A Room For the Dead

I actually read this book for the first time right after it came out in paperback, which would have been in the mid- 1990's. I love Noel Hynd's supernatural thrillers. I wanted a ghost story type book to read for Halloween and picked this one off my shelf. Since it had been so long since I read it, I couldn't remember many of the details. So, it was like reading if for the first time.
Frank O'Hara, a New Hamphire detective once sent a serial killer to death row. Now more murders are being committed with the same MO. Frank has to go back and revisit the old case. Thinking that he may have sent an innocent man to his death, Frank's drinking takes hold, he sees the ghost of Gary Ledbetter, and starts to fall apart.
A dark, moody, novel show more which was part detective novel, part ghost story. Very interesting concept. I haven't read another novel quite like this one. Noel Hynd is an exceptional author. He is probably more known for his spy novels than his supernatural novels, but if you haven't read one, I highly recommend giving this one a try. B+ show less

It is the winter of 1993. With only a few months to go before his retirement, Detective Sergeant Frank O'Hara faces the most impossible challenge of his career: a serial killer who can't possibly exist...not in this world, anyway.

Several years before, Detective Sergeant O'Hara helped send Gary Ledbetter, an angelically-faced blue-eyed psychopath, to the electric chair. Now Gary Ledbetter's grisly signature is apparent on a string of fresh murders that sicken even veteran cops... Is this just a hideous re-enactment of Gary Ledbetter's crimes? Or...is Frank O'Hara completely losing his mind?

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was incredibly eerie, very mysterious, and I just had to find out how the story ended. I give this book an A! show more Noel Hynd is a new author for me, and he certainly is an author I would like to read more from in the future. show less

A combination ghost story-cop mystery that started out pretty good but then began to lose my interest about a third of the way through. It did pick up again towards the end. Good finish to the story.