Hardcover, 304 pages
English language
Published July 1, 2004 by Severn House Publishers.
Rolf Rudolph Deutsch is going die. But when Deutsch, a wealthy magazine and newpaper publisher, starts thinking seriously about his impending death, he offers to pay a physicist and two mediums, one physical and one mental, $100,000 each to establish the facts of life after death. Dr. Lionel Barrett, the physicist, accompanied by the mediums, travel to the Belasco House in Maine, which has been abandoned and sealed since 1949 after a decade of drug addiction, alcoholism, and debauchery. For one night, Barrett and his colleagues investigate the Belasco House and learn exactly why the townfolks refer to it as the Hell House
Lots of sexual assault, and women getting possessed and ripping their shirts off. Some homophobia. Characters a little basic, the main "twist"(?) was kinda what they set you up for from the beginning. Lots of terrible things happen, but I don't get the fear or dread that I get from Shirley Jackson's work, for example.
Holy Crap. Easily the most disturbing, intense, scary read I've had in nonfiction...I couldn't stop until I'd finished it, even with a bad head cold. That was a crazy ride, and the visuals...whoa. Disturbing and a half.
Campy but awesome!
