What do you think?
Rate this book
Special X #9
Death's Door
One man's death is another man's pleasure in national bestselling author Michael Slade's most dazzling novel yet.
428 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
Michael Slade
38 books237 followersSlade on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MountieNoir
Slade on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MountieNoir
Criminal lawyer MICHAEL SLADE has acted in over one hundred murder cases. His specialty is the law of insanity. He argued the last death penalty case in Canada’s highest court.
Backed by his forensic experience, Slade’s Special X and Wyatt Rook thrillers fuse the genres of police and legal procedure, whodunit and impossible crime, suspense, history, and horror.
Slade was guest of honor at both the Bloody Words crime convention and the World Horror Convention. As Time Out puts it, “A thin line separates crime and horror, and in Michael Slade’s thrillers, the demarcation vanishes altogether.”
Slade was guest speaker at the international Police Leadership Conference and several RCMP regimental dinners. As Reader’s Digest puts it, “The Slade books have developed a strong following among police officers because of their strict adherence to proper police procedure.”
For the stories behind his plots, visit Slade’s Morgue at www.specialx.net.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
January 3, 2021
Interesting novel involving mummies, mutilated bodies and snuff films. Plenty of suspense and mayhem sprinkled throughout with historical facts about Egyptian burial, Hollywood and the Canadian Mounties. You can never go wrong with a Michael Slade novel. Recommended
Want to read
March 21, 2016This is 1 of 750 copies signed by Michael Slade and is housed in a slipcase.
September 17, 2012
If you're a fan of the bloody thriller-mystery genre--and this one is pretty graphically bloody--then "Michael Slade" is probably going to do it for you.
I'm not one of those people who confuses fiction with real life, so the blood doesn't bother me per se; that being said, the book is pretty specifically about violence towards women--oddly enough, since one-half of this particular "author" is a woman! (Michael Slade is, variously, two guys, one guy and his daughter--this book, and the daughter alone, writing under this pseudonym.) I find it curious that the daughter is comfortable listing all the various ways women are violently killed and/or injured in this volume--but again, I can divorce myself from fiction enough to read and enjoy it.
Because these books use the Vancouver, BC area as a general locale, they're often more fun to read (rather like picking out local places in major motion pictures--Look! There's Stanley Park!--and the RCMP's "Special X" division under Chief Superintendent Robert DeClercq are again chasing down a violent criminal in our area.
This one's a porn king who, aided by that danged interweb, is making--under the "nom de porn" of "Woody Bone" (an in-joke almost everyone should be able to get)--real snuff films, usually involving violent rape followed by real murder on film and/or video.
The action slews among Vancouver, various local islands, and Los Angeles. There are fairly large chunks of exposition here, but they're well integrated into the action, so the book (at least for me) never really slows down.
If you're not a fan of violent crime--especially violence directed most often at women--then I advise you to avoid this book. If you are one of those people who likes to see the right prevail, and can deal with explicit violence, then you might find this book is right up your alley.
I'm not really fond of 5-star reviews, as I think most fiction needs a more flexible rating system (if the fiction's any good, that is), but I give this one a solid four out of five; there's no real subtlety to the characters--it's an action thriller, pure and simple, which makes some points about porn, violence against women and the like, but subjugates the talking points to the action.
September 6, 2012
There is a book that comes before this one. I don't think you need to read it (I didn't) but it could be helpful to read that one beforehand if you don't want to be spoiled.
A very good thriller/mystery. Mutilated corpses start turning up in various locations around Vancouver and the surrounding islands. Evidence suggests these may be more than just random occurrences and the hunt is on to find the culprit.
At times graphic (I have a very good imagination), this book did an excellent job of delving into the inner mind and exploring how/what creates a sociopath. I found myself wondering what was going to happen next, how they were going to solve the issue, and all that would take place before that occurred. This book played out like a movie in my mind, which made it easy to follow and always helps me get into the story-line better. It would be easy to translate this straight to the screen, without having to hide identities or do modifications in any way.
A very good thriller/mystery. Mutilated corpses start turning up in various locations around Vancouver and the surrounding islands. Evidence suggests these may be more than just random occurrences and the hunt is on to find the culprit.
