The Forgotten Room

by Lincoln Child

290 pgs  (Jeremy Logan series #4)

Will Strachey was a respected researcher at Lux, the nation’s oldest and most renowned think tank located along the coast of Rhode Island. He was until he ended his life, unexpectedly and in a particularly gruesome fashion. Immediately after attacking his assistant, screaming incoherently about voices that “taste like poison,” Strachey decapitates himself using one of the facility’s heavy glass windows.  

Jeremy Logan, an enigmalogist who used to work at the Lux himself, and the protagonist of three of Child’s previous stand-alone novels, is summoned by Lux’s director, Dr. Olafson, to investigate Strachey’s inexplicable behavior and death.

As Logan begins to look into Strachey’s death, he learns that there are other researchers at Lux who have been exhibiting uncharacteristic behavior as well. He learns that Strachey had been overseeing the renovation of the West Wing of the facility, which hadn’t been used for the last several years, and it’s there that he discovers a hidden room. It’s been walled up recently, is dust free, and contains an assortment of odd laboratory equipment, including an old electromagnetic field generator used historically to detect paranormal events.

Typically, I enjoy the books Child coauthors with Douglas Preston more than I do his stand-alone books, but he has managed to keep his series featuring Jeremy Logan entertaining and worthwhile. I enjoy the way he incorporates elements of the supernatural while remaining believable enough to keep me from rolling my eyes. The Forgotten Room is a quick and fun read that will make you feel a little unsettled at times, unsure of how much you can trust your own senses. 

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