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
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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.
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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.
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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/

For any Hitchcock aficionado like myself, this book is for you! Throughout the novel, there's a feeling of lingering suspense that you always feel whenever you're watching a Hitchcock film and I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. I blame a lot of sleepless nights on staying up to read this book. Looking forward to reading more of Stephanie Wrobel's books!

I tried to read this one around spooky season but couldn’t get into it. I don’t know if it was the writing style but it just wasn’t a favorite.

This was a classic psychological thriller that blends suspense with dark humor. The story revolves around the Hitchcock Hotel, a mysterious and eerie establishment where guests check in to experience a stay inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock. The novel explores themes of obsession, trauma, and manipulation, all within a haunting setting that keeps readers on edge. Though occasionally predictable, the book offers plenty of intrigue for those who enjoy tense, atmospheric thrillers.

This was a ton of fun. A very unique man invites his former college friends to his Hitchcock themed hotel for a weekend of “fun”. Plenty of red herrings and surprises here! Made me want to watch more Hitchcock and read more of the authors books.

This book was very clever and spooky but not in a way that actually scared me. I appreciated the writing style and the uniqueness of the story, and it was a great read for Halloween!

Delightful closed door mystery with the added fun of Hitchcock trivia and all the characters you love to hate!

I knew I would love The Hitchcock Hotel as soon as I saw the synopsis. As a Hitchcock fan myself, the easter eggs that are dropped throughout this book are so fun. Add in the fact that this is a locked room mystery, another personal favorite of mine, and this is without a doubt a five-star read. There really are no likable characters in The Hitchcock Hotel. They're all flawed and hiding something, and they're all a little bit the villain. Loved this one so, so much.

This had an interest setup but I realized quickly that this one would be difficult to review if I didn't have an understanding of Hitchcock's work. I understand him only through vague pop culture references but I don't feel informed enough to weigh in on that aspect. Otherwise it seemed like a good, but not exceptionally special novel on it.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

This one was just okay. It has a great premise and there's definitely some suspenseful parts, but the writing really put me off in places and the ending is lackluster. But if you're a fan of Wrobel's other books, don't let this review dissuade you from reading this one too – you'll probably enjoy it a lot more than I did

I’ll be honest I went into this book expecting it to be a horror novel only to be reminded that Hitchcock was the master of mystery and suspense as well. This book is a good old-fashioned locked room mystery with an Alfred Hitchcock spin. Alfred Smettle has always been the weird one in the group, but when he invites his college friends for a vacation at his new B&B they all feel obligated to say yes. From the outside, the weekend looks like a mini-college reunion between a small group of film club friends. Everyone in the group is grown and has lives outside of the small family they formed years ago. Since the hotel is located just outside of town of their old alma mater, they return with a sense of nostalgia and quickly fall back into their old group dynamics. With shifting points of view and a few flashbacks thrown in, we learn why they were all brought together, and what the true purpose of the weekend actually is. The story has heavy noir vibes, with a dash of the game clue, and a setting that feels like it has been taken from the movies. The characters are all a little obnoxious, but with a story like this, I think that it is necessary to keep you guessing. The book was easy to follow with each chapter properly labeled as to whose point of view you are in at that moment. There is a definite cinematic quality to the writing, and you keep turning the pages to keep that going. I think this is a good mystery for the chilly autumn months.

This was the story of an unexpected character death, a mastermind, and a thought-to-be mastermind actually being puppeteered by the real mastermind of it all and showing that the long game is sometimes the sweetest revenge.

Thank you NetGalley for the read!

This was fun but forgettable entertainment.

I enjoyed the nods to Hitchcock and his movies. It’s done well, so you don’t have to be familiar with the movies in order to enjoy the story.

The characters are all unlikable bordering on horrid humans. I wish we’d had at least one likable character to connect with.

Pacing is slowed by lots of backstory and endless internal whining.

Then we have a murder to solve and lots of true confessions and revelations.

What a fun Hitchcock inspired Who Done It! I absolutely loved all the film references throughout the novel. All the characters were messy and had so many secrets. I love that in a who done it. The beginning was a bit slow for me but I absolutely loved the end. I couldn’t believe the killer! What a fun twist!
3.5/5 Stars

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for sending me an arc copy in exchange for my honest review.