5 reviews for The Golden Room
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The Golden Room
by Irving Wallace
Description:
WELCOME TO THE EVERLEIGH CLUB -THE WORLD’S MOST SUMPTUOUS BORDELLO MINNA AND AIDA EVERLEIGH – proprietors of the famous house of pleasure on Chicago’s Levee. KAREN – The mayor’s elegant, gorgeous secretary who is playing a dangerous masquerade. CATHLEEN -The Evereighs’ socialite niece, a sweet Southern girl soon to learn all about becoming a woman. ALAN – Handsome heir to a Chicago meat packing empire, who may find the price of desire too high to pay. DR. HOLMES – A serial killer whose Everleigh Club privileges may include picking out his next victim. Destiny ignites their passions in the splendor of The Golden Room where every fantasy or fear can come true.
About The Author
Irving Wallace (March 19, 1916 June 29, 1990) was an American best-selling author and screenwriter. Wallace was known for his heavily researched novels, many with a sexual theme. One critic described him as “the most successful of all the many exponents of junk fiction perhaps because he took it all so seriously, not to say lugubriously”. Wallace was a blue-collar writer who wrote for a blue-collar audience. Most critics were scornful of his novels’ flat prose and pedestrian characters.
Skryf Review
“Good Reading”
Pooja
Here’s a book I have read a few times and re-read today (it’s a small book) – The Golden Room by Irving Wallace. Published in 1988, two years before his dead, is about a brothel & the people involved with it and set in 1903’s Chicago. Minna & Aida Lester, two sisters and divorcees, change their last name to Everleigh and open up the fanciest, most popular & most famous brothel in the world, and maintain a dignified presence in the eyes of the people who like them. All their girls were hand picked for their beauty and were trained in the art of seduction. They were told to learn to talk, sit, appreciate art and culture and make an interesting conversation with the patrons. In the 3 storied mansion house that they converted into the Everleigh club in Chicago, there is a restaurant, offices, a large library and several rooms decorated with the finest & most luxurious style in different themes. They charge the most but you get the most for your money and the girls are best and they also get paid more.Holmes revels in winning over the young prostitutes, luring them to his huge house, where he has sex with them and then gasses them, chops off the dead bodies into pieces and then burns their remains. When Armbruster unknowingly gets his son to the club for dinner and a woman (as a rite of initiation) he finds out the truth about Cathleen’s family and calls off the wedding. With enough proof seen first hand and his bill, Armbruster provides the evidence for Mayor Harrison to close the club and arrest the sisters. However a visiting German prince, who wants to spend time at the club makes Harrison change his mind and he and Armbruster begs the sisters to reopen the club; which they do, provided the wedding of Cathleen and Alan takes place. However Dr. Holmes has trapped Cathleen & Karen in his house; will Alan & Bruce be in time to stop his killing them? Read the book.
Hiten
I think it was a pretty light read. Personally found the story fascinating and the characters weren’t half bad! I find it hilarious how casually the whole serial killing is portrayed in this book like it’s just another one of the scenes in motion. Somethings I really disapprove of are the title, which really makes no sense to me and the way too convenient ending. However, I enjoyed this nice and easy read pretty well!
arif
It is not an easy task to run a club by two widowed women. And Minna and Aida are portrayed as an intelligent women and they use a detective service to find the missing girls. The Detective Superintendent William Pinkerton informs that Dr.Holmes has to be investigated further. In that context before the climax she consents to send Cathleen and Karen to stay with Dr.Holmes mansion looks dumb. There are some plot holes. But also has some interesting sub plots, I like to mention the winning of American derby by Bruce Lester.
Angaan
Wallace can author a masterpiece like The Man and on the other hand write absolute trash such as The Fan Club. The Golden Room is between these two extremes. It sustained my interest till about two thirds of the length but the ending is ridiculously convenient, almost as if the author couldn’t find some way to close it. Best read while travelling or when you need a break from heavy stuff.