Security

Starred review from April 18, 2016
At the start of Wohlsdorf’s stellar debut, property manager Tessa is sweating the small stuff at the new Manderley Resort, fretting over which place settings to deploy at the upcoming opening gala. She’s unaware that certain uninvited guests are about to turn the opulent Santa Barbara, Calif., Shangri-La—which has been flogging its state-of-the-art security—into an abattoir. Meanwhile, Tessa’s foster brother and former heartthrob, motocross legend Brian Domini, reappears after 11 years of estrangement. As the Ducati-swift plot accelerates from there, told through a mosaic of views from various Manderley security cameras (as seen by an initially unidentified narrator), it’s a testament to Wohlsdorf’s skill that she successfully negotiates the numerous tonal shifts between the unfolding Grand Guignol splatterfest and Tessa and Brian’s rekindling passion. Readers will gradually discover an even more emotionally affecting story as the action races to the moving climax. Agent: Emma Sweeney, Emma Sweeney Agency.

April 1, 2016
A camera's-eye view shows more than we may be prepared to see in this innovative thriller. Debut novelist Wohlsdorf uses a clever low-tech technique--splitting pages into two or three columns of text--to show simultaneous action as it's recorded by cameras in different sections of the Manderley Resort. The new hotel promises to raise the bar where security is concerned, but staff members are being murdered at an alarming rate and threatening to ruin the grand opening (and the marble floors) with their trailing organs. Manager Tessa is oblivious to this, her sole concern being that things run smoothly, until a body practically lands on her. It's uncertain at first whether the killings are being carried out to send her a message and who (or what) is narrating the story; that's the book's big reveal, and it's worth the wait. If the bodies stacking up like cordwood distract a bit from personal revelations about Tessa and a figure from her past, no matter--the real thrills here are the clues as to what's going on, which are doled out with precision, as well as the dark humor in some of the killers' methods. Almost nobody in this story runs the risk of dreaming again of Manderley; the vast majority take the big sleep before the curtain falls, in increasingly gory ways that nevertheless play out with farcical timing. The resolution stretches credibility, but by then the adrenaline is pumping so hard it hardly matters. A fight to the death next to a tower of champagne flutes is a central scene here, and it perfectly shows how intensity and frivolity continually skirt one another under the eyes of watching cameras. This horror story with a humorous edge casts video surveillance as both hero and villain and raises plentiful goose bumps as a result.

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June 1, 2017

Tessa, manager of the ultraluxurious, ultrasecure Manderley Hotel, has a massive checklist to finish in preparation for the grand opening. Unbeknownst to her, a small crew of killers entering the hotel is picking off the staff--and the murders are being observed by a mysterious unnamed narrator through the hotel's extensive security system. VERDICT With an innovative presentation and numerous references to pop culture staples, this action-packed thriller should appeal to fans of the Die Hard film series.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 29, 2016
Wohlsdorf’s debut thriller plays out on a bank of surveillance monitors in what was thought to be a state-of-the-art security stronghold at the luxe beachfront Manderley Resort in Santa Barbara, California. With its grand opening approaching, the 20-story hotel has been breached by a pair of assassins, who are planning to close off all exits and slaughter, in as grisly a way as possible, the staffers readying the hotel for its debut. Initially, all we know about the narrator is that he’s probably responsible for the resort’s security and is staring at the monitors, witnessing the horror unfold. Reader Villa, given these very bare bones by Wohlsdorf, creates an articulate young man with amazing sangfroid who can segue, without losing a beat, from a monitor image of the hotel’s manager, Tessa, making love with motocross star Brian, to another monitor where an assassin is stabbing, mutilating, and beheading a housemaid. There’s a droll quality to Villa’s delivery that adds to the novel’s flashes of dark humor. And he’s very effective in concocting voices for the staff, including a despotic intemperate French chef, wisecracking electricians, and a thuggish worker who may have compromised the hotel. The narrator’s cool dissolves until, eventually, he sounds totally caught up in their suspenseful struggle. Listeners will be, too. An Algonquin hardcover.

Starred review from February 1, 2016
In 1973, MGM released a curious film called Wicked, Wicked. Shot entirely in what the movie posters touted as Duo-Vision (better known as split-screen), it followed, in simultaneous halves, a string of brutal murders at a swanky California hotel. Loud, jazzy, and splashed with blood, it was an American take on the giallo slasher films popularized by Italian directors like Dario Argento and Mario Bava. But unlike cult classics like Suspiria or Kill, Baby . . . Kill!, Wicked, Wicked quickly faded away.Still, one has to wonder if debut author Wohlsdorf, staying up too late as a child, managed to catch it, and it made an impact. If so, her trauma is our gain: Security, her debut, is a flawless literary refresh of giallo devices, completed with a masked-and-gloved killer; long, sharp knives; screaming; lingerie-clad victims; and twists aplentyoh, get ready for the twists.The setting is another California hotel: Manderley Resort. (Du Maurier is only the first genre nod: the killer wears the same mask seen in John Carpenter's Halloween, and critical action takes place in Room 1408, a number made notorious by Stephen King.) Tessa is a chief-of-staff of sorts, leading a skeleton crew through final preparations for Manderley's big opening as the choice getaway of the rich and famous out for both opulence and unparalleled privacy.The point-of-view is third-person omniscient, or so it seems for 11 pages, at which point Tessa looks into a security cameraat us; at least that's what it feels likeand speaks. It's the first shock of many: we do have a narrator, it turns out, and he's sitting at a bank of security cams that, unbeknownst to staff, probe into every single room of the hotel. Discovering who this affectless security officer is and why he doesn't do anything as the body count increases is one of the supreme pleasures of the book. Wohlsdorf draws out revelations with treacherous patience, altering our perception of events each time we think we know the score.Here comes the gimmick, but as in Wicked, Wicked, it's a good one. When concurrent action happens, Wohlsdorf splits the page into two, three, or four columns (some necessitating holding the book sideways), each one representing a camera. The stunt is never overused, instead providing a periodic strangling of tension before the next jump, and slash, and gush.Just like that, Wohlsdorf's peculiar prose choices make sense, from the stumpy declarative sentences (the security officer is only doing his job, reporting what he sees) to the jarring lack of line breaks between intercut locations (the officer is flicking his eyes back and forth, too quick for the book to bother with traditional spacing).These are, of course, stylistic choices, though the novel has, in a way, an anti-styleit's a poker-faced account of some unpleasant goings-on. This would fall flat without strong characters and plotting, and Wohlsdorf brings both. Tessa is a self-made success, a cement wall laced with cracks that don't show until the 11-years-late return of her former foster-brotherand, weirdly, longtime crushBrian, who might be ready to give up his dangerous life on the motocross circuit if they can both admit their illicit feelings.The rest of the cast? They are just colorful enough that we wince when the killer steps out of his blood-drenched secret elevator, universal key-card in hand, and slips into their rooms. It's spoiling nothing to say that most of these side characters, however delightful, are going to end up as meat piled in bathtubs. That is, after all, the game we're playing, and Wohlsdorf, though a rookie, knows how to play. Unlike the aforementioned obscure horror flick, Security is perfectly tuned...