It’s been nearly fifteen years since a tight-knit group of six friends left college and went their separate ways. They never expected an occasion where they’d get back together. But there’s unfinished business between these so-called friends. The storyline is told from multiple POV’s in both the present and past. All characters were distinctly developed making it easy to differentiate. The storyline itself held my interest throughout. I will be honest I was looking more I feel as if I missed something in the end or it just fell a bit under whelming to me.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting read set in a hotel over a couple of days. It was a locked-door mystery. I liked the characters which was basically a group of friends that met up for a reunion. They all have plenty of secrets that you find out by the end of the book. The story flowed well and it was easy to tell the past from the present. It makes a lot of references to Hitchcock films, but I don’t think you have to know too much about his films to understand the book. There were a couple of twists. I did figure some out, but that didn’t detract from me liking the book.

The Hitchcock Hotel is a thriller that combines Hitchcockian suspense with a modern, psychological edge. The story centers on Alfred Smettle, an obsessive Hitchcock fan who’s turned his passion into an eerie, immersive experience at his remote, themed hotel. But this isn’t your typical getaway—Alfred has a more sinister purpose in mind when he invites his old college friends to celebrate the hotel’s anniversary. It's been sixteen years since they've spoken, and there's some unfinished business between them.

The hotel is a really fun idea for a book setting. It's filled with Hitchcock memorabilia, vintage props, and an unsettling amount of crows. The cast of characters is large, so we don't get too much time to get to know each, but despite that, I felt like I had a firm grasp of each, with their motivations and quirks. They were all really interesting to try to figure out. The layers of mystery and the slow-burn tension make for a captivating read. If you're a fan of psychological thrillers or Hitchcock movies, The Hitchcock Hotel is a smart, engaging page-turner that keeps you guessing right up until its ending.

I was so excited to see this book because I love anything Hitchcock. This book was very interested, and I think they did a great job revamping the typical locked room mystery. It was well written, and I enjoyed it very much. I can't wait for more from this author.

Thanks to Net Galley ARC.

In The Hitchcock Hotel, Alfred Smettle has created a hotel completely dedicated to the legendary director of suspense and has invited the members of his college film club to celebrate its first anniversary with round the clock screenings, memorabilia, and the aviary stockrd with fifty crows. After what happened sixteen years ago, Alfred hasn’t spoken to any of them. This is the perfect opportunity to get everyone together and bury the past, except maybe they will be burying a body during this trip, too.

While I wish it was spookier and less just thrillery, I did love the association to Hitchcock and film history. If you’re a thriller/mystery enthuiast, you might like this. A twisty/turny whodunnit with lots of secrets and lies. It’s intricately crafted with characters who are all hiding something.

Alfred Smettle is the proud founder, owner and manager of The Hitchcock Hotel, an Alfred Hitchcock-themed hotel settled amongst the rugged landscape of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. It's beautiful, yet secluded.

The Hotel has been a labor of love for Alfred, a life-long Hitchcock fan. With the 1-year anniversary of the hotel's founding approaching, Alfred decides it would be a great time to invite his best friends from college for a reunion. Of course, he hasn't really spoken to any of them in 16-years, but that doesn't stop him from reaching out and extending the invitations.

For their part, the five invitees, once all members of the Film Club at their college, are surprised to get the invitations. It just seems strange after all this time, but curiosity gets the best of them and they all accept. Zoe, Samira, Grace, TJ and Julius arrive one-by-one at the hotel and the strange weekend begins. As the Reader you get to know each of these characters. The story jumps around between perspectives, as well as past-and-present timelines.

It is a fully unlikable cast with a ton of interpersonal drama and secrets among them. Personally, I enjoy that kind of set-up, but if you are someone who needs to like your characters, you may not. There's not much to like here. This is in part a murder mystery, although it does take some time to get there. You know pretty early on that not all is going to go right with this weekend.

