You managed to book the last room left.

And you were lucky to get it, too. Your favorite vacation spot is apparently now everyone else’s favorite, too, and that makes it hard to land a much-needed getaway. Pick another date? Yeah, but that might not work. If that’s the place you want to stay, as in the new book “The Haunting of Room 904” by Erika T. Wurth, you might not have a ghost of a chance.

Olivia Becente hadn’t been in the Brown Palace in years and she didn’t want to go to the Brown again, then or now.

Not after her sister, Naiche, killed herself in one of the hotel’s rooms.

So much happened that night. Olivia was wracked with guilt, earned or not. She missed her sister deeply. And then there was that “gift” she’d inherited somehow, a gift that made her see and hear people in other worlds. A gift that kept her busy collecting haunted objects from people who wanted to rid themselves of boxes and books and tchotchkes that were deeply malevolent. It was part of her job – one she couldn’t do without her gay best friend, assistant, and sidekick, Alejandro, who also knew how to keep spirits away.

Now the manager of the Brown had called, insisting that he’d found something that involved Naiche. Olivia didn’t want to go, but how could she not?

Decades ago, Mrs. Luella Stillwell was a Denver socialite who dabbled in the occult. She was instrumental in forming a secret club called the Sacred 36, a club that Naiche had joined before she died. Rumors swirled, including one involving the Sand Creek Massacre, in which a village of Natives was murdered by soldiers; one claiming that Stillwell’s spirit still lived in a mirror at the Brown; and one involved a quinquennial suicide in room 904.

And, as Olivia discovered to her horror, one involving her sister.

Naiche, it seemed, was now haunting that evil room…

Based loosely with a real event in mind, “The Haunting of Room 904” is deliciously shivery with a big splash of evil, and full of nightmare-giving scenarios.

It’s also full of tiny quirks that readers might notice, and growl. Editing errors, repetition, the sorts of things that are absolutely noticeable and might mar a story when you do – and yet, who could resist a novel complete with Ouija boards, misty mirrors, and hideous spirits with portals from beyond? Who can look away from a story in which even the nicest character is a possible suspect? Not you, if you’re a horror novel fan.

Add in a wealthy goth woman, vampirishly-decorated settings, a stalker, a vengeful journalist, and, well, author Erika T. Wurth will have you turning your mirrors toward the wall and keeping the lights on all night.

If you relish a tale based in Native American history and culture and you want it to make you scared, “The Haunting of Room 904” is it. Find this book and make room for it on your shelf.

“The Haunting of Room 904” by Erika T. Wurth
c.2025, Flatiron Books
$28.99
320 pages