THE HAUNTING OF ROOM 904

A Native American paranormal investigator finds herself caught up in a series of hauntings that may include her dead sister.

One of the most refreshing things about this novel is Wurth’s refusal to waste time on extreme worldbuilding or overly complicated stage-setting. She jumps headfirst into the action involving paranormal investigator Olivia Becente, whose clients are being plagued by a series of hauntings. Yes, there is an afterlife, and from it arise spirits demanding the attention of the living. Are they angry? Vengeful? Trying to impart a vital message that shouldn’t be ignored? Olivia, who lives and works with Alejandro, her gay best friend, isn’t sure of their motives. But she quickly comes to understand that her sister, Naiche, who died under shocking circumstances in a Denver hotel room several years earlier, is somehow involved in the hauntings. A woman dies by suicide in that room every few years, and possibly involved in this mysterious, bloody manifestation are a suspicious cult, Olivia’s abusive ex, and a local journalist who seems determined to paint Olivia as a fraud. Wurth also weaves in the history of the Sand Creek Massacre, an 1864 atrocity in which U.S. troops murdered more than 200 Cheyenne and Arapahoe people, mostly women, children, and the elderly. She handles the memories of the massacre interspersed through Olivia’s narrative with great sensitivity, and her portrayal of Olivia’s grief, guilt, and regret over her sister’s death rings painfully true. The novel does grow slightly convoluted, and a few developments, like the sudden arrest of Olivia’s ghost-sleuthing partner, are more difficult to believe than the presence of the furious ghosts. But Wurth makes up for any missteps with her compassion and her insistence on the importance of families, whether they’re related by blood or not.

A scary but sensitive story that never loses its compassion for real-life horrors.