Customer Reviews

The Dead Room

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Robert Ellis' "The Dead Room" will take you on a roller coaster ride, filled with plot twists and turns, that will keep you turning the pages without pause until you reach the shocking surprise conclusion.

A young woman is found brutally murdered in her own home in Philadelphia. The mailman apparently "did it." His fingerprints and teeth marks are found all over the corpse, and he is discovered at his own home, a short time after the murder, covered in the woman's blood. A neighbor witnessed the mail carrier running away from the crime scene, drenched in blood, at the approximate time the crime was committed.

Teddy Mack, a young attorney at the Barnett & Stokes Law Firm, specializing in corporate law, is asked to defend the accused by the firm's senior partner, even though Mack has no experience as a defense attorney. Because of past personal issues, Mack is revolted by criminal law, and is reluctant to take the case. However, the request is made by his mentor, which makes it difficult to turn down. He is basically told that all he will be asked to do, since the defendant obviously committed the heinous crime, is to eliminate the death penalty as an option and make sure that the accused is sentenced to life in an institution for the criminally insane, as opposed to the state penitentiary.

As Mack explores the homicide and the investigation to prepare his defense, he discovers another similarly grisly murder - and another; murders committed while the defendant is behind bars. The city's populace panics that a serial killer is on the loose. As the bodies keep turning up, so does evidence of dirty politics and corrupt justice - a system that will indict, convict and kill the innocent in return for solving crimes and bringing in guilty verdicts.

Mack enters a world of terror and violence, confronting his own past demons, and a very real monster in the present. He fights to save a life, and discover the truth behind the aggressive prosecution and the history of death penalty sentences by a zealous DA.

Ellis writes a compelling story with well developed characters, a fascinating plot and subplots, and accurate and interesting detail of homicide investigations. Even the setting, Philadelphia, is unusual and provides a historical backdrop to this powerful novel. "The Dead Room" is also a psychological thriller. As with all of us, much of what motivates Teddy Mack, as well as the other characters, major and minor, has to do with their psychological make-up, and their past. This added psychological dimension gives much depth to the novel. Ellis' writing is spare and tight adding tension to the dialogue and storyline. This is a most unusual thriller that will keep you in suspense and shock you at the conclusion. A must read for all mystery thriller fans!
JANA

One of the best parts about reading mysteries is that you think you've seen it all and then you walk out of the store with a book like this.

Wow! Here are the three things I liked best ...

1. So many serial killers have been inked out on the page that I thought the genre might be over and out. Wrong! This thriller sets up a whole new standard.

2. The plot blew me away -- I couldn't put the darn thing down. The layers of detail, the twists and turns, an ending from somewhere on the other side of incredible. "The Dead Room" is a fabulous story.

3. The characters jump off the page. The protagonist is so human, so vulnerable, so warm and real, if I knew him, I'd marry him. The antagonist, well, they're supposed to be scary and this one fits the bill!

"The Dead Room" was recommended to me by my bookseller. If I could add five stars to a five star rating, I'd do it in a heartbeat. It was a wonderful surprise.

One of the few books since Michael Connelly's "The Poet" that I was completely unable to put down. Robert Ellis does an admirable job of depicting the corruption in our legal system, while keeping the heat on with a killer so ruthless it nearly curled my hair.

The story is believable and engrossing. So well done that I couldn't stop thinking about it and decided to post this. I'm just glad it's a work of fiction!

This is definitely one of the best thrillers I have ever read.
Intelligent, gritty, scary, emotional, hard driving, and
depending on how warped your sense of humor is,
even funny in a dark sort of way.

The thrills get started on the very first page.
What follows is the compelling story about a young
attorney just out of school who gets forced into
a homicide case and can't be bought off by
the powers that be.

This is a sensational story with fully fleshed out
characters and a great plot that really rips.

I had a wonderful time reading this book, and
highly recommend it.

A young woman is brutally murdered, the probable suspect seen running from the house and arrested. All the evidence points to this suspect, so the DA, a man with enormous political ambition, decides to try the case himself hoping for big headlines. Enter the suspect's legal representative, Teddy Mack, a young civil attorney with no interest in criminal law, and whom the DA initially mistakes for a law clerk. Truth is, Mack's spent most of his life trying to avoid criminal law, but has been forced by the partners at his firm to take the case or get out. Facing impossible odds, Mack uses his instincts and intelligence to overcome his lack of experience, and wrestles with the evidence. What he discovers is the very reason I can no longer support the death penalty except under the most special circumstances.

There's more to this novel than meets the eye ... I should have suspected something was up when I realized that the story is set in Philadelphia and that there are exactly seventy-six chapters. As Mr. Ellis so wonderfully conveys in a masterful use of character and plot, you never really can be sure of anything, even if you see it with your own eyes.

