Search - A Room for the Dead

This book is part ghost story, part mystery. Frank OHara is the New Hampshire cop responsible for identifying Gary Ledbetter as the man who has killed several women in a horrifying manner. He gets extradicted to Florida for other murders and dies in the electric chair, protesting his innocence to the end. OHara is 4 months away from retirement when the same type of murders turn up in his area. The murders had a very negative effect on OHara so he's not thrilled when his Captain assigns him to investigate the murders. Then OHara starts seeing the ghost of Ledbetter who demands that OHara find the real killer whose crimes he was executed for. Throughout the book, OHara tries to figure out whether he's crazy or he's really seeing a ghost. There are many surprising twists and turns to this story that make it hard to put the book down. OHara is a sympathetic character. The minor characters who pop up are intriguing. The ending is somewhat disappointing but at the same time it's a very fitting one.

Noel Hynd never dissappoints. this is a very good murder story about a detective ready to retire, but then his recent death row murderer keeps coming back saying he's innocent!! What a great ghost story! It will keep you guessing until the exciting conclusion! I could not put it down til I knew the ending!!

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

I was really disappointed in this book, especially as I had gotten it right on the heels of "Ghosts", a book by the same author that I couldn't put down. It's as if the author, trying to duplicate his ghost story success with the previous title, was rushing to get something out on the shelves again.

To be fair, the base storyline is a good one, a police officer being haunted by the spirit of someone he helped send to the electric chair. Unfortunately, I couldn't really get into the cop's character b/c although we should have been able to sympathize with him, he was really not all that likeable. And, although, there were many characters in the book that the author DID go into depth with, I never really connected with any of them, good or bad, which is an odd occurrence for me as a quite active reader.

The other thing that surprised me is that even though this book should have been a quick beach/paperback-type read, it took me days to get through it. The beginning 60 pages are so read like they are by a TOTALLY different author than "Ghosts" and in fact read a little different than the rest of the book as well, in that it seems sloppier. There are also a lot of cliche descriptions that are used overmuch, such as describing the killer REPEATEDLY as a "dirtball Adonis" and other cops as "harness bulls". (maybe that was 90's slang?? I just worked 5 1/2 years in a police department and NEVER heard that phrase).

I really want someone to want this book so I can unload it from my inventory so I should probably not have written such a scathing review--however, it got almost consistent 4 stars so maybe it IS just me. I would say that taste is individual and perhaps someone would like this for an airplane or beach read, but if you have read "Ghosts" and are expecting the same quality, I wouln't recommend it based on that factor.