Even though I knew someone was bound to die, I still didn't see it coming. Not the person, not the circumstance. Every single one of the remaining people had a motive, which did successfully keep me guessing.

I'll be honest though, after the first few chapters, I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but IMO, Wrobel pulled it off in the end. There were some fun twists and reveals. It may have helped that I am a big Hitchcock fan, so have watched all the movies mentioned and understood the many references. I'm not sure I would have had quite the same experience with it if I didn't have that background.

At the end of the day, I feel like this is a solid showing for Wrobel. I would recommend it to people who enjoy secluded locations with set cast of characters. I also, of course, would recommend it to any other Alfred Hitchcock fans.

Thank you to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I'm interested to see what Wrobel delivers us next. All her books have been quite distinct from one another, but I like her in this Murder Mystery space.

Darling Rose Gold is a book I’ll never stop recommending to people. It remains a favorite, and I’ve loved Stephanie Wrobel ever since! An Alfred Hitchcock themed hotel that is complete with props, memorabilia, and screenings? Sign me up to stay!

The owner, Alfred, wants to celebrate the first anniversary of the hotel in style. Who better to invite than his friends from his college film club?? Despite the time apart and the friendships drifting apart, he thinks this is the perfect way to reconnec. All the secrets and all the mystery. Not a single likable character in the bunch. However, the premise did keep my interest, and I flew through this one!

Better than Darling Rose Gold? Not quite. Do I recommend this one? Absolutely! If you like all things Hitchcock and little nods to film, then you’ll find this one to be a lot of fun! Now the wait for her next book begins!

3.5 stars rounded down

I am a Hitchcock and a classic film enthusiast. The idea of this novel is intriguing, and it sounds like a fun layer to add to a typical thriller. This locked-room mystery story, with lots of twists, fantastic setting and of course Hitchcock references from start to finish.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I was really really excited about reading this book! I loved Wrobels debut but the books after haven’t been the best for me.

I have to say that I was on outlier island with this book. It was really slow for me and I was just bored the majority of the book. It did get a little better as the mystery picked up.

Overall, not that impressed.

3/5 stars

Thanks to the publisher for my copy!

4+ stars!

Pure entertainment!

Alfred hasn’t seen his college friends in well over a decade. He invites them for a weekend stay at his Hitchcock-themed hotel to reconnect.

I loved this locked room mystery from start to finish! There is a thick, foreboding sense of tension that made me uneasy but also had me glued to the pages. The characters were great - unique and well developed. The main character was stand out for me. He was dark, creepy, snarky and sneaky yet vulnerable. The writing was excellent. It flowed smoothly and wasted no words.

While Hitchcock is a central theme to the story, the reader does not need to be a Hitchcock expert to enjoy this novel. I know the very basics about Hitchcock and was able to feel fully immersed within this mysterious story.

The ending had some unrealistic elements but I was so wrapped up in the story that I didn’t care. I loved the whole vibe of this novel.

I have read and loved all of this authors work. She writes unique, well-researched stories that always create an unforgettable reading experience. I really click with her writing and highly recommend all of her books!

Thank you to the publisher for my review copy!

The cover of this one sold me but I was easily drawn into the story from the first page. A man named after Alfred Hitchcock, who is obsessed with Alfred Hitchcock, and who opens a Hitchcock themed hotel?! AND the hotel has an aviary full of crows?! Hello! Now I want to go visit!

Alfred invites his college friends to spend a weekend to celebrate the one year anniversary of his Hitchcock themed hotel. The problem is that he hasn’t spoken to any of them in sixteen years. But they owe him after what happened back then. Awkward doesn’t begin to describe how this reunion begins but, right on track with Alfred’s plans, the weekend will surely end with a bang. Besides, what’s Hitchcock without a dead body?

The twists in this one are jaw-dropping and I never expected the ending! I read this one with a friend and we were both floored with the outcome! The audiobook is exceptionally well done and I enjoyed the full cast. The eerie atmosphere, unique plot, and unspooling mystery make this a read you won’t soon forget!

