This is a mystery novel of a sort, and could maybe under the right circumstances make a good movie. What stands between it and success is a kind of death of language that happens within it. We are in a high security (read: privacy) hotel in Los Angeles on the cusp of opening. It’s a kind of soft-opening/finishing up while testing the various systems. Everything is wired with camera, and microphones, and redundant systems designed to protect the people within.
We are in the head of security’s perspective as he’s able to use his cameras, and observation skills to narrate the events of this night and the motivations and actions of the characters.
The events circulate around the presence of two killers who plan on ransacking the various people in the hotel. It’s a slasher flick mixed with the movie Sliver and a few others various influences.
Ultimately, I don’t think this book is very good. It’s caught between two goals, and both are underserved as a consequence of these identity issues. For one, it wants to be an effective thriller. And to a certain degree it is, but it lacks a driving motivation or central mystery for us to figure out. I don’t find myself caring about motivation or mystery or any of the other driving factors of a thriller. And this is because this novel is also an exploration on language (the limits of) and surveillance. And so there’s a kind of alienation and isolation here. All this might very well be the idea, but I am not sure it works. It’s not a great thriller wrapped up in a kind of dimestore Don Delillo.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Security-Novel-Gina-Wohlsdorf/dp/1616205628/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1572348478&sr=8-1)