The Ninth Floor By Liz Schulte

by Sandra Murphy

Details on how to win a copy of this book at the end of the review.

Back in 1984, the ninth floor of St. Michael’s Hospital was closed, not just to patients but to staff, administrators and even the janitor. Talk about it and faster than Donald Trump can say it, you’re fired! Number 9 doesn’t even register on the elevators.

Ryan Sterling is in town to visit her seriously ill aunt, a patient at St. Michael’s. Once there, it’s like the ninth floor is calling to her. Strange presents arrive on her doorstep. She begins to hear voices and swears that the doors on the ninth floor move in an effort to let her in. Why is she in the stairwell? Because she and her aunt’s doctor need a bit of private time and that’s the one place they can be sure they won’t run into anyone else.

The Sterling family is just plain weird. At an early age, Ryan was sent to boarding school, something that’s made her feel unwanted and unloved. She can’t wait for her aunt to get better so she can get out of town and back to her own life.

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She’s got a curious mind though and asks a nurse or two about the ninth floor. What’s the deal anyway? There’s talk of building a new wing because the hospital needs the space but there’s a whole floor–the former maternity ward–just sitting there, empty. Ryan’s saddened to hear one of the nurses took a fall and died shortly after their talk. She’s beyond shocked when the second nurse dies as well. It seems that talking about the ninth floor isn’t just grounds for dismissal but a death sentence.

Image source: Liz Schulte

This is not just a mystery but also a darn good thriller/suspense story. I did guess who was behind all the weirdness, but not until late in the book so it didn’t spoil the story for me. There was still plenty to figure out besides the identity. You’ve got to figure out if the hospital is haunted or just the people who work there.

This book will keep you up at night for sure but more because you can’t put it down than because you’re too scared to sleep. Schulte has written over a dozen books, not all suspense, so you’ve got a lot of reading to do!

To enter to win a copy of Ninth Floor, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “Ninth”, or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen April 19, 2014. U.S. residents only.

Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the arch, in the land of blues, booze and shoes—St Louis, Missouri. While writing magazine articles to support her mystery book habit, she secretly polishes two mystery books of her own, hoping, someday, they will see the light of Barnes and Noble. You can also find several of Sandra's short stories on UnTreed Reads including Bananas Foster.