I am as much of a Hitchcock fan as any classic film enthusiast. The idea of this novel is intriguing and it sounds like a fun layer to add to a typical thriller. However, this book was a mess. It sets up several partial story lines that don't go anywhere. These are not red herrings -- just loose ends. It meant the overall enjoyment was lessened because I was distracted by what felt like mistakes. And the Hitchcock references were largely transparent and unexciting. It felt like your little brother poking you, "Get it? Get it?" Yes. I get it.

This whodunnit mystery was perfect for the season!! Clue is my favorite movie and this book gave me major Clue vibes! Main character, Alfred is a Hitchcock fanatic and recently opened up a Hitchcock themed hotel. He gave major Mr. Boddy and Norman Bates vibes! I also enjoyed all the Hitchcock movie references and clues throughout!

I enjoyed the fact that all the main characters/ suspects were suspicious and unlikeable! It made the mystery all the more intriguing! Check out this book today if you're a fan of creepy thrillers or a Hitchcock fan like Alfred and crew!

You know I love thrillers and even more when they have a touch of humour.
This book was pure entertaining from start to finish. A locked-room mystery, lots of twists, fantastic setting and of course Hitchcock references from start to finish.
I loved everything about it.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗰𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗛𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗹 by Stephanie Wrobel released September 24, 2024.

Hitchcock Hotel was hella twisted and not at all what I expected - in a really good way. I spent most of the book thinking it would be pretty straightforward - weird guy seeks revenge on college friends, etc, and it was, but it was also stories within stories that ended up keeping me guessing until the very end. Stephanie Wrobel does not disappoint!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for providing me with a digital ARC of this novel!

I wouldn't say I'm an avid Hitchcock fan, but I have seen and enjoyed a handful of his movies. I love Psycho (and creepy hotels in general). When I read the description for this novel, it sounded right up my alley. I was hoping that, with its Hitchcockian themes, this would be more suspenseful and unsettling than a lot of the thrillers that are popular right now. Unfortunately, it ended up including similar tropes to other thrillers I've read, and consequently, there were a number of aspects of the novel that didn't work for me.

The story follows Alfred, who has been obsessed with Hitchcock since his mother introduced him to his films as a child. He recently bought and renovated a Victorian house to serve as a Hitchcock-themed hotel. To celebrate the one year anniversary of its grand opening, Alfred shuts down the hotel for a weekend and invites his five former friends from college to have the place to themselves for a reunion. Sounds great, right? Except, Alfred hasn't spoken to any of them for 16 years, since the friend group broke apart during their senior year. Each friend arrives to the hotel with a secret and a different motivation for reuniting with the group. What exactly is everyone hiding? Does Alfred just want to visit with his old friends again, or is something more sinister going on? The Hitchcock Hotel has loads of different mysteries for readers to solve.

While the plot sounds fascinating, its execution fell flat for me. I would argue there are two main issues I had with the book.

First and foremost, there were far too many mysteries that were hidden from the reader until the very end. This seems to be a common trend with modern thrillers - they hide all of the secrets until the last 20% of the story, at which point they throw a multitude of different twists at you all at once. The Hitchcock Hotel had so very many mysteries and twists, but revealed almost none of them until the end. It makes for a frustrating reading experience, because you spend the majority of the novel in the dark, trying to make sense of the story despite the huge pieces of missing information. And then, once you finally get to the end, it's not nearly as rewarding as it should be, because the twist reveals come in such a flurry that you can barely absorb one before the next three are dropped in front of you. In this book, I would say there were different levels of mysteries - some were not that big of a deal, while others had major ramifications for the characters and the plot. However, even the more minor mysteries were mostly not explained until the end (even though the characters knew what happened and even spoke to each other about it!). So, those reveals that I'd waited so long for seemed lackluster in comparison to everything else going on by that point. I would have enjoyed the story so much more had some of those mysteries been revealed earlier, because at least I would have understood the characters and their motivations more.

