The Vanity Rooms

Welsh author Luther’s third Honeyman novel (after Precious Cargo) marries engaging history to an overcomplicated plot. Failed but ambitious Cardiff screenwriter Kris Knight is apartment-hunting when he’s shown an opulent suite—complete with a prototype of the famous 18th-century chess-playing automaton, the Turk—controlled by an organization called Gathering. Its part-time representative, Fabrienne Iqbal, gives him an interactive ivory cellphone through which Gathering communicates. The phone leads Kris toward success, linking each instruction to a chess move on the Turk’s board. Meanwhile, he learns about his new home and its seductive paranormal powers from Fabrienne and an elusive guide named Honeyman. The building once sheltered 13 refugees from Revolutionary France, bitter over their lack of worldly recognition; now, it magically houses similarly ambitious but failed tenants, offering fame at a heavy price. Though its factual seeds intrigue, the story’s welter of paranormal plotlines will confuse many readers, especially those unfamiliar with chess and the series’ earlier volumes. (Sept.)