The Hitchcock Hotel

April 1, 2024

In best-selling Wrobel's (This Might Hurt) newest, Hitchcock fan Alfred Smettle, owner of the Hitchcock Hotel, invites his college film club friends, whom he hasn't seen for 16 years, to a weekend reunion. The plan is to celebrate the anniversary of the memorabilia-filled hotel, but Smettle has a sinister agenda. Prepub Alert.

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June 24, 2024
Wrobel’s diverting if somewhat lethargic latest (after This Might Hurt) introduces Hitchcock aficionado Alfred Smettle, owner of the eponymous hotel, a bed-and-breakfast (complete with a crow-filled aviary) in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. To celebrate the first anniversary of the hotel’s grand opening, Alfred invites five friends from his university film club for a four-day stay. Few members of the group—which includes security specialist TJ, entrepreneur Samira, hedge fund manager Grace, recently disgraced restaurateur Zoe, and luxury clothing heir Julius—have remained close in the 16 years since they graduated, but each has their own private reason for accepting Alfred’s invitation. The group’s mild interest in reuniting turns to unease as the weekend wears on and buried secrets from their university days rise to the surface, calling into question why, exactly, Alfred has summoned them. Eventually, somebody dies. Wrobel front-loads the narrative with too much exposition, but once the secrets are out, she delivers a fun third act. Hitchcock fans will delight in the copious easter eggs, but others will find this unremarkable. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Agency.

Starred review from August 1, 2024
Alfred Smettle's college friends always regarded him as somewhat ""off,"" particularly because of his obsession with Alfred Hitchcock films, odd mode of dress, and secretive behavior. Their opinion of him is solidified when, 20 years after graduation, Alfred has purchased a Victorian "Hitchcock Hotel" and styled it in the manner of its namesake's films. To celebrate the hotel's first anniversary, Alfred invites his old friends for a weekend together, but there are clearly misgivings from the group about their participation in spending time in the creepy mansion--and with Alfred. Over the course of the weekend, the layers are pulled back, revealing that each guest has something to hide and something to hold over other guests' heads. Told from both present-day and past story lines, this locked-room mystery contains masterful pacing, with suspense built around the identity of the victim and then the discovery of the killer. Wrobel's third novel (after This Might Hurt, 2022) artfully blends suspense with mystery, tying in quotes from Hitchcock as well as research about his work that will be intriguing to Hitchcock amateurs and aficionados alike.

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October 15, 2024
Six former friends reunite for a killer weekend in their old college town. Alfred Smettle has waited 16 years to get revenge on the friends who betrayed him. Acquiring the Hitchcock Hotel, named after Alfred's favorite filmmaker and namesake, was only the first step. Getting the five others to gather there for the weekend was the second. And for the third, well, let the games begin. Zoe, Grace, Samira, Julius, and TJ all have their reasons for showing up at Alfred's behest: guilt, for most of them. Also, their professional and private lives are in shambles, and a weekend away with old friends offers a welcome escape from reality. Little do they know, their host plans to kill one of them and plant evidence implicating another, righting a nearly 20-year-old wrong and sending the hotel's profile skyrocketing. With his encyclopedic Hitchcock knowledge and his faithful assistant, Danny, Alfred might just get away with murder...unless something goes horribly wrong in the second act. Wrobel deftly juggles seven point-of-view characters, finding and harnessing their unique voices with practiced ease. The writing is crisp and clean, if occasionally info-dumpy, and the details of the group's betrayal unspool organically throughout. Mystery and thriller readers will have no complaints for much of their time here--right up until the twist ending they already saw coming. A predictable twist would be forgivable, given the rest of the positives here, if only we could believe that the character in question would actually get away with it. Unfortunately, we cannot. Their proverbial goose is cooked, and the novel's attempt to hand-wave an explanation exonerating them in the eyes of law enforcement falls flat under even a modicum of critical thinking. A Hitchcockian caper with an ending that hamstrings it.

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