At times graphic (I have a very good imagination), this book did an excellent job of delving into the inner mind and exploring how/what creates a sociopath. I found myself wondering what was going to happen next, how they were going to solve the issue, and all that would take place before that occurred. This book played out like a movie in my mind, which made it easy to follow and always helps me get into the story-line better. It would be easy to translate this straight to the screen, without having to hide identities or do modifications in any way.
December 4, 2014
A close second to Ghoul. A genius, dark and disturbing novel full of imagery that will make your skin crawl. Like "A Serbian Film" you cannot walk away from this experience with your soul completely intact.
November 4, 2017
AUTHOR
MICHAEL SLADE
CHARACTERS
Robert De Clercq,Gill Macbath,David Denning,Rayland Fletcher,Nick Craven, Jenna Bond, Ghost Keeper, The Undertaker,The Director, Wolfie Capp,Mephisto,Zinc Chandller,
LOCATION...
Vancouver ((British Coloumbia, Canada)) Orcas Island,Lopez Island, ((Washington State,USA)), and Los Angeles (( USA))
GENRE ...
Suspense ...
PLOT...
An Egyptian mummy was stolen in England. "Sleeping beauty" ((mummy's name)) was snatched in a heist planned by a local don named "Stopwatch" by blowing and killing six men travelling with it. The mummy was snatched while it was transported into central London for making scientific tests on it for selling purposes.
The stolen mummy belonged to Lord Ridding. The Lord, in order to make up his financial loss put the mummy on the market.
The coffin containing the mummy left London's Heathrow airport as cargo to Canada . At Canada a mystery man posing as an undertaker with the hearse stolen from a mortuary in receivership arrived to claim the cargo.Canada customs authorities when X rayed the mummy,found jewels wrapped with it. While the coffin was traveling to Hospital morgue for further searching, the hearse vanished into thin air.Later it was found submerged in the Fraser River with the bodies of the customs officers,but no coffin.The mummy was transferred to a boat and smuggled to Ebbitide island for unknown purposes.
At Ebbitide Island, the mummy was hidden at the Panacea Clinic, run by a man mentioned as The Director.The Clinic is for repairing skin damage,stop againg and to maintain youth by plastic surgery method.
Bodies of eight women mutilated in a cruel parody of plastic surgery were found dumped at Orcas,Lopez,shipwreck and Galiano islands close to American-Canadian borders.
Chief Superintendent DeClercq and his team follow a clue leading them to an underground snuff pron film operation run by Wolfie Capp. The team discovers after profiling and geographical profiling the image of the murderer and dumpsites of the victims, that the murdered women were porn queens and Hollywood extras ,supplied by Wolfie,to a well known plastic surgeon named David Denning. The plastic surgeon murdered and mutilated these women by the name Piccaso.
Following the clues and the forensic evidence found from the mutilated bodies, Chief Superintendent DeClercq and his team discovers a shocking fact.
From the Panacea clinic at Ebbtide islands, set of plastic surgeons David Denning, Rayland Fletcher, Graham ((The Director)) led by a psychopathic madman Mephisto are planning more cunning ,deprived scheme that will shock the world.
The Sleeping beauty ((the mummy))hidden in the Panacea clinic is still fresh and young right from the day (( three thousand years)) it had been embalmed and burried. The Plastic Surgeons by unlocking this secret, rejuvenate themselves to turn back the tide of time by staying forever young. Also they will infect their clients by injecting a dangerous molecular mechanism leading to progeria ((aging disease) ) by making them complete freaks.
When Gill Macbath, a Vancouver based pathologist was caught in their trap,Robert DeClercq's team rescuses her. Mephisto escapes with the mummy to carryout his scheme in a change of place with the assistance of Rayland Fletcher.
MY COMMENT....
"CONTINUITY" is lacking very much in this novel. Author begins the novel with a stolen mummy ,treasure hidden in its fetid wrappings, the reader obviously expects a gripping thriller with Egyptology in the background.
Unfortunately author deviates from the storyline by explaining underground snuff film operatins, porn queens and kings which leaves the reader confusing and frustrating.
Lotza unanswered questions in the novel. Why the mummy is stolen? What connections did the mummy has with the murdered victims?
DEATH'S DOOR..
....PLEASE ENTER WITH ANASIN AND VICKS VAPOR RUB...
