Book Review: The Journals of Eleanor Druse: My Investigation of the Kingdom Hospital Incident

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Journals of Eleanor Druse: My Investigation of the Kingdom Hospital Incident     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Eleanor Druse
Class/Genre:   Fiction   Horror   Medical
Hyperion, Feb 2004, $22.95, 244 pp.

The poster boy for underachiever (not the school grade child type as he almost forty years old) Bobby Druse works as an orderly at Kingdom Hospital in Lewiston, Maine. In December 2002, Bobby calls his mother Eleanor to inform her that a patient Madeline Kruger nee Jensen tried to commit suicide while she keeps insisting that it is 1939 and she needs to know what happened to her friend Sally Druse. Finally Bobby mentions the long note that Madeline penned referencing the little girl is coming.

Eleanor has a deep interest in the paranormal and thinks the drugged out Madeline is referring the deceased Mary Jensen. With the help of her son, Eleanor begins to investigate strange phenomena at Kingston and soon learns that the hospital was built over land where a textile mill burned to the ground in the late nineteenth century; many workers including numerous children died in that blaze. Eleanor wonders if these poor souls and others including Mary have become trapped here because they cannot find solace or if something evil holding them prisoner. She hopes at least to free Mary.

Though in some ways this journal sounds like an amateur sleuth starring in the movie Poltergeist, fans will appreciate the lead character as she investigates the unknown. The plot is exciting especially for ghost story fans. The support cast seems two dimensional though those who work at Boston General know how to “treat” a patient, just ask Eleanor. Overall this is a fun solid ghost tale just not as kingly as fans of the supernatural in Maine expect.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner