It’s October as I’m writing this and I’m realizing that I don’t have any horror books in my ‘to read’ list. Not a single one. If I didn’t know better I’d say no one was writing horror ebooks at all! So I had to settle for a bit of a thriller Liz Shulte’s “The Ninth Floor.”

“The Ninth Floor” is about a young heiress struggling to become her own woman, independent of her family’s money. First her boyfriend leaves her without explanation and then her aunt falls suddenly deathly ill necessitating a move back to her home town for the first time in years.

That’s when things start getting creepy.

All revolving around a mystery of her past that’s somehow connected to the 9th floor of the town hospital.

Sounds pretty interesting right? Unfortunately, for a woman who hoped to be a journalist the lead character is really slow on the uptake. Even after things start getting weird she allows herself to be lead around by what other people say about the situation and at no point investigates for herself. Oh she thinks about investigating, maybe even mentions something to someone about investigating but for the most part she’s just bounced around from one event to the next.

There’s a hint of romance throughout the novel, including a few steamy scenes, but it’s all the kind of romance that makes you groan, slap your forehead and roll your eyes. It’s not that the men are all jerks (they are but that’s not unusual in a romance) it’s that their interest in the lead is tenuous to the point of being unreasonable and in most cases – outright creepy.

Then there’s the lost character of the lead’s best friend who lives in France and occassionally talks to them on the phone. An extra character that we know all about but who doesn’t really have a vital role in the story or reason to be there at all. Especially when another good friend from the lead’s past turns up in town and helps them do everything. The parts would have been better merged together.

I read this one all the way through which is a compliment in itself, there are a lot of ebooks I can’t even bother to do that much for, but I was rather disappointed in it overall. Mostly it’s a good concept that’s sadly does not live up to it’s entertainment potential.