Kiss Daddy Goodbye

by Thomas Altman

Emily and Ted Allbright and their two children live in the suburbs of New York city. Because Ted's job with a chain of resort hotels frequently keeps him away from home, Emily decices to inititat a baby-sitting co-op that will give her time to pursue a writing career. In no time at all, four woman answer her ad: Adrienne is an ex-cover girl who balances both marriage and a career with ease;Carole, a divorcee, has a younger child and a new job;Susan, the wife of and English professor, is the mother of two;and Marylou is a young mother involved in a painful divorce. All of them seem to have lots in common-and they share a common need. But three of them are hiding something, two of them are liars, and one ia a dangerous psychopath who wants Emily's children. Soon someone stalks the children as they play in the woods. Emily finds a threatening letter in her car...and strange phone calls come in the dead of night. Then,one rainy evening, while Emily is at her poetry class, her darkest fears come true...

Genres: Horror, Novels, Mystery

279 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Pseudonym for Campbell Armstrong. Other pseudonyms are Campbell Black and Jeffrey Campbell. He also wrote books under his real name. Campbell Armstrong was born in Glasgow. He has a degree in philosophy from the University of Sussex. He taught creative writing from 1971-74 at the State University of New York; from 1975-78 he taught at Arizona State University.

He disliked teaching immensely so, in 1978, he began to write fiction fulltime; he had already published Assassins & Victims (1968); The Punctual Rape (1969) and Death’s Head (1971). In 1979, after he quit the academic life, he published Asterisk Destiny, and the following year Brainfire.

He remained in Arizona until 1991, during which time he wrote the novelization of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Brian De Palma’s Dressed To Kill. He also wrote the novels Jig, Mambo and Mazurka, between 1986 and 1989. In 1990 he published Concert of Ghosts, and in 1991 his novel of corrupt American influence in the Philippines, Agents of Darkness.

After 20 years in the US, he longed to return to Europe. Early in 1991 he moved to Ireland, to the heart of the bog, with his wife Rebecca. He has since written Jigsaw, Heat, Silencer and Blackout. He also published a memoir called I Hope You Have A Good Life (2000).
***
He has three sons and a daughter, and lives in an old house reputed to be haunted.

Reviews

[Addy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was pretty depressing so I understand why ppl didn't like it. However, I quite enjoyed it. Basically, it's about a woman trying to figure out who she is. With two children and her husband with his own questionable actions, it's very relatable if you've ever been there yourself. With her kids both in school and her marriage on the fritz she wants to back to school and find sometime for her and her husband; to somehow fix things. So Emily decides to put out a notecard at a grocery store advertising for other women to join her co_op babysitting idea. Brilliant, except one of the women or maybe even a couple are not all there or have other intentions and poor Emily's life starts to spiral out of control. The ending was a bit disturbing but not every ending will be satisfying. I certainly enjoyed figuring out who the psychopath was. This was my second book from Altman and he definitely has a knack for investigating the dark side of the mind.

[ʀᴀᴠᴇɴ ★ · Rating 4 out of 5]

jesus fucking christ this book is dark, twisted and depressing. I LIVE FOR BOOKS LIKE THIS. i found myself excited to read every time i get a hold of this just because i couldn't get enough of it. there's always something you have to scrutinize to find out who this mysterious killer is and in turn we're almost becoming as paranoid as the main character. it has a way of misleading us, to be honest, that twist completely caught me off guard.

[Michael Burhans · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the two worst books I ever read. In fact when I finished, I ripped the book into pieces and threw it in the trash lest some poor other person make the mistake of reading it. The author should likely be locked up, I got the distinct impression he wanted to do very bad things to very young girls.

[Guy]

I read this as an advance copy from the publisher many years ago. During the read I figured out who did it but not the "why". It was one of the few books of this type that I actually read from cover to cover and not cheat trying to flip through the last few pages to solve it. If I remember correctly the ending left me a little disturbed.

[Gena Lott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would never read this book now. It still haunts me sometimes!

[Linda V. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wat een geweldig boek, een Nederlandse thriller die me de hele tijd opnieuw in verwarring bracht en weer liet twijfelen. Alle verhaallijnen waren een goede toevoeging voor het verhaal - op één na - en ik vond het verhaal sterk geschreven en snel lopend. Minpuntje was wel dat het einde vrij gehaast was waardoor ik nog wel met wat vragen achterbleef maar al met al zeker een aanrader!

[Jolieg G · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had een erg spannend boek verwacht maar dat viel tegen.
Vond het eind ook wat afgeraffeld...
Het zoontje weet te ontsnappen maar hoe hij thuis is gekomen???

De vader is verdwenen maar het waarom en waar hij geweest is??
Plotsklaps is hij er weer...

De agenten waren ook plots uit het beeld verdwenen...
Het had wat verder uitgewerkt kunnen worden naar mijn idee.

[Kjirsten · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was dumb.

[David Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always appreciate when a book would be difficult to adapt as a movie. And, whether on purpose or not, Kiss Daddy Goodbye would be difficult to turn into a movie.

Because her husband is gone on business so often, Emily, a mother of two, starts her own babysitting co-op to ease her financial burdens and find camaraderie with other moms. However, one of her newfound friends has lost her own daughter and is planning on absconding with Emily’s.

The narrative rotates back and forth between Emily’s daily life and her antagonist’s troubled one, and it allows the identity of her antagonist to remain a secret until the end. We are privy to the mysterious woman’s homelife and intimacies but simply don’t get any physical descriptions. The purposeful blindness of this setup creates quite a ghostly atmosphere (like Ramsey Campbell mixed with an early 90s melodrama like The Hand that Rocks the Cradle). To put the book on screen, they would have to twist the story around or manage some tricky camera work to obscure the villain, and I think this would lessen the story’s magic.

Plus, Altman excels at introspection, and these are hard to recreate cinematically. The many moments where Emily or her counterpart run through their personal insecurities are more enlightening and believable than any of the interpersonal scenes. Externally, all of the women appear to fall into one neat category or another: the neat freak, the slob, the drunk, the pretentious agent. Even when it’s discovered they’re not who we thought they were, their characterization simply switches to another stereotype.

The ending is rushed and a bit unsatisfying, but it does throw in just enough curveballs to make it all worthwhile.

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 3/4 stars

[Cognatious Thunk · Rating 1 out of 5]

I unfortunately read this book a second time, it having stowed away in an old tote I recently cleared, and I enjoyed it no more now than I did over a decade ago. It's one of those depressing postmodern novels where everyone is miserable and unfaithful. Honestly, they should all go out and volunteer somewhere. Feed the homeless, pet a puppy, visit the elderly. Nope. Just going to mope. There's a mystery jammed in there too, but this novel is mostly people with full bellies feeling bad for themselves, until reality slaps them so hard they get over themselves. Or don't. Depends on the character. Not my cup of tea, but you may like a gritty thriller.

[Judy Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this quite a few years ago. I loved his writing.

[Sonali ☆ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Such a stupid book.