My other major issue was that the book centered around the group's college friendship, but I never found the characters or their group as a whole to be all that interesting. The first half of the novel is very slow, featuring each individual character's perspective, as well as flashbacks to their college days. I don't mind slow stories, and I was fine with the scenes where they meandered around the hotel and bickered with each other, even though there wasn't much action. What didn't work for me, though, were the flashbacks. The group went to college sixteen years ago, and hardly any of the flashbacks seemed memorable enough for them to think back on so much later. It just wasn't engaging. The characters are pretty stereotypical and don't feel fully fleshed out, so it was hard for me to connect with them. On top of that, none of them are likable... which is fine, but no one gets a developed enough backstory to make them a compelling villain, either. A couple of the characters aren't even ultimately important to the plot, so it might have been better if they were combined or removed entirely to free up room to further develop the more central characters.

There were a number of plot holes, but most of them were minor, so I'm hoping they were corrected before publication. Overall, though, I think the story would have been stronger had it been set 5-10 years after the group left college, rather than 15+ years.

I want to acknowledge that this novel did have potential. There were some aspects of the book that I enjoyed, although they often weren't consistent throughout the whole story. The author did a great job of describing the setting and building up a mysterious atmosphere at the beginning. However, that atmosphere fades away in the second half. Even though the latter chunk of the book is more exciting, it feels tonally colder. I also liked the writing; it was descriptive, but not over the top. I wish that it had been written in past tense, rather than present tense, though. Lastly, I thought the Hitchcock references were fun and done well. They made me want to go watch more of his movies.

Although it didn't work for me, I know there is an audience who will appreciate this book. If you like thrillers that nearly make you dizzy from the amount of reveals at the end, you might enjoy this more than I did. I also think any thriller readers who are big Hitchcock fans would at least enjoy the themes and references sprinkled throughout the story. However, if you're looking for a horror story or a gothic suspense novel with an even pace, then I'm not sure I'd recommend this.

2 stars out of 5 stars.

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel
.
A group of college friends get together for the weekend at the Hitchcock Hotel, which is owned by one of them. But it is an uneasy gathering as wrongs from the past are remembered, and secrets are uncovered. And of course, a body discovered.
.
What I liked:
-I loved the great setting. A hotel entirely devoted to Hitchcock and his works? Creepy! (Would I ever stay in one in real life? Not overnight!)
-I love stories like this where it’s a supposed group of friends but as you learn the back story of their lives together you see all the fractures.
-The murder really threw me for a loop! Not expecting all of that at all.
.
4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What was great about this book was how it was this wild ride that I kept trying to predict and kept failing at, yet I was not upset about it at all.

Now, I've only seen a handful of Hitchcock films - but I've at least seen some of the most iconic ones; if you haven't seen any Hitchcock films, you may not enjoy this book as much, just because I feel like you'd miss so much nuance and details in the story.

Besides that I did enjoy this suspense novel - the writing about the atmosphere was great; I felt like I could really picture the hotel and ambiance of it all. While there is a larger cast of character, they were distinctive enough that it was easy to keep track of them, their backstories, and the current plots they are involved in.

I truly didn't see the backstory plot coming - nor the ending, but I did find that less satisfying than the backstory plot. This is told in multiple POVs and with two different timelines.

Actual Rating 3.5

I have to admit, I’ve never seen anything by Hitchcock though I’m familiar with some of the basic tropes/major scenes from some of his work. I can only imagine if you’re a Hitchcock fan that there are some wonderful references throughout the book that will elevate your experience, but I still quite enjoyed it without any previous knowledge.

This work is told from multiple POVs and past and present timelines. This was handled well, revealing information smoothly and at a solid pace that kept me intrigued throughout. There were certainly slower parts in the book, but nothing that felt like it dragged too much. I was also surprised by the ending, which is always pleasant when it comes to a mystery.

