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ROOM 33
by E. C. Sheedy
Zebra Books, April 2004
384 pages
$5.99
ISBN: 0821775316


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Travel writer Joy Lane does not get along with her beautiful and predatory mother, Lana. When Lana's husband dies, everyone expects that she will inherit what remains of his estate. The revelation that he has left $100,000 and the deed to the decaying Hotel Philip to Joy, his stepdaughter, catches everyone unawares. To make matters more complicated, Joy's stepfather leaves a stipulation requiring her to take care of Lana financially.

In its day, the Hotel Philip was a destination, a magnificent hotel for the vacationing wealthy. The passage of time, poor finances, and the hotel's unfortunate reputation as being haunted, have led to its present condition: a down-at-its heels residential hotel for the desperate -- and only a handful of these have chosen to make the Hotel Philip their home.

Wade, the dead man's estranged son, loathes Lana, and would love to restore the Hotel Philip to its former glory. Lana needs the cash that the sale of the hotel would have provided her. Her lover wants the hotel so that he can tear it down for development purposes. The remaining residents of the hotel have their own agendas. Despite all the potential problems, Joy is attracted by the idea of renovating the hotel. Unfortunately, someone objects so strenuously to this idea that they're willing to kill her.

For anyone who has ever read a gothic novel, most of this should sound very familiar -- and with good reason -- the essence of ROOM 33's plot is fairly old ground. It's a surprisingly good and enjoyable read, though. Part of that is due to the unique setting; instead of the old dark house on the top of a hill, we've got a seedy, run-down residential hotel, the like of which should be familiar to anyone who's ever poked around the not-so-nice neighborhoods of even a small-sized city.

Sheedy does a fantastic job of bringing the Hotel Philip to life, and setting an appropriately creepy mood. The romantic and sexual permutations of the characters tend to impede the flow of the story, but not to any great extent. A couple of the secondary characters could be better fleshed out, but the rest of them are very well rendered indeed. In particular, the elderly gentleman who lives in the penthouse apartment is riveting.

ROOM 33 is not great literature by any stretch of the imagination, but I've long come to realize that not every book needs to be great literature. It is the type of book that you pick up and don't like to put down. A great summer read.

Reviewed by Michelle L. Zafron, June 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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