The Dead Room [Hardcover]

Heather Graham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2007

A year ago, archaeologist Leslie MacIntyre barely survived the explosion that took the life of her fiance, Matt Connolly. In the long months since, sh's slowly come to terms not only with her loss but with her unsettling new ability to communicate with ghosts, a dubious 'gift' received in the wake of her own brush with death.

Now sh's returned to lower Manhattan's historic Hastings House, site of the explosion, to conquer her fears and investigate a newly discovered burial ground. In this place restless spirits hold the secrets not only of past injustice but of a very real and very contemporary conspiracy with deadly designs on the city's women--including Leslie herself.

By night Matt visits her in dreams, warning her and offering clues to the truth, while by day she finds herself helped by--and attracted to-- his flesh-and-blood cousin Joe. Torn by her feelings for both men, caught between the worlds of the living and the dead, Leslie struggles against the encroaching danger that threatens to overcome her. As she is drawn closer to the darkness at the heart of Hastings House, she must ultimately face the power of an evil mind, alone in a place where not even the men she loves can save her.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of this chilling paranormal thriller from bestseller Graham (Kiss of Darkness), anthropologist Leslie MacIntyre eagerly accepts an invitation to work on an archeological dig near New York City's Hastings House, a historic building that survived the explosion which a year earlier seriously injured her and killed her fiancé, Matt Connolly. As a temporary resident of Hastings House, Leslie, who has developed the ability to communicate with ghosts, sees Matt in her dreams, complete with convincing erotic love scenes. A secondary plot adds to the intrigue as Matt's cousin, PI Joe Connolly, searches for a missing social worker, whose disappearance may be linked to that of local prostitutes. Leslie's paranormal powers lead her to not only important archeological discoveries but also grave personal danger. The intense, unexpected conclusion will leave readers well satisfied. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Leslie MacIntyre's life was changed forever when an explosion ripped through a historic New York home. Not only was Matt, her investigative journalist fiance, killed, but she also acquired the ability to see dead people, although Matt's ghost only appears in her erotic dreams. Private investigator Joe Connolly bears an uncanny resemblance to his late cousin Matt and meets Leslie while investigating the disappearance of a social worker. Given the story Matt was following at the time of his death, both Leslie and Joe believe that the explosion was no accident. The dead who contact Leslie lead her to several remarkable finds, thrusting her into the news and more danger. Even though this ghostly thriller is not a romance, prolific Graham's extensive experience as a romance writer enables her to introduce delicious romantic interludes. She also brings a fresh perspective to New York's mysterious underground city, and her combination of paranormal and suspense elements adds appeal as her heroine tries to aid the restless dead and find justice. Diana Tixier Herald
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Mira (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0778324303
• ISBN-13: 978-0778324300
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,383,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

New York Times and USA Today best selling author, Heather Graham was born somewhere in Europe and kidnapped by gypsies when she was a small child. She went on to join the Romanian circus as a trapeze artist and lion tamer. When the circus came to South Florida, she stayed, discovering that she preferred to be a shark and gator trainer.

Not really.

Heather is the child of Scottish and Irish immigrants who met and married in Chicago, and moved to South Florida, where she has spent her life. (She has, at least, been to the Russian circus in Moscow, where she wished she was one of the incredibly talented and coordinated trapeze artists.) She majored in theater arts at the University of South Florida. After a stint of several years in dinner theater, back-up vocals, and bartending, she stayed home after the birth of her third child and began to write. Her first book was with Dell, and since then, she has written over one hundred and fifty novels and novellas including category, suspense, historical romance, vampire fiction, time travel, occult, horror, and Christmas family fare.

She is pleased to have been published in approximately twenty-five languages, and has had over seventy-five million books in print. She has been honored with awards from Walden Books, B. Dalton, Georgia Romance Writers, Affaire de Coeur, Romantic Times, the Lifetime Achievement Award from RWA and more. Heather has also become the proud recipient of the Silver Bullet from Thriller Writers. Heather has had books selected for the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild, and has been quoted, interviewed, or featured in such publications as The Nation, Redbook, Mystery Book Club, People and USA Today and appeared on many newscasts including Today, Entertainment Tonight and local television.

Heather loves travel and anything that has to do with the water, and is a certified scuba diver. She also loves ballroom dancing. Each year she hosts the Vampire Ball and Dinner theater at the RT convention raising money for the Pediatric Aids Society and in 2006 she hosted the first Writers for New Orleans Workshop to benefit the stricken Gulf region. She is also the founder of "The Slush Pile Players", presenting something that's almost like entertainment for various conferences and benefits. Married since high school graduation and the mother of five, her greatest love in life remains her family, but she also believes her career has been an incredible gift, and she is grateful every day to be doing something that she loves so very much for a living.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I didn't know whether to cry because I was happy or sad! ( I'm a spoiler!), July 20, 2007

By 

E. Walker - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dead Room (Hardcover)

Leslie, Matt, and Joe! Ahh! WHY? WHY? WHY? Ok did I say why enough? I just don't get it. Why bring Joe into the story if its going to end this way. Joe already lost so much for the story to end this way. I know bringing Genevieve in at the end is supose to vendicate what happened but I read this story because I thought that the hero and heroine concures all evil and live happily ever after, not heroine dies and goes off into the sunset with dead fiance, leaving behind someone that who could have been something in your life. I just did not know how to feel about the story as a whole when I got to the ending. I think that if I knew more about Matt, I would not have felt cheated. I think if Matt were more of a main character, and not just the ghost boyfriend protecting the heroine, I would have understood why the author went down this path. Also, I probably would have been all for love to concure all and Matt and Leslie ending up together as true love should. But from the beginning Leslie seems to be moving on, and moving in the direction of Joe. This is why it should not have ended the way it did. Joe could have been the "Ghost Whisperer" and the story could have been about him finding the killer and not about leading you to believe this was a story of Leslie and Joe. Sorry Im rambling! I just feel cheated somehow. I know I probably sound like a hater, but I do love Heather Graham.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Would not recommend, June 16, 2009

By 

M. Macijauskas (Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dead Room (Mass Market Paperback)

I would not recommend this book to anyone, and I don't think I'll be reading any more of Graham's books. This book just seemed phoned in: weak character development, weak, not believable plot, way too much babbling dialogue and an ending that was lame and still left questions.

Spoiler alert:
The motivations of the villain are still a mystery to me: he blows up part of a historic building to kill our heroine, but succeeds instead in killing her husband and 4 innocent people. Okay, there's lots ways to kill someone, and making it look like an accident. But blowing up a building? Come on. And then he waits over a year to try to kill her again. His attempts are bumbling and clumsy. But this is the villain who had successfully kidnapped and murdered a bunch of women already. To make the whole thing worse, his reasons for wanting her dead so badly are unclear and not believable.

The other male lead is an overbearing man, who would have been appealing had his character been better developed. He doesn't sleep for days and days in his efforts to keep Leslie safe and Leslie herself makes so many stupid decisions that she deserved what happened to her in the end.

There are so many well written, captivating books out there. This is not one of them.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of Heather Graham's best., March 1, 2008

By 

Theda Ghent (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dead Room (Mass Market Paperback)

1/1 Story:
Typical Graham story, but with a shocking, yet wonderfully refreshing ending.

1/1 Characters:
The main characters were sufficiently compelling, but not phenominal.

0/1 Readability:
Usually fair writing, but occasionally a bit amatuer.

1/1 Representation:
Fitting title and accurate jacket synopsis.

1/1 Opinion:
Easily one of my favorite Heather Graham books. Follows her usual style, but there's something a little different about this one, and it's definitly an improvement.