The characters were strongly written. I enjoyed getting to know them in the past and present, and seeing how they’d changed and stayed the same over the fifteen years the book covers. They were certainly all unlikeable, but in a well written and sympathetic way which made if a fun read.

If you like mysteries/thrillers with dual timelines, Hitchcock references, and unlikeable characters, then you’ll want to check this one out. My thanks to NetGalley and Berkely Publishing for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

The following review was published or updated in several Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia newspapers and magazines in November and December 2024:

Booking a full year of reading

Review by Tom Mayer

If only us readers could just spend our days … reading. What would a year look like? Here, the editors of Home for the Holidays present their yearlong list of books, culled from the past 12 months of reading and reviewing. A few of the titles you’ll immediately recognize, and you’ll likely have more than few in your own library. But just in case you missed a title or two, we’re showcasing the whole year’s worth of books that we’ve read and reviewed, month by month.

Except for the first title, the list is simply a list. To find the reviews of many of these titles, visit our newspaper parent, The (Athens) News Courier at enewscourier.com — with a slight caveat. Our newspaper webmasters are currently working overtime to improve our content management system, the foundation of any website, and while many of our archives are now found there, it may be a few weeks before everything is fully re-uploaded — including the most recent editions of Limestone Life and Home for the Holidays. For now, though, enjoy our literary stroll through 2024.

And about that first title: Not every college professor can make statistical analysis approachable, let along interesting to their students and the general population, but Athens State University emeritus professor of psychology Mark Durm is not every college professor. After spending nearly five decades teaching thousands of students, the “ol’ psychology professor” decided that he’d best get around to writing the one book out of his nearly 100 published pieces that’s he always wanted to write. Call it a legacy piece, but what it really is is a “best of” Durm’s peer-reviewed, book reviews, non-peer reviewed and magazine articles from his 47 years in higher education.

The result is “Professional Publications of an Ol’ Psychology Professor” (Dorrance) with full previously published articles ranging from studies on the effects of glasses on a child’s self-esteem to his ever-popular parapsychology pieces, Durm presents his internationally recognized efforts with a twist.

“It’s a different kind of book because it doesn’t talk about the research, it presents the research,” the professor says from his second-career office at Durm Properties in Athens, about a half-mile from where he first presented that research in person. “I’ve spent hours on all of these articles, especially in the peer-reviewed journal articles.”

And so, articles on divorce, sex, religion and other topics now populate the pages of Durm’s most recent book in an effort to both continue his teaching and satisfy what has been a lifelong wonderment.

“You know, most people don’t understand statistics, so it’s all in there,” Durm said. “What I’m trying to do is a more critical approach to ‘just don’t believe everything you’re told.’ … It’s things that were in my life that I wanted to see if they were so, by using a psychological analysis.”

And like any good professor, Durm didn’t do that research on his own — or take all of the credit. Among the co-authors of many of his articles in the book were students — many of who he’s lost touch with, but all of whom who he credits by name in his acknowledgements and for each of who, if they look up their ol’ mentor, he has a signed book ready to hand over. For the rest of us, you can find the book at any online bookseller — just as you can with the remainder of our list, presented by the month in which the book was published, read and reviewed.

JANUARY

Unbound (Blackstone) by Christy Healy NG/F

The Devil’s Daughter by Gordon Greisman NG/ARC

FEBRUARY

Almost Surely Dead (Mindy’s Book Studio) by Amina Akhtar NG

The Chaos Agent (Gray Man 13) (Berkley) by Mark Greaney NG

The Lady in Glass and Other Stories (Ace) by Anne Bishop ARC

A Haunting in the Arctic (Berkley paperback) by C.J. Cooke NG

Ghost Island (Berkley) by Max Seeck

MARCH

Hello, Alabama (Arcadia) by Martha Day Zschock

The Unquiet Bones (Montlake) by Loreth Anne White

I am Rome: A novel of Julius Caesar (Ballantine Books by Santiago PosteguilloMarch 5: Murder Road (Berkley) by Simone St. James