MICHAEL SLADE
CHARACTERS
Robert De Clercq,Gill Macbath,David Denning,Rayland Fletcher,Nick Craven, Jenna Bond, Ghost Keeper, The Undertaker,The Director, Wolfie Capp,Mephisto,Zinc Chandller,
LOCATION...
Vancouver ((British Coloumbia, Canada)) Orcas Island,Lopez Island, ((Washington State,USA)), and Los Angeles (( USA))
GENRE ...
Suspense ...
PLOT...
An Egyptian mummy was stolen in England. "Sleeping beauty" ((mummy's name)) was snatched in a heist planned by a local don named "Stopwatch" by blowing and killing six men travelling with it. The mummy was snatched while it was transported into central London for making scientific tests on it for selling purposes.
The stolen mummy belonged to Lord Ridding. The Lord, in order to make up his financial loss put the mummy on the market.
The coffin containing the mummy left London's Heathrow airport as cargo to Canada . At Canada a mystery man posing as an undertaker with the hearse stolen from a mortuary in receivership arrived to claim the cargo.Canada customs authorities when X rayed the mummy,found jewels wrapped with it. While the coffin was traveling to Hospital morgue for further searching, the hearse vanished into thin air.Later it was found submerged in the Fraser River with the bodies of the customs officers,but no coffin.The mummy was transferred to a boat and smuggled to Ebbitide island for unknown purposes.
At Ebbitide Island, the mummy was hidden at the Panacea Clinic, run by a man mentioned as The Director.The Clinic is for repairing skin damage,stop againg and to maintain youth by plastic surgery method.
Bodies of eight women mutilated in a cruel parody of plastic surgery were found dumped at Orcas,Lopez,shipwreck and Galiano islands close to American-Canadian borders.
Chief Superintendent DeClercq and his team follow a clue leading them to an underground snuff pron film operation run by Wolfie Capp. The team discovers after profiling and geographical profiling the image of the murderer and dumpsites of the victims, that the murdered women were porn queens and Hollywood extras ,supplied by Wolfie,to a well known plastic surgeon named David Denning. The plastic surgeon murdered and mutilated these women by the name Piccaso.
Following the clues and the forensic evidence found from the mutilated bodies, Chief Superintendent DeClercq and his team discovers a shocking fact.
From the Panacea clinic at Ebbtide islands, set of plastic surgeons David Denning, Rayland Fletcher, Graham ((The Director)) led by a psychopathic madman Mephisto are planning more cunning ,deprived scheme that will shock the world.
The Sleeping beauty ((the mummy))hidden in the Panacea clinic is still fresh and young right from the day (( three thousand years)) it had been embalmed and burried. The Plastic Surgeons by unlocking this secret, rejuvenate themselves to turn back the tide of time by staying forever young. Also they will infect their clients by injecting a dangerous molecular mechanism leading to progeria ((aging disease) ) by making them complete freaks.
When Gill Macbath, a Vancouver based pathologist was caught in their trap,Robert DeClercq's team rescuses her. Mephisto escapes with the mummy to carryout his scheme in a change of place with the assistance of Rayland Fletcher.
MY COMMENT....
"CONTINUITY" is lacking very much in this novel. Author begins the novel with a stolen mummy ,treasure hidden in its fetid wrappings, the reader obviously expects a gripping thriller with Egyptology in the background.
Unfortunately author deviates from the storyline by explaining underground snuff film operatins, porn queens and kings which leaves the reader confusing and frustrating.
Lotza unanswered questions in the novel. Why the mummy is stolen? What connections did the mummy has with the murdered victims?
DEATH'S DOOR..
....PLEASE ENTER WITH ANASIN AND VICKS VAPOR RUB...
October 13, 2023
This is my genre, police procedural mixed with grisly murder-death-kills. Yet this entry in the Special X series felt like an archeological travel guide more than a suspense thriller.
Don't get me wrong, Jay and Rebecca Clarke, a.k.a. Slade, do their research homework and include most of it as part of their story (and four plus pages of references to boot). But reading about Egypt, mummification, or the criminalistic history and underpinnings of police tools such as VICAP and ViCLAS doesn't translate into a tension filled chase of a psycho-killer(s). The mummy theft to start the story had nothing to do with the final showdown and sex crimes, at all. Then what was the point?
