Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Attorney Wallace Price is not a happy man.  He’s already had to fire one employee, a previously reliable woman who tried to give him some sob story about her unemployed husband.  Wallace has no time for drivel like that.  People are paid to work, not to have lives. Children, spouses, pets, hobbies—all things that distract them from the real purpose of life: work.  Why can people not understand that? Wallace was married once, but for some odd reason it didn’t work out.  You don’t see him crying about it, do you?

And then he’s in a church where a sign out front says “A Celebration of the Life of Wallace Price.” He finds this a little disturbing, but not as much as when he sees only five people at the service: his three law partners, his ex-wife Naomi, and a young woman he doesn’t know.  His expectations to at least hear nice things about himself is shattered when he discovers the partners are more interested in discussing a ballgame and Naomi is more concerned with the plane she has to catch—and airing old grievances against Wallace.  

That leaves the young woman. His half hope that she was a secret admirer is dashed when she tells him that she is a Reaper and that he, Wallace, is dead.  She’s come to escort him to his next destination, which as it turns out, is a bizarrely built shop pretty much in the middle of nowhere with a sign that reads

Charon’s Crossing

Tea and Treats

Inside, he finds an inappropriately cheerful young man named Hugo, a dog that can walk through walls, and an old man who clearly has no respect for the legal profession or the newly dead.  Hugo is a ferryman, one who helps the dead to pass over, to go upstairs and through a door to… something.  Somewhere.

But Wallace is not ready to go.

Klune excels at world-building.  He creates these highly imaginative worlds with rules and glorious characters we’d all love to know. Even the irascible Wallace begins to learn how to break through his self-imposed rigidity and learn to live, despite being dead.  The fun is in watching it happen.  Hugo is a wonderfully warm, generous man who works hard to try to set the world right for everyone.  Mei the Reaper is new to the job, but she also wants to make her newly deceased charges transition easily.  Nelson, Hugo’s grandfather, is also dead (as is the dog Apollo) but he’s decided to hang around to watch over his grandson for a while.  He provides delightful running commentary on all the characters, especially Wallace.

Along the way, Klune allows the reader to meditate on life, death, and love.  He keeps the mystery; there is no glorious revelation of the Afterlife, but there doesn’t need to be. All the characters know is the Earth side of the Whispering Door, not what happens when you go through.

Klune has a reputation for creating feel good books that exude love, compassion, and acceptance, and with endings that make the reader want to cheer. Under the Whispering Door is a fine addition to that tradition.