The Luminous Life of Lucy Landry (Holiday House) by Anna Rose Johnson

Ferris (Candlewick) by Kate DiCamillo

After Annie (Random House, Feb. 27) by Anna Quindlen

Crocodile Tears Didn't Cause the Flood (Montag Press) by Bradley Sides The #1 Lawyer (Little, Brown and Company) by James Patterson, Nancy Allen

Lilith (Blackstone) by Eric Rickstad

Life: My Story Through History (Harper One) by Pope Francis

APRIL

Matterhorn (Thomas & Mercer) by Christopher Reich

Friends in Napa (Mindy’s Book Studio) by Sheila Yasmin Marikar

City in Ruins (William Morrow) by Don Winslow

The House on Biscayne Bay (Berkley) by Chanel Cleeton

Two Friends, One Dog, and a Very Unusual Week (Peachtree) by Sarah L. Thomson

For Worse (Blackstone) by L.K. Bowen

A Killing on the Hill (Thomas & Mercer) by Robert Dugoini

The Clock Struck Murder (Poisoned Pen Press) by Betty Webb

The Book That Broke the World (Ace) by Mark Lawrence

The Forgetters (Heyday Books) by Greg Sarris

Lost to Dune Road (Thomas & Mercer) by Kara Thomas

Warrior on the Mound (Holiday House/Peachtree) by Sandra Headed

Pictures of Time (Silver Street Media) by David AlexanderBare Knuckle (Blackstone Publishing) by Stayton Bonner

Murder on Demand (Blackstone Publishing) by Al Roker

Home is Where the Bodies Are (Blackstone) by Jeneva Rose

MAY

Matterhorn by Christopher Reich

The Hunter's Daughter (Berkley) by Nicola Solvinic

The House That Horror Built (Berkley) by Christina Henry

In our stars (Berkley) by Jack Campbell

Freeset (book 2) (Blackstone) by Sarina Dahlan

Southern Man (William Morrow) by Greg Iles

Camino Ghosts (Doubleday) by John Grisham

JUNE

Specter of Betrayal by Rick DeStefanis

Lake County (Thomas & Mercer) by Lori Roy

Serendipity (Dutton) by Becky Chalsen

Shelterwood (Ballantine) by Lisa Wingate

The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra’s Needle (Holiday House) by Dan Gutman

Jackpot (Penguin) by Elysa Friedland

The Helper (Blackstone) by M.M. Dewil

Winter Lost (Ace) by Patricia Briggs

Shadow Heart (Blackstone) by Meg Gardiner

Lake Country (Thomas & Mercer) by Lori Roy

The Out-of-Town Lawyer (Blackstone) by Robert Rotten

Love Letter to a Serial Killer (Berkley) by Tasha Coryell

Sentinel Berkley) by Mark Greaney

JULY

Three Kings: Race, Class, and the Barrier-Breaking Rivals Who Redefined Sports and Launched the Modern Olympic Age (Blackstone) by Todd Balf

The Night Ends with Fire (Berkley) by K.X. Song

Echo Road (Montlake) by Melinda Leigh

It’s Elementary (Berkley) by Elise Bryant

You Shouldn’t Be Here (Thomas & Mercer) by Lauren Thoman

Back In Black (Blackstone) edited by Don Bruns

The Recruiter (Blackstone) by Gregg Podolski

AUGUST

You Shouldn’t Be Here (Thomas & Mercer) by Lauren Thoman ARC

Not What She Seems (Thomas & Mercer) by Yasmin Angoe NG

Fatal Intrusion by Jeff Deaver/Isabella Maldonado

Death at Morning House (HARPERTeen) by Maureen Johnson

Fire and Bones (Scribner) by Kathy Reichs

Some Nightmares Are Real (University of Alabama Press) by Kelly Kazoo

The Brothers Kenny (Blackstone) by Adam Mitzner

Blind to Midnight (Blackstone) by Reed Farrel Coleman

The Wayside (Blackstone) by Carolina Wolff

Enemy of the State (Blackstone) by Robert Smartwood

You Will Never Be Me (Berkley) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice (W.W. Norton) by Adam Kirsch