This was about the RCMP (Canadian Mounties) not to be confused with the RHCP (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and it was utterly plain and boring. The story didn't create any real connection to DeClercq, Ghostface, Mad Dog, Nick, Jenna, or Gill (even with her requisite boob job and face lift - necessary to connect RCMP with the contrived villains committing atrocities.) It was all exposition and lame dialogue that wasn't engaging.
Up front, if you include the Special X backstory so far (to catch up new readers or leave them in the dust for not having read the earlier stories, you decide) there is little room left for a new plot, let alone interest in the final showdown or investment into the team members' actions and activities.
There were five various villains introduced in this book. The pornographer and his plastic surgeon were the first main team, then we get another henchman, the Undertaker collecting nipples (yup) doing the heavy lifting to start the book, and in and around the surgeries/mutilations, followed by yet another plastic surgeon and the Director (who turns out to supposedly be important in the chronology but was flatter than the page he was written upon). [insert my feigned shock here]
While the atrocities were beyond graphic and unnecessary, (i.e.: Fragonard Museum and related mutilations) they felt like blocks of information jammed together as chapters after the stilted conversations between RCMP members were offered.
Somewhere in that hodge podge of information was a scintilla of something potentially awesome. It was never fleshed out or pared down into a cohesive primary tale.
Nothing about this one makes me excited to find other entries in the series or to continue reading Slade books. Let that speak as my recommendation.
Thanks for reading.
Don't get me wrong, Jay and Rebecca Clarke, a.k.a. Slade, do their research homework and include most of it as part of their story (and four plus pages of references to boot). But reading about Egypt, mummification, or the criminalistic history and underpinnings of police tools such as VICAP and ViCLAS doesn't translate into a tension filled chase of a psycho-killer(s). The mummy theft to start the story had nothing to do with the final showdown and sex crimes, at all. Then what was the point?
This was about the RCMP (Canadian Mounties) not to be confused with the RHCP (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and it was utterly plain and boring. The story didn't create any real connection to DeClercq, Ghostface, Mad Dog, Nick, Jenna, or Gill (even with her requisite boob job and face lift - necessary to connect RCMP with the contrived villains committing atrocities.) It was all exposition and lame dialogue that wasn't engaging.
Up front, if you include the Special X backstory so far (to catch up new readers or leave them in the dust for not having read the earlier stories, you decide) there is little room left for a new plot, let alone interest in the final showdown or investment into the team members' actions and activities.
There were five various villains introduced in this book. The pornographer and his plastic surgeon were the first main team, then we get another henchman, the Undertaker collecting nipples (yup) doing the heavy lifting to start the book, and in and around the surgeries/mutilations, followed by yet another plastic surgeon and the Director (who turns out to supposedly be important in the chronology but was flatter than the page he was written upon). [insert my feigned shock here]
While the atrocities were beyond graphic and unnecessary, (i.e.: Fragonard Museum and related mutilations) they felt like blocks of information jammed together as chapters after the stilted conversations between RCMP members were offered.
Somewhere in that hodge podge of information was a scintilla of something potentially awesome. It was never fleshed out or pared down into a cohesive primary tale.
Nothing about this one makes me excited to find other entries in the series or to continue reading Slade books. Let that speak as my recommendation.
Thanks for reading.
December 30, 2019
3.0 stars
Death's Door was my first Slade. The plethora of characters coupled with allusions to earlier Slade novels put me off for the first 75 pages. But then...
The Good- Slade describes horrific action shockingly well. If you're into terror, Slade can carve, slice, and skin alive vivid scenes. Enjoyed the amazing way Slade weaves history lessons through his narrative. At times he describes feelings and character thoughts via sequences of refreshing epiphanies that left me awed. Outstanding police procedural and criminal psychology! (In real life Slade works as a lawyer defending the criminally insane!)
The BAD- The male-female conversations seem repetitive and witty to the point of cutesy. Sometimes I can't ferret out the individual voices. Everybody talks the same. Somehow Slade ironed out the dialogue problem a third of the way through Death's Door. The character's names feel like I was watching 1960's campy Batman Marathon. Names like: The Undertaker, The Director, The Doctor, Mad Dog, Ghost something-or-other, and the Pornographer.
