Book Review - Room 33

Room 33 by E.C. Sheedy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

At the heart of this story is a creepy old 30's hotel which has been turned into apartments. I love creepy old 30's hotels that have been turned into apartments, and lived happily in two of them when I lived in Chicago.

This particular creepy old hotel, along with a hundred grand, was just inherited by Joy, the stepdaughter of the last owner, who completely disinherited his wife, instead leaving a letter for Joy to take care of her mother in the style to which she'd become accustommed. That style involved going through forty million dollars in just over ten years, so Joy has a bit of a quandry as to how to manage following her stepfather's last request.

Rather than sell the place, she decides to investigate what it would take to renovate it and turn it into a luxury hotel once more, and in her tour of the building meets Wade, her stepfather's son, who has been caretaking the place. As the two investigate the hotel's history together, they learn the disturbing history of Room 33 - the room of doom, as it was once referred to in the media before it was closed in the seventies - and of the withered old man who inhabits (and never leaves) the penthouse apartment.

It's a fun mystery, in a fun setting, with likable characters, but nothing super unexpected happens for those who read lots of mysteries. But I liked it anyway :)

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