick red Seconals, and daydreams of being in an all-female punk band.
The story is told in third person narration with the focus jumping from the point of view of all the main characters. I would say the main protagonist is Jack the psychologist though. He is a well-meaning liberal guy with a bumper sticker on his Volvo that says, “US out of Central America.” He wants to see the good in people and after many sessions with Daniel Doppler he believes he is someone worthy of that understanding so he vouches for him at his parole hearing. Also, he deeply loves his wife, Wendy.
Doppler was in prison because he accidently killed a man in a bar fight. The man insinuated Doppler was molesting his comatose wife. At first Doppler seems the way that Jack sees him. We are then let in on some shady background when Jack talks to the local doctor and realizes that Doppler might not have been truthful about everything. Red flags are popping up and Jack steps in and puts a halt to Doppler’s wife returning to his care. Doppler flips and sends Jack a letter telling him that in two months’ time Jack’s wife Wendy will be just like his and Jack will be dead.
And from there on we get Doppler toying with the couple. Sending letters, making phone calls. One night he sends some morticians to Jack’s house to “pick up the bodies.” Which I thought was pretty funny.
This book’s strength is its strong suspense element. You know it’s coming but you don’t know when. Doppler is a complete sociopath and every scene with him in it is completely off putting. He’s not a madman flying off the rails, he’s cool and calm with flat dead eyes. He’s always within arm’s reach of Jack, making his presence known. It really reminded me of Cape Fear. All the parts with Doppler tormenting Jack are great. They are subtly psychological and believable. I mean what would you do if someone was after you but never came directly for you? It would be a nightmare. Which I guess yeah, it’s what a stalker is and it happens every day. Mostly to women. I’m ashamed to say that it took a book with the perspective being a male for me to truly grasp the terror.
Other interesting characters are:
Wendy’s dad. A creepster himself. A sociopath on the right side of the law. He’s a reactionary right wing retired cop with a bleak and violent view on humanity. He was also a wife beater and mental abuser. And other stuff that we’re not going to spoil here but I loved all of his parts in the book. He’s a piece of shit but in this kind of story you need it to increase the sleazy atmosphere.
Natasha, the teenage runaway. She’s a punk rock girl. Druggy. Stripper. Her life becomes intertwined with Doppler and man you are rooting for her but she’s a fly unknowingly caught in the spider’s web and it’s not looking good.
There is a schizophrenic repressed transgender hotel manager where Doppler and Natasha live.
A tough but sympathetic detective who pops in every now and again.
And Wendy the wife who in one way is just kind of there for you to worry about but then in another she’s tough. She makes some hard points and insights of how men can abuse their partners in the veil of love.
The build and the climax were perfectly plotted and fucked up. The villain is diabolical but believable. This should have been an 80s thriller b-movie.
Bonus: some interesting tidbits,
The couple’s names are Wendy and Jack.
There is a character named Dr. Loomis and he has a pumpkin drawing on his wall.
In one part he mentions a Talking Heads song about trying to sleep while their beds are burning. But that’s a Midnight Oil song. This author knows music so it had to be on purpose. Why?
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