Thrillers Involving Gated Communities

Harry Bosch investigated a witness/suspect/victim in a gated community in one of Michael Connelly's novels, but I don't remember which one.

I also remember another book where most of the crimes were in a guy's house in a high-security gated area. I can't remember the name of the book or the author 'cause I have a terrible memory. I'll keep thinking.

I have a problem with the premise: most gated communities aren't fool-proof. It's reasonably easy to get in and out of them, even guarded ones. I've tested this while doing research for my own writing. However, if done right it might be interesting.

Joining the group of those who can't remember, uh, stuff . . . there is a story about a professional hitman who rents a condo at an exclusive gated community in order to kill some old guy. The hitman has a wise-cracking female handler (manager?) and he collect stamps. The stories involving the hitman are always done in such a casual, matter-of-fact way that he generally comes across as a sympathetic character.

The Association by Bentley Little.

Alleycat's thinking of Block's Hitman series, I believe.

ETA: Here you go.

The gated community episode was just one part of a larger book.

Good stuff.

alleycat said:

Joining the group of those who can't remember, uh, stuff . . . there is a story about a professional hitman who rents a condo at an exclusive gated community in order to kill some old guy. The hitman has a wise-cracking female handler (manager?) and he collect stamps. The stories involving the hitman are always done in such a casual, matter-of-fact way that he generally comes across as a sympathetic character.

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Williebee said:

Alleycat's thinking of Block's Hitman series, I believe.

ETA: Here you go.

The gated community episode was just one part of a larger book.

Good stuff.

Click to expand...

The gated community episode was in Hit Parade, Block's followup to Hit Man.

And I think the fact that two or three people in this thread have offered it as an example might be indicative of the dearth of thrillers set in gated communities. Which might be good news for you, FOTSGreg, since it's an interesting hook.

Williebee said:

Alleycat's thinking of Block's Hitman series, I believe.

ETA: Here you go.

The gated community episode was just one part of a larger book.

Good stuff.

Click to expand...

Thank you! As soon as I read Block I remembered what writer I was thinking of (duh). It just completely slipped my mind earlier this morning.

FOTSGreg said:

The more precise premise for this one is that a professionally-trained and equipped team takes over the community, surrounding it inside and out with claymores and IEDs, protecting against a SWAT or military assault with Hummvee-mounted radars and SAMs, and finally threatening the entire community with a Sarin gas release (that's an idea I pulled from the movie The Rock and the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway systemfor my own purposes). The job of the hero(es) is to stay alive and out of their clutches long enough to figure out what they're really up to and stop them.

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Well that would be harder.

Sounds like fun to me! (Fun... well, you know what I mean. I assume you all have the same twisted notion of fun as I do.)

Feidb said:

The Association by Bentley Little.

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This is what I was going to post.

Depends on what kind of 'Thrills'
you are looking for?

otherwise . . .

Here's a thought - put the gated community on an island.

Carlene

The Association by Bentley Little- I think it's a fantasy thriller...

Hm, I'll have to come back later with more

Sounds like a fun concept. There are a number of places in the country you could set it, to make it work. There are several areas in the southwest where gated, residential developments, i.e. planned communities have grown up, for example.

Have you read The Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille? It's a mobster-style thriller that takes place in an exclusive, expensive Long Island neighbourhood. I don't know if it's a gated community per se, but this is a tremendously fun read nevertheless.

Just got back from a massive house hunt in an area with many gated communities. Most of the actual gates were broken, but in a few communities the gates were up and running and the guards were *serious.* The walls were high and there were cameras--I can better see how this premise would work now.

PS The book I recommended was "Safer" by Sean Doolittle. Not exactly the same premise, but interesting nonetheless.

FOTSGreg said:

I looked online, but could only find a single reference to a thriller involving a gated community.

[...]
"Something evil and diabolical has just entered the gated community of Cedar Springs. Now, isolated from the outside world and under siege, the residents will come to realize that gates, walls, and security systems not only keep unwanted visitors out, they can also keep you in."

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I looked around a couple of years back and didn't see much either. I did some work on a thrillerish short involving a gated community, but it's not well-developed. The attraction of a gated community in a thriller format should be evident: them and us, different rules on the outside and the inside. All you need is to trap people inside with a looming atrocity and you have your thriller. Or, you can trap people outside...

Gated communities themselves are weird -- people living in the geography but not in the society. There's some interesting psychology to be explored there. Likewise, there's often a utopian ideal. You can have some fun with those boundaries in a horror format.

The nearest things I could find Greg were The Stepford Wives (a utopian gated community grown dystopian), and various post-apocalyptic stories.

From my own abortive experience though, I'd suggest that you make it about more than just a gated community and a monster. While it's an adequate formula (crucible plus atrocity), I reckon it'll be the subtexts that make the story sink or swim. That's why I trunked mine... I couldn't decide on what the subtexts should be.

Good luck on it!