THE DIARY OF ELLEN RIMBAUER My Life at Rose Red

Stephen King's TV miniseries "Rose Red" concerned eerie doings in the Seattle mansion called Rose Red. This spin-off novel purports to be the diary of Rose Red's first mistress, which reveals the house's origin and early paranormal mayhem in the opening decades of the twentieth century. Alexandra O'Karma takes a bold approach. By adopting a hushed, puckered, listless quality, she risks quickly boring the listener and undermining the spooky tension. But she neither bores nor subverts, instead delivering an original, arresting portrait of an Edwardian matron with repressed passions. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB / MAR 03]