The Death Chamber - Sarah Rayne

The Death Chamber

Sarah Rayne

Felony & Mayhem, Aug 7 2015, $14.95

ISBN: 9781631940507

In 1917 in Cumbria’s Calvary Gaol for murderers, seven year old Walter Kane visits his dad one day before his father’s execution.  The convict obtains a pledge from his son that Walter will be a doctor.

In 1938, Dr. Walter Kane returns to Calvary Gaol for the first since he made the vow to his late dad, but as part of the staff.  .  Though he suffers doubts at times over a convict’s guilt, Walter diligently performs his execution duty even when a case haunts him.  In WWII, Walter joins the British military and after the hostilities end moves to Switzerland.

In the present, Walter's great granddaughter Georgina Grey knows nothing about his time at Calvary Gaol.  The Caradoc Society Secretary Vincent Meade informs her that her great grandfather donated to their paranormal cause and they will give her any money left after paying off debts.  This enables Georgina to flee a failed business and an ugly relationship with David the deserter to look first hand into her ancestor’s life especially when he served as the prison doctor.  Meanwhile a television show investigates abnormal energy at Calvary Gaol.  Neither Georgina nor the crew expected ghosts clamoring for their tale to be told and even worse the nasty clamoring to kill the living telling their tales.

Aptly titled, The Death Chamber is an action-packed paranormal epic.  The twisting ghost story starts off as a leisurely-paced historical starring Walter during WWI and WWII; but accelerates once his descendent and the ghostbusters arrive at Calvary Gaol to look into the past (except when Georgina to our chagrin reflects on David); unaware until it may be too late of the horrors that welcome them. 

Harriet Klausner