But this is a book about more than who did what to whom. This is a novel about art: someone who thinks he's an artist vs. someone who really is. It's about law: someone who plays at being an attorney vs. Teddy Mack, a young man who does a lot of heavy lifting and really is an attorney. Finally, this is a book about the legal system itself: the way we'd like to believe things are vs. the way it really is because, after all, the system is owned and operated by human beings like ourselves, and none of us are perfect. And yet, THE DEAD ROOM is a thriller, a fascinating story moving at breakneck speed that I found impossible to put down.

I only came upon this book by luck; a dog-eared copy has been working its way through my office for six weeks. When I was finished, I gave it to my wife, admittedly a bibliophile and mystery lover, who got sucked in and left me to forage for dinner alone for two nights until she was done. The ending is big and thought provoking, and we talked about it into the early morning and even the next day. Then I passed the book on to the next person in line at the office. When asked if it was any good, I didn't say anything but nodded and just smiled.

Finished this tonight and was astounded that the intro claims
this is only the second published book by Ellis. It is very
accomplished writing of an old pro, in my opinion. Mr. Ellis must have
served some sort of apprenticeship in some other area - it is that good.

So many things to like about the book; structurally, very short chapters
(I really appreciate those) which all flowed together masterfully. The
protagonist is a very reluctant new lawyer who is drug rather kicking
and reluctantly into a power structure and among wolves and sharks, and
just seems to grow into the development of the plot. Sticks it out,
keeps surprising himself, but will not sell out to "the Powers That Be",
having an internal set of values which he follows.

That is was all "meant to be" for him is a great plot and character
development...and the ending is truly unique.

Top it all off, it is a Serial Killer book in a genre which I had
thought to be impossible of innovation after so many had been written;
and yet this stands out as a "one off" which depends on none of the
many, many books in the genre (I have read most of them).

Hats of to Mr. Ellis, everyone rush out a buy a copy of this.

I've been able to locate some horrific thrillers lately, books that give "Silence of the Lambs" (the book that sets the standard for all fiction about serial killers) at least a small run for its money. I'm incredibly impressed by [...]"The Dead Room" by Ellis, is almost as good.

Ellis takes some real events from various sources - sets them in a fictional setting, Philadelphia, and weaves fictional characters and subplots around them. The protagonist, Teddy Mack, is perhaps a little too impressive for his relative lack of experience, but he dogs the true killer to save a client he believes in. There's an interesting twist to Teddy's character, in that his father was imprisoned and put to death - that background weighs heavily on the choices Teddy makes. Mentored and manipulated by William Nash, a leading attorney and professor of law in the area, Teddy demonstrates incredible problem solving skills in helping the police find the evidence to bring down a madman. The serial killer is particularly macabre, and his pattern of identifying victims is chilling, as is the place where he brings them.

A dark tale that moves quickly, "The Dead Room" demonstrates that Robert Ellis can hold his own with the best of today's thriller writers.

This one had me hooked from the very first chapter. The more I read, the more I wanted to keep going. When I got to the end last night, it blew me away.

The story is about a young attorney who gets dragged into a horrific murder case and quickly learns how corrupt the world can be and how some people don't put much stock in the truth. But he hangs in there, sacrificing himself and his job to save his client and a woman he thinks might be the killer's next victim.

While I was reading, I thought about John Grisham, but also Thomas Harris. Yet this book doesn't depend on either author and stands out all by itself as totally unique.

The characters are well developed, and the plot is cut so fine I had trouble believing it was only Ellis's second novel. It's that good.

The Dead Room is a must-read. I highly recommend it.

When I first encountered "THE DEAD ROOM" online I was intrigued by it because so many had given it great reviews, and even more so because there was no description of the story here on Amazon. I had to find out about it so I went to a bookstore and immediately picked it up. Now I know what all the fuss was about because it truly is an awesome thriller that you just can't put down once you start reading. Robert Ellis really knows how to keep you on the edge of your seat with characters that come alive so that you really get a feel for them and what they're going through. Do yourself a favor and read this book as soon as possible; it's a MUST READ! You won't be disappointed.

I picked up this book on the recommendation of a friend and after seeing Robert Ellis in a documentary film about books, writing and the search for a lost author. There's so much to like about this novel that it's hard to know where to begin.

First, I found the plot fascinating. The author's imaginative powers are fresh, new and beyond energetic. The story makes logical sense and I found the plot twists, particularly the last which I didn't see coming, raw and powerful. Second, this may be the best character study in the genre that I've read in the past few years. Mr. Ellis has a way of getting inside his characters. There were times when they seemed so real that I thought I actually knew them. Third, I liked the words and the writer's poetic use of metaphor. This book is well written and shows remarkable ingenuity and skill. I could see this story. I could feel it.

But after all this, what I probably like most about "The Dead Room" and will always remember, is that it seems to be about something more than itself. I highly recommend this novel. Although it nearly scared me out of my wits, I learned something along the way. Cheers to good reading and a great book!