Erika T. Wurth has been described as “a gritty new punkish outsider voice in American horror.” What readers might not realize from her name is that she is Native American, which puts her in the same category as such horror mavens as Nick Medina and Stephen Graham Jones.

THE HAUNTING OF ROOM 904 follows Wurth’s award-winning debut, WHITE HORSE, and is full of supernatural scares sprinkled with some Native American mysticism. Olivia Becente did not want the gift she has, but it was predestined and unavoidable. Her sister, Naiche, was the one member of the family who specialized in the ability to commune with the dead, which inadvertently was passed on to Olivia when Naiche left this mortal coil. Regrettably, for Olivia, her newfound abilities not only allow her to see into many different astral planes but consistently presents her with spectral visions of her late sister.

"Wurth explores some dangerous, scary territory in THE HAUNTING OF ROOM 904, which is unsettling throughout, and takes readers along for the ride with her."

Wurth reminds readers up front that the novel not only deals with the subject of suicide but also the Sand Creek Massacre. She refers to these events as “the Massacre” throughout the story and includes an Educational Resources section at the end of the book with a list of nonfiction works that provide far more detail about it.

Olivia and her friend, Alejandro, have fashioned themselves into some sort of paranormal investigators. They receive much flack from the general public about this, but Olivia knows that her powers are very real.

We first see Olivia and Alejandro assisting Cleo, a young woman who bought a supposedly possessed box on Ebay. They are able to rid Cleo of the dark spirits that her purchase brought to her home. Unfortunately, one of those spirits is the dual demon N’de, who made direct reference to having been killed by stronger supernatural forces during the Massacre. Touching on events so close to Olivia's heritage brings on more visions of Naiche, which haunts her throughout the novel.

Despite the negative press surrounding what she does, Olivia continues to take care of business. She is put to the true test when she is faced with the infamous Room 904, where Naiche died. It is an evil room that purports to take a different life every five years. There even have been stories of people dying in the same building and their corpse turning up in this room.

No one has ever been able to solve the mystery of Room 904, so of course Olivia will make it her mission to do so. Thus, we have the main object of this creepy novel that never gives away too much at one time and allows readers enough of a glimpse into the supernatural to make for plenty of chilling moments that certainly will linger on. Before the mystery can be solved, Olivia must continue to battle not only the resentful media but also turncoat friends and the secrets about her own sister that she was never prepared to face.

Wurth explores some dangerous, scary territory in THE HAUNTING OF ROOM 904, which is unsettling throughout, and takes readers along for the ride with her.