Death's Door gave me mixed feelings. Rarely have I felt so unsure after finishing a novel. A friend warned me to start at the beginning...Nine novels earlier.
Even though I felt Death's Door was an uneven read, I plan to give Michael Slade one more chance. Next move? Slade's first novel- "Headhunter"
Good but nonessential horror novel.
Death's Door was my first Slade. The plethora of characters coupled with allusions to earlier Slade novels put me off for the first 75 pages. But then...
The Good- Slade describes horrific action shockingly well. If you're into terror, Slade can carve, slice, and skin alive vivid scenes. Enjoyed the amazing way Slade weaves history lessons through his narrative. At times he describes feelings and character thoughts via sequences of refreshing epiphanies that left me awed. Outstanding police procedural and criminal psychology! (In real life Slade works as a lawyer defending the criminally insane!)
The BAD- The male-female conversations seem repetitive and witty to the point of cutesy. Sometimes I can't ferret out the individual voices. Everybody talks the same. Somehow Slade ironed out the dialogue problem a third of the way through Death's Door. The character's names feel like I was watching 1960's campy Batman Marathon. Names like: The Undertaker, The Director, The Doctor, Mad Dog, Ghost something-or-other, and the Pornographer.
Death's Door gave me mixed feelings. Rarely have I felt so unsure after finishing a novel. A friend warned me to start at the beginning...Nine novels earlier.
Even though I felt Death's Door was an uneven read, I plan to give Michael Slade one more chance. Next move? Slade's first novel- "Headhunter"
Good but nonessential horror novel.
June 7, 2021
Fans of Michael Slade will not be let down with this entry into the world of Special X, the Mounties task force for "crimes most foul." As usual, Slade gives us the freaks and the gore ( love it! ) as well as giving the reader insight into the process of how Mounties actually perform their investigations, in this case it is behavorial sciences and the systems that were set up by the Mounties to identify the strange and bizarre characteristics of serial killers.
And this book has its interesting killers. No spoilers, but this book is a veritable art museum of murder...
I always enjoy Slade's books because I grew up in and around Vancouver, so it is always interesting to be reading about a psychotic killer lurking around the streets where I still drive to visit my Auntie...
With new, twisted villians ( and perhaps an old enemy ) this entry into the Special X oeuvre will not disappoint!
And this book has its interesting killers. No spoilers, but this book is a veritable art museum of murder...
I always enjoy Slade's books because I grew up in and around Vancouver, so it is always interesting to be reading about a psychotic killer lurking around the streets where I still drive to visit my Auntie...
With new, twisted villians ( and perhaps an old enemy ) this entry into the Special X oeuvre will not disappoint!
April 4, 2021
I don’t know what I was expecting with this book. Parts of it were really interesting while others could have been left out. There was a lot of detailed explanations for elements that felt overdone. The novel might have had better flow without the extensive explanations. This book is a part of a series so if you want a nice tight ending this is not the book for you.
November 28, 2019
Trashy, politically incorrect, exceedingly violent and full of gratuitous sex, it's a quick fun read but definitely not for everyone.
July 25, 2021
Too many plot errors, not an enjoyable read.
September 24, 2022
Read in 2008. Slade was the author of 13 thrillers featuring Special X.
February 28, 2012
I came to this book unaware that it was a continuation (so to speak) of the lives and doings of a whole host of characters, but that much became apparant as I trudged through the laborious prose and the smug, self-referrential narrative.
The story starts with the theft of a mummy and then expands exponentially to encompass the world of snuff films, plastic surgery, pedophelia, necrophilia, and ... movie theory?
The chaos of the story is well-contained, that much can be said in favor of the book, but in some ways, it is too well-contained, so that buy the time I finished reading, I felt like I had hardly read any story at all. The theft of the mummy -- which is detailed in the first few well-crafted chapters -- turns out to be a side-bar to the muddled mess that is the rest of the book, a story that is much less than the sum of its parts.
The book would be engaging and entertaining -- in spite of its rather silly plot -- if it weren't for the prose-stopping lectures that punctuate the story like two-ton commas. For a book that is already teetering on the edge of goofiness, these clumsy chunks of unnecessary exposition are lethal to the pacing and what little interest the story can contrive.
