A September 2022 Amazon Best of the Month Pick

“Dicker salutes Agatha Christie even as he drops the reader through one trapdoor into another, so that by the end, we doubt we’ve ever read another novel quite like it. (We haven’t.) Fans of Ruth Ware and Lucy Foley will hug this book in between chapters; the many readers who love Anthony Horowitz’s mysteries will celebrate. And me? I’ll be reading it again.”—A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

"[The Enigma of Room 622 is an] exhilarating tour de force"–The Wall Street Journal

A burnt-out writer’s retreat at a fancy Swiss hotel is interrupted by a murder mystery in this metafictional, meticulously crafted whodunit from the New York Times bestselling author of The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair.

A writer named Joël, Switzerland’s most prominent novelist, flees to the Hôtel de Verbier, a luxury resort in the Swiss Alps. Disheartened over a recent breakup and his longtime publisher’s death, Joël hopes to rest. However, his plans quickly go awry. It all starts with a seemingly innocuous detail: at the Verbier, there is no room 622.

Before long, Joël and fellow guest Scarlett uncover a long-unsolved murder that transpired in the hotel's room 622. The attendant circumstances: the succession of Switzerland’s largest private bank, a mysterious counterintelligence operation called P-30, and a most disreputable sabotage of hotel hospitality. A European phenomenon, The Enigma of Room 622 is a matryoshka doll of intrigue–as precise as a Swiss watch–and Dicker’s most diabolically addictive thriller yet.

Translated from the French by Robert Bononno

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The cover is stunning, Sadly, the story and plot are messy. It's probably because the translation (I hope). It's messy and too long. It supposed to be interesting but now it's bland.
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Not my favorite read.

Financial intrigue crossed with cloak and dagger spy activities are not really my thing. I was sure this was going to be more murder mystery, but the large cast of characters and twisty storylines focused more on the actions that came before and it really lost the thread of the murder mystery for me.

A story within a story kept things unnecessarily confusing and didn't bring anything positive to the plot, except a significant amount of additional pages.

I didn't find this anything like Agatha Christie. Perhaps it lost something in translation to English?

A deeply engaging novel with surprises everywhere. Recommended for fans of Clancy, but will engage any mystery lover.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Joel Dicker can craft a mystery. This was interesting, though a little on the long side. Could have benefited from being shorter.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperVia for the copy of The Enigma of Room 622. This book was not for me because it was too long and confusing. It was hard to connect with the writing style and I felt like the author was trying hard to be clever, but it fell flat. It's a shame because the premise of the book was intriguing, but the execution was off. 1.5 stars rounded up to 2

The Enigma of Room 622 uses a clever framing device — a. mystery within a mystery — but I ultimately found it was too bogged down to work. At times it felt like a farce/satire, but at others deadly serious. It didn't quite work for me.

Interesting premise, acceptable follow through. This was twist on a whodunit with a mystery within the mystery. However, it took a long time to setup everything; a third of the way through the book and I felt like things were still being setup. The pace was slow and it was a bit wordier than it really needed to be. Maybe something was lost in translation? I think it had the potential to be a fun and engaging book, if only it wasn't so long and verbose. Cut this down and I would have enjoyed this much more.

This book was just ok for me. I found that the mystery was good but there were so many other things in the book that it felt kind of wordy and taking away from the main part of the story. I did enjoy it I just thought I was going to enjoy it more.

This novel felt like it was lacking a firm path. Maybe it’s something lost in translation but I found myself bored and hoping for more explanation or action.

Unfortunately a DNF for me. I'm not intrigued by the characters or the plot and it's feeling like a chore to get through. Maybe someday I'd pick it up again, but it's just not for me right now.

I was so excited to get an arc of this one as I had heard nothing but good things, unfortunately the dialogue for me was where it lost me. It just wasn’t believable that people would talk like that. The twists and turns were good enough but unfortunately this book left many things to be desired.

A fun twist on a who done it novel. If you like travel and a good unsolved murder this one is for you. I found the pace slow and maybe the translation caused me to not be fully engaged with this one but I did enjoy it none the less.

I was super excited to read this book- the synopsis sounds great and I feel like the bones of a great book are there. However, something just got lost in translation. I was expecting a murder mystery along the lines of Agatha Christie but instead I found myself reading a convoluted corporate conspiracy involving characters whose lives are just as complex. All in all, I was just confused and given it is close to 600 pages, I decided to DNF at 20%. I might attempt to read it again in the future because I really was looking forward to it so much (not to mention that cover is so pretty!) and if I do, I will be sure to update here.

A big thanks to Harper Collins Canada and NetGalley for giving me an arc. All opinions are my own.

