Colleen Mondor Reviews The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown

The Book of Doors, Gareth Brown (William Morrow 979-0-063-35957-4, $30.00, 416pp, hc) February 2024.

Gareth Brown’s debut, The Book of Doors, manages to incorporate some time-travel surprises, (and not the ones readers might expect), into an exciting novel of suspense. Told from multiple points of view, readers initially meet Cassie, a clerk in a New York City bookstore, when she discovers a regu­lar customer has quietly died while seated at his usual table in the coffee shop. After the authori­ties take away his body, she finds a small book with a short note for her under his chair. With no reason to believe it is anything other than a gift he meant to pass along before his death, she takes it home. That is how the Book of Doors from the title comes into Cassie’s possession and begins almost immediately to change her life, and not all in good ways.

Brown doesn’t waste a lot of time making readers wonder if the Book of Doors is special; Cassie rapidly figures out that when she walks through a doorway, the book can take her to any other doorway she wishes. First, she and her friend Izzy zip across the city, but soon they are visiting places all over the world. It seems like the most wonderful of larks; a way to get out of the drudgery of their days and embrace something exciting and fun. Izzy urges cau­tion, however, and can’t help but consider that the book could be more than just the stuff of childish fantasy. Then the two friends bump into Drummond Fox, a ‘‘librarian’’ who knows a lot about the book and might be a friend and might be a foe. He is followed by a whole lot of folks who are definitely foes, and both young women are forced to use the book to escape all manner of threats. The problem, though, is that the Book of Doors is not the only magical book out there and running away becomes almost impossible, when the owners of the other books (Book of Shadows, Book of Luck, Book of Memories, etc.) make themselves, and their desire to have Cassie’s book, known.

First, kudos to Brown for coming up with a stellar cast of characters! Everyone in The Book of Doors is memorable, from the greedy villains to Drummond Fox, his unlucky friends, and the guys who show up in Cassie’s apartment and might be contract killers or bodyguards (it’s all a bit vague). Cassie and Izzy are smart and capable and don’t make stupid choices (much). But what really elevates the novel is the intricacy of the plot. While the obvious ‘‘bad guys are out to get us’’ narrative is in force, there is always something more lingering in the background. There are associations that develop suddenly, unexpected messages that are passed along with ease among characters who don’t seem to know each other, and there’s the nagging ques­tion from the start of how the book came to be in Cassie’s possession. Why was it left for her? Why did a very nice, but casual, acquaintance decide she was the one who needed the Book of Doors? Well, fear not, dear reader: Gareth Brown knows exactly what he is doing! And as the plot threads come together, the enormous amount of work that Brown has done in crafting this novel is revealed.

Yes, there is time travel, but not like readers have grown to expect time travel and even that element does not begin to explain the level of work Brown has conducted in crafting Cassie and Izzy’s journey. (I have visions of his writing space in my head and assume at one point there were index cards and string all over the walls as he worked this out.) Everyone’s motivations are explained (even the Big Bad’s) and everyone’s successes (and failures) make sense and in the end, the magic is the least impressive part of this thoroughly artful reading experience. What a wonderful debut from an author who will quickly zoom to the top of your list for 2024.

This review and more like it in the April 2024 issue of Locus.

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