Likewise, the style of the writing fluctuates between lofty all-knowingness and staccato-blast witticisms. In between stilted discourses on everything from the genesis of crime-solving software to Alfred Hitchcock films you will find snide and pithy one-liners that reference virtually every manner of pop culture, from Jackson Pollock to Porky Pig.
All of this aside, what you're left with is, essentially, a mordant tale staffed with almost wholly unlikeable characters who all speak alike (sometimes in the same agnozing soliloquies that infect the narration). Finally, the book's conclusion is no conclusion at all, and is an obvious and strained attempt to leave room for another sequel for all of these flatly formed characters to suffer through.
I, however, won't be suffering with them next time.
The story starts with the theft of a mummy and then expands exponentially to encompass the world of snuff films, plastic surgery, pedophelia, necrophilia, and ... movie theory?
The chaos of the story is well-contained, that much can be said in favor of the book, but in some ways, it is too well-contained, so that buy the time I finished reading, I felt like I had hardly read any story at all. The theft of the mummy -- which is detailed in the first few well-crafted chapters -- turns out to be a side-bar to the muddled mess that is the rest of the book, a story that is much less than the sum of its parts.
The book would be engaging and entertaining -- in spite of its rather silly plot -- if it weren't for the prose-stopping lectures that punctuate the story like two-ton commas. For a book that is already teetering on the edge of goofiness, these clumsy chunks of unnecessary exposition are lethal to the pacing and what little interest the story can contrive.
Likewise, the style of the writing fluctuates between lofty all-knowingness and staccato-blast witticisms. In between stilted discourses on everything from the genesis of crime-solving software to Alfred Hitchcock films you will find snide and pithy one-liners that reference virtually every manner of pop culture, from Jackson Pollock to Porky Pig.
All of this aside, what you're left with is, essentially, a mordant tale staffed with almost wholly unlikeable characters who all speak alike (sometimes in the same agnozing soliloquies that infect the narration). Finally, the book's conclusion is no conclusion at all, and is an obvious and strained attempt to leave room for another sequel for all of these flatly formed characters to suffer through.
I, however, won't be suffering with them next time.
June 6, 2008
I thought this book was a little weird. It took place in a time period that I usually don't liek reading about. It was about selling Sleeping Beauty and then when the Director sees that Sleeping BEauty was preserved so well, he wants to find the secret to living life so long and still staying young. There's a lot of torture involved and I'm not reallyinto bloddy scenes. I thought I coudl relate this to a lot of people now because even though they might want to become younger, not matter what products they use, time will always pass by and wrinkles will always be there.
October 25, 2013
Michael Slade is one of my all-time favourite novelists (well, collaborating authors).
... BUT this one is co-written with his daughter. She’s a wonderful author too, but… her talents are more suited to historical romance novels (in my opinion). The sections (obviously written by her) read more like a history & geography lesson book. Simply put (my apologies to the author).. long and boring! It threw the pacing off entirely! Which took my rating for this book WAY down.
... BUT this one is co-written with his daughter. She’s a wonderful author too, but… her talents are more suited to historical romance novels (in my opinion). The sections (obviously written by her) read more like a history & geography lesson book. Simply put (my apologies to the author).. long and boring! It threw the pacing off entirely! Which took my rating for this book WAY down.
October 12, 2014
I used to read the Michael Slade books. The authors are really two Canadian lawyers, and Headhunter was a terrific novel. I had not read on of these novels in quite some time, and I don't think that I will be reading any more. This is just too over the top. The actual main story could have been written in 10 pages. The rest of the book is a rehash of previous books and pages of historical items that are at first interesting and then just plain annoying.
Read
August 23, 2010It says on the cover of this book: "Slade is not for the wimpy". WelL, I confess, I am a wimp! I skipped the torture parts and went straight to the end to see who survived, and that was it! No more Michael Slade for me!
Read
April 14, 2008Thriller
June 7, 2012
The weakest of the Slade books that I've read. I do so hope he has a return to form someday, but sadly this wasn't it.
July 23, 2013
Horrible book, raunchy
April 6, 2015
'Somebody' returns in this superb follow up. More psycho types in this book which leads to a great end sequence!
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews