The Pink Room

A reviewer

What would you do if there were a way to bring back a loved one you had lost? A child? A beloved spouse? What lengths would you be willing to go to in order to hold them again to kiss them again to bring them back into your life? These are the questions the main characters in Mark LaFlamme's The Pink Room, must grapple with. Theodore Currie was widely acknowledged as a modern-day Einstein whose life's work was unraveling the mysteries of the physical universe. The day he lost his beloved daughter, Angel, in a horrible house fire, was the day his universe fell apart. A grief-stricken father, he decided to put his theories to work to concoct a miracle ¿ the resurrection of Angel. On a hill-top in rural Maine, where forces both natural and supernatural combine with astonishing power, Currie built a house. In that house he created an exact replica of the pretty, pink room his daughter lived and died in ¿ the very room he hoped to bring her back to. However, Currie himself died a freakish death in the Maine woods shortly after the room was completed. One year later Jonathan Cain, a successful horror writer, makes arrangements to spend the summer in the abandoned Currie house with the purpose of finding out the truth about the events that transpired before Theodore Currie's death. He has told his agent that he is researching and writing a new novel. But his real reasons for being in the Currie house are much darker. Cain has experienced the loss of a loved one too. He recently lost his young wife, Kimberly, to the rapid progression of an in-operable brain tumor. Cain has come to the Currie house with the hope of finding out if the house can actually work the magic that Currie was sure it could. However, Cain is not the only one interested in the Currie house. The U.S. government is also very interested in getting their hands on Currie's papers and formulas. There are soldiers and a government scientist stationed in the Maine woods in order to keep an eye on Cain and the Currie house. Right now Olivia Currie, Theodore's mom and current owner of the Currie house, is keeping the government goons at bay, and off the Currie land. All that could change when Olivia Currie unexpectedly dies. Following that setup, the story becomes a virtual thrill ride starting right from the first page of The Pink Room which doesn't let up until the book is finished and closed. LaFlamme writes a well-paced, descriptive, riveting narrative you will not want to put down. He has done a masterful job of combining actual scientific theory, spine-tingling chills, nail-biting suspense, realistic characters, a dash of wry humor, and even a slight nod to that other well-known Maine author. The Pink Room is going right onto my list of horror favorites and I will be eagerly looking forward to reading more from this author.

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