Michael Gilbert - Office Party

[dem bones]

Michael Gilbert - Office Party (Pocket, Feb. 1983)

Blurb:
It was late Friday and nobody at Felton Products knew they were about to put in some "overtime" ...

Nobody but Eugene.

Not pretty Sally, whose sexual teasing was as casual as the crossing and uncrossing of her long tawny legs.

Not Larry, his boss, whose patronizing arrogance was about to earn him a very special humiliation.

Not Joan, the prim and proper secretary whose hidden longings would provide the weekend's most lively entertainment.

Soon all their fears, their fantasies, their secrets will be revealed — when quiet, little Eugene, who has never taken an aggressive action in his life — bolts the door, takes out a .45-caliber pistol and three sets of manacles, turns to his co-workers and begins his own terrifying ... OFFICE PARTY

1. Friday 27 November.

As accurately portrayed in the blurb. Eugene Bracklin, 46, a friendless Feldon Products employee, takes three colleagues hostage at the company's Mattsfield, Ohio office. He's been fantasising about doing so for six months. The unfortunate trio are;

Mrs. Joan Talmage, secretary, has spent 26 of her 62 years with the company. A formidable presence, she is feared and respected as chaste "guardian of all that is right in both the office and the world." She just has to be a wrong 'un.

Manager Lawrence Gaylord was transferred in from New York after raising a stink over a vice-chairman's affair with his wife. The Mattsfieid post is a demotion in all but name, but keep his head down and Gaylord will be back in the big time before long!

Capable, ambitious Sally Laird, 31, is furious that Gaylord nabbed a job that should rightfully be hers, but, of course, he's a man.

Police deputy chief Greg Smolen has the unenviable job of negotiating with amiable, armed Eugene who doesn't want to hurt anyone. He'll let everyone go, promise, but only when he decides, not the police, not Mayor Kowal, and certainly not his chained captives. How do you attempt to establish a "relationship" with a hostage taker without demands, who doesn't even seem all that crazy "unless he gets upset" - as St. Joan discovers when she impulsively slaps his face for firing off four bullets in Gaylord's general direction.

Chapter ends with Eugene reminiscing on his first (only?) sexual experience when, during a weekend seminar, he was coerced into parting with $40 for a ten minute wrestle with a black hooker.

To be continued. P. 70 of 235.

[dem bones]

2. Saturday, November 28

... gets off to a bad start when gung-ho Lieutenant Sam Garlis of the Ohio State Police upsets Eugene by repeatedly referring to him as a "maniac" and a "madman" during a radio news broadcast. Worse is to follow when a local station insist he has taken to stripping and raping the hostages. Deputy Smolen, determined to bring this thing to an end with no casualties, placates the gunman by showing an interest in his past. We learn that Eugene was orphaned at two and moved from foster home to foster home. No joy ride, but not excessively horrible. Quiet, withdrawn and friendless, a nondescript job in a nondescript office suits his nondescript personality - or did, until a year ago when he took up this hobby project. In reply to Smolen's "what makes you angry?" an agitated Bracklin lists being taken for granted, being used, seeing others being used.

We can only admire Mrs. Joan Talmage, who is "managing to keep her terror at bay by reading and pretending she was on a long lunch break. Joan favours Mills & Boon romances. She lends one to Sally who, despite initial reservations, has come to enjoy the racy bits. The pair have grown friendlier to the point where Joan confides the 'shame' that saw her quit college, leaving behind her best friend, Ida Crane, to fight the feminist cause on campus. The once inseparable pair drifted apart as Joan ditched her principles and rushed into marriage. Ida pursued a career in journalism and is now much admired as the star reporter on the Mattsfield Voice. She is a friend and confidante of Deputy Smolen.

Sally is at last showing signs of living up to her back cover billing. Self-serving, manipulative and ruthlessly ambitious, her only thought is how best to turn the situation to her advantage? It helps that Eugene, pathetic little worm, worships her as a Goddess. Maybe 'Gene' can be persuaded to permanently remove the Gaylord obstacle from her career path - after the bastard has been suitably punished for ever daring to believe himself her 'superior' of course!

Despite underlying tensions, it's been a civilised, and, but for a few flare ups, relatively trauma-free siege ... until Gaylord opens his big mouth, lets on he keeps a bottle of scotch in his desk. Whereupon things take a turn for the Let's Go Play At The Adams'.

TBC

[dem bones]

3. Sunday, November 29

Proves the final day of the siege, by abrupt conclusion of which we are left in no doubt that Eugene may be holding the gun but that doesn't necessarily make him the most dangerously twisted person in the room.

Not so sure this is quite the 'horror' novel blurb and artwork imply, but the suspense never lets up and at least two episodes are don't-go-there unsettling, which is good enough for me. I tore through it in three sittings and am glad to have had opportunity to do so.