From Black Rooms is the fourth science-fiction alternate history novel by Stephen Woodworth

Stephen Woodworth

Stephen Woodworth is an American speculative fiction author, and a native of Fullerton, California.- Publications :* "Scary Monsters" , in Writers of the Future VIII * "Relaxation" , in Plot #1...

 featuring the "Violet" detective Natalie Lindstrom

Natalie Lindstrom

Natalie Lindstrom is the primary protagonist of a supernatural alternate-history detective series by Stephen Woodworth. A "Violet" with the North American Afterlife Communications Corps, she is one of a small percentage of the population born with purple irises and the ability to channel the dead,...

. It was written in 2006, and released on Halloween

Halloween

Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...

(October 31).

Plot summary

Natalie Lindstrom has finally left the underworld behind for a new career in the art world. But there’s one world she can’t escape: the Other world of the dead. As a former Violet, an elite crime-fighter with the power to channel murder victims, Natalie is now using her paranormal gift to summon the spirits of legendary painters. But she’s about to discover how far some people will go to keep their hold on her — and others like her. A deadly man from her past has escaped from prison, and he’s been made an offer he can’t refuse: Natalie. But first he must help contact a deceased geneticist whose most intriguing experiment was brutally interrupted: an attempt to manufacture Violets.

To protect her young daughter and herself, Natalie must search for the scientist’s only living test subject — a handsome but tortured artist to whom she is dangerously attracted. For he is caught in the grip of two opposing forces, one that wants his survival, another that wants him — and anyone connected with him — destroyed. (1)