The Enigma of Room 622 held such promise for a fantastic read, and instead fell very flat for me. Firstly, this book was far too long, at 498 pages, it probably could have been reduced by a good hundred or more pages and still told as equal a story. There were timelines within timelines, which caused for some confusion, especially for myself as I was reading on a device that didn't allow me to flip back and check things easily. At one point I stormed out of the room I was reading in and declared to no one in particular that all the characters deserved each other. I never really felt like I was rooting for anyone, maybe that was the problem. I wasn't sure who was good, or if anyone in fact was. I saw one of the major twists coming a long way off, though I did not see it to the extent that it ended up going, which was a nice surprise. I really, really disliked the way the book ended. I can't say anything, because I am not about the spoilers, but it ended with a pet peeve of mine.
I will say that Joel knows how to weave a complex and drawn-out tale. One I am sure that many out there will enjoy. I just felt like this was not the one for me.

Thank you so much to Harper Collins Canada for the e-arc of this book and the opportunity to read it. All thoughts are my own.

This book was crazy and SO GOOD! Dicker kept me so engaged from page 1 and the anticipation was so exciting! So original! So unpredictable! Plus amazing characters! It was complicated and complex but easy enough to follow. I also loved his writing style.

The Enigma of Room 622 hooked me from its description. It reminded me of an Agatha Christie novel, or a Sherlock Holmes mystery, and I couldn't put it down. Joel Dicker is such a talented author and really left me hanging off of every word. I read most of this book on the edge of my seat, and the beautifully described landscape of the Swiss Alps helped me transport myself into the story with even more ease. Whenever I read this type of book, I always try to figure out what's going to happen before I get to the end, but Dicker kept me guessing until the very last page.

A joy to read—it's the type of book I would re-read just to see if I could pick up clues on the second go-around that I missed on the first.

Where to begin? The Enigma of Room 622 is a book within a book and so incredibly detailed. Dicker stumbles across a murder that occurred in a hotel in the mountains of Verbier, Switzerland. What follows is a time jumping thriller that follows the lives of Macaire Ebezner, Anatasia Ebezner, and Lev Levovitch as it connects to figuring out who has committed the murder. There was such detail in this book that it was clear that Dicker thought of everything. While it was a lengthy read, I found myself continuing to tell myself "just one more chapter" as I was so wrapped up in the story and the characters.

I really enjoyed “The Enigma of Room 622”, a novel by Joël Dicker, until the very end (I really do mean the very very end, the last two pages or so). It is an homage to intricate puzzle-box mysteries, to flashbacks, to mysterious happenings in old European hotels. Yes, some of the characters and situations are ridiculous, but that’s part of what makes this a fun journey.

The story starts out with our main character, a prominent writer named Joël Dicker (how meta), getting away to a grand hotel in the Alps to mourn the passing of his mentor, Bernard de Fallois, as well as to recover from his recent romantic failure. As he wallows in his despair, he notices a strange fact: there is no room 622 at the Hôtel de Verbier. Goaded on by one of his fellow hotel guests named Scarlett, Joël begins to unravel the mystery behind the missing room 622: an infamous murder that took place there.

We jump back in time to start to piece together the story behind the murder. This being Switzerland, the story involves intrigue at a large private bank. With the death of his father, Macaire Ebezner is set to take over the bank… until it looks like the board might go with the upstart Lev Levovitch. Let the games begin.

So what do we have here? Definitely not a typical corporate thriller. There are love triangles, backstabbing coworkers and friends, blackmailers, false identities, hidden secrets (so many secrets), Russian aristocrats (maybe), counterintelligence spies – all cumulating in the bank’s annual celebration at the Hôtel de Verbier, and the murder in Room 622.

As Joël and Scarlett play at Sherlock and Watson, we get flashbacks, stories about Bernard, stories about Joël. We see the plots unfolding and leading to that fateful night. We don’t learn who was murdered until the last part of the book, which builds the suspense even more. And eventually the twists and turns lead us to an unexpected conclusion.

This is an enjoyable book. Yes, it requires some suspension of disbelief, but when the voyage is so much fun you just shake your head and keep going.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from HarperVia via NetGalley. Thank you!

I did not finish this book. I found it extremely long winded with entirely too much detail about certain situations that I don’t think were relevant to the main plot. It took me three weeks to get to 60% and I am usually a book every four days type of reader. The only reason I made it to 60% is that I wanted to find out who was killed in room 622. I ended up just skipping to the end to figure it out. This book could have done with a lot more editing to shorten up some of the winding and convoluted backstory and side story.

A locked room murder mystery at a resort in the mountains! Everything about this book was thrilling. I love the characters, the atmosphere, and truly felt I could get lost in the story along with everyone else.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperVia for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.