We Love the Nightlife (Berkley) by Rachel Koller Croft

Talking To Strangers (Berkley) by Fiona Barton

An Honorable Assassin (Blackstone) by Steve Hamilton possible interview see email

Dungeon Crawler Carl (1 of 6 but see next two months) (Ace) by Matt Dinniman

SEPTEMBER

Fatal Intrusion (Thomas & Mercer) by Jeffrey Deaver and Isabella Maldonado

When They Last Saw Her (Penguin) by Marcie Rendon

American Ghoul (Blackstone) by Michelle McGill-Vargas

First Do No Harm (Blackstone) by Steve Hamilton

A Quiet Life: A Novel (Arcade) by William Cooper and Michael McKinley

One More From the Top (Mariner) by Emily Layden

No Address (Forefront Books) by Ken Abraham.

Tiger’s Tale (Blackstone) by Colleen Houck

An Academy for Liars (Ace) by Alexis Henderson

Rewitched (Berkley) by Lucy Jane Wood

Gaslight (Blackstone) by Sara Shepard and Miles Joris-Peyrafitte

Counting Miracles (Random House) by Nicholas Sparks

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society (Ace) by C.M. Waggoner

The Hitchcock Hotel (Berkley) by Stephanie Wrobel

In the Garden of Monsters by Crystal King

Carl’s Doomsday Scenario (2 of 6 see next month also) (Ace) by Matt Dinniman

OCTOBER

The Hushed (Blackstone) by K.R. Blair NG

A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer (Berkley) by Maxie Dara

On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice (Norton) by WSJ Weekend review editor Adam Kirsch

Framed (Doubleday) by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey

This Cursed House (Penguin) by Del Sandeen

The Puzzle Box (Random House) by Danielle Trussoni

Two Good Men (Blackstone) by S.E. Redfearn

Dark Space (Blackstone) by Rob Hart and Alex Segura

This Cursed House (Berkley’s open submission)by Del Sandeen

Vindicating Trump (Regnery) by Dinesh D’Souza

The Book of Witching (Berkley) by C.J. Cooke

The World Walk (Skyhorse) by Tom Turcich

The Waiting Game by Michael Connelly  ARC, possible interview see email

Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Thomas & Mercer) by Robert Dugoni

Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook (3 of 6, with bonus material) (Ace) by Matt Dinniman

Frozen Lives (Blackstone) by Jennifer Graeser Fronbush NG

Vincent, Starry Starry Night (Meteor 17 Books) intro by Don McLean

Paris in Winter: An Illustrated Memoir (PowerHouse Books) by David Coggins

NOVEMBER

The Waiting (Little, Brown) by Michael Connelly

The Teller of Small Fortunes (Penguin) by Julie Long

Shadow Lab (Blackstone) by Brendan Deneen

Trial by Ambush (Thomas & Mercer) by Marcia Clark

Devil Take It (Heresy Press) by Daniel Debs Nossiter

SerVant of Earth (Ace) by Sarah Hawley

All the other me (Blackstone) by Jody Holford

The Perfect Marriage (Blackstone reissue re-edit) by Jenny Rose

DECEMBER

Trial By Ambush (Thomas & Mercer) by Marcia Clark

The Close-Up (Gallery Books) by Pip Drysdale

The Silent Watcher (Thomas & Mercer) by Victor Methos

Leviathan (Lividian Trade HC) by Robert McCammon

The Silent Watcher (Thomas & Mercer) by Victor Method

Assume Nothing (Thomas & Mercer) by Joshua Corin

One example link:
https://enewscourier.com/2024/11/29/in-review-booking-a-full-year-of-reading/