The Forgotten Room

March 23, 2015
In bestseller Child’s chilling sequel to 2012’s The Third Gate, Gregory Olafson, the director of Lux, “the nation’s oldest and most prestigious policy institute,” summons “enigmalogist” Jeremy Logan to the group’s headquarters, a mansion in Newport, R.I. Ten years earlier, Logan was expelled from Lux for his unconventional methods, but now Olafson needs his help on a case: computer scientist Willard Strachey inexplicably attacked his assistant before committing suicide in a particularly gruesome way. In a recording of Strachey’s last words, he complains about voices that “taste like poison.” Logan suspects that Strachey’s behavior may be connected to his overseeing renovation work on an abandoned wing of the mansion. The paranormal investigator subsequently discovers a hidden room containing some odd equipment. Near the fireplace is a burned scrap of paper bearing the words Project Sin; the sound of disturbing music adds to the room’s eeriness. Child makes the most of the creepy setting, his unusual lead character, and an intricate plot. Agent: Eric Simonoff, William Morris Endeavor.

It's tough on narrator Jonathan McClain that this third outing for Professor Jeremy Logan, "enigmalogist," begins in Scotland. McClain makes a valiant attempt at the Scottish accents, but it's a great relief when Logan leaves the Loch Ness Monster behind and heads back to the U.S. At a prestigious think tank in Newport, Rhode Island, a researcher has killed himself in a bizarre fashion.The decision to bring Logan in to investigate divides the staff. McClain gives convincing voices to academics old and young, male and female. It seems almost cruel that Child throws in a Cockney maintenance man to keep his narrator off-kilter. Nonetheless, this is a solid thriller. C.A.T. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine