Heather Graham, The Dead Room

The Dead Room

Heather Graham

Mira, Mar 2007, $24.95

ISBN: 0778324303

Last year urban archaeologist Leslie MacIntyre and her fianc Matt Connolly were exploring Manhattan landmark Hastings House when the explosion killed him and left her near death. She recovered physically, but still bears the emotional scars of a survivor. Making it even worse, Matt was her first friend when the southern "Rebel" as a kid moved with her family to Brooklyn.

A year has passed and though she still grieves, Leslie has returned to her work of exploring historical edifices, but since she cheated death has a new skill. She communicates with the ghosts still haunting some of these places and helps them move on. Leslie has a need to return to Hastings House, which she does only to find the specter of Matt greeting her. He insists she gained her gift to talk with ghosts and her obsession to return to this personal house of horror to solve his murder. However, as he visits her in her dreams because for some reason he cannot manifest in front of her, his cousin, private investigator Joe Connolly has followed the clues of a missing person to Hastings House. Joe and Leslie team up as their cases link; neither knows that evil awaits them within a burial ground containing the sprits of those who suffered from injustice and from those breathing who prey on women.

This gripping paranormal romantic suspense hooks the reader from the moment that Leslie steps inside Hastings House for the second time. The storyline is fast-paced whether the heroine is finding a corpse, a ghost, or other supernatural essences. Adding to the gripping tale is the triangular romance as the audience will wonder whether Leslie will find a way to be with Matt or walk off with Joe as she is attracted to both of them. THE DEAD ROOM is a wonderful ghostly investigative romance.

Harriet Klausner