Fri 2 Sep 2022
An Archved Review by Jim McCahery: HENRY SLESAR – The Thing at the Door.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[7] Comments
HENRY SLESAR – The Thing at the Door. PI Steve Tyner #1. Random House, hardcover, 1974. Pocket, paperback, 1976.
Even though printed by Pocket Books in its Gothic series with corresponding cover to match the title, The Thing at the Door isn’t quite in that category. Private investigator Steve Tyner is on his first [and only recorded] case for the Fiduciary Bank. He does a minimum of detecting, however, all along amorously pursuing the wealthy young heroine Gail Gunnerson whose nightmares have seemed to come to life.
The culprit is disclosed mid-way through the book and it is simply a matter of seeing how long it will take before he is trapped. The “thing at. the door” actually involves a clever psychological factor that the murderer puts to his own diabolic use. The suspense is nothing extraordinary or creepy, but rather well modulated. Retribution at the end is swift and highly ironic.
Mr. Slesar has an otherwise good plot here which just does not quite come off. Perhaps it’s because the characters lack depth and fall short of being sympathetic. He won an Edgar for Best First Novel in 1959 with his The Grey Flannel Shroud. He also wrote the novelization of the Edge of Night television series (The Seventh Mask, 1969).
The Thing at the Door is the author’s fourth mystery novel, but unfortunately it is not a very good one.
September 3rd, 2022 at 12:04 am
Not Slezar at his best, but highly readable.
September 3rd, 2022 at 8:00 am
Slesar was the head writer for the soap The Edge of Night for 16 years, during which the show had a lot of mystery elements.
September 3rd, 2022 at 10:36 am
Slesar also created a couple of soaps, though the one I remember seeing a bit of was the disappointing (but also somewhat mold-breaking) CAPITOL.
Ed Gorman would want us to remember that by that time, though the gothic-mania was receding, anything tagged a gothic was ensured at least a multiple-hundred-thousand sale, and perhaps they also hoped for a few EDGE OF NIGHT fans to be drawn to the byline.
I’ve tended to enjoy Slesar’s work, but I’m not sure I’ve read any of his novels. Mostly likely not, in fact.
September 3rd, 2022 at 2:00 pm
As Jeff says, Slesar was the head writer for CBS Daytime’s The Edge of Night from 1968 to 1984.
As for the mystery content, that was also certainly true. Quoting from Wikipedia:
“The show was originally conceived as the daytime television version of Perry Mason, which was popular in novel and radio formats at the time. Mason’s creator Erle Stanley Gardner was to create and write the show, but a last-minute tiff between the CBS network and him caused Gardner to pull his support from the idea. CBS insisted that Mason be given a love interest to placate daytime soap opera audiences, but Gardner refused to take Mason in that direction. [The Edge of Night premiered on April 2, 1956.] Gardner eventually patched up his differences with CBS, and Perry Mason debuted in prime time in 1957.”
September 5th, 2022 at 10:44 pm
For the record:
The Edge Of Night was owned by Procter & Gamble, not CBS.
When the network dropped Edge in 1975, P&G moved the show to ABC, where it spent the rest of its run.
The connection between Edge and Perry Mason has always been somewhat exaggerated; in fact, Erle Stanley Gardner had nothing to do with Edge at all, that show being initially the creation of Irving Vendig, with no cognates in the Mason universe.
When Henry Slesar (who never had any connection to the Mason TV series) took over writing Edge of Night, he was essentially given creative control of the series, which he held with P&G’s assent – until new corporate management dropped him in 1983 (demographics or some such).
Such was broadcasting life at that point …
September 5th, 2022 at 11:08 pm
“The connection between Edge and Perry Mason has always been somewhat exaggerated.”
I’ve always wondered about that. The story has always sounded reasonable, but I never saw much of a connection myself. Obviously the story has legs of its own.
Thanks, Mike, as always!
September 6th, 2022 at 2:30 am
Steve:
Thanks for your thanks, but here’s a caveat:
Much of what I write here in thr realm of opinion is educated guesswork.
I grew up reading the newspaper TV columnists, who got their jobs by being the last guys in the newsroom who said “Not it!”
Checking things out was beneath them; they’d take Fact A, Fact B, and Fact C, mix them together, and get E=mc2 – or something like that.
It’s taken me years to learn how to sort out the facts from their fancies – and in all these years I’m still not sure how “right” I might be.
I try not to be certain of my own “certainty”; in 72 years I think I have it under control (I hope).
Your continued indulgence is appreciated.