Amusing idea for a horror story, one I was really looking forward to; I love Hitchcock's films even as I grow ever more disillusioned with his living persona. I was very entertained by the film references, especially to his lesser-known masterwork <a href="https://collider.com/rope-alfred-hitchcock-themes/" target="_blank"><i>Rope</i></a>.

So I was ready for some fun. I got less of that than expected...why were these people friends? how did Alfred get the money to set up this elaborate haunted house?...as I pondered the practical problems inherent in the set-up. Like any horror-tinged read, I can't stop myself from asking these questions unless I'm utterly ensorceled.

I wasn't.

TW/CW: Language, drinking, death by suicide, death of parent, smoking, alcoholism, bullying, cheating, voyeurism, cancer, blackmail, depression, anxiety, toxic family relationships, toxic friendships, dementia, classism, revenge, jealousy

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:
Alfred Smettle is not your average Hitchcock fan. He is the founder, owner, and manager of The Hitchcock Hotel, a sprawling Victorian house in the White Mountains dedicated to the Master of Suspense. There, Alfred offers his guests round-the-clock film screenings, movie props and memorabilia in every room, plus an aviary with fifty crows.To celebrate the hotel’s first anniversary, he invites his former best friends from his college Film Club for a reunion. He hasn’t spoken to any of them in sixteen years, not after what happened.But who better than them to appreciate Alfred’s creation? And to help him finish it.After all, no Hitchcock set is complete without a body.
Release Date: September 24th, 2024
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 352
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

What I Liked:
1. Loved the writing style
2. Suspense was interesting
3. Hooked on the story

What I Didn't Like:
1. Lots of spelling errors and incorrect word placement
2. Danny is annoying
3. Book a little too long

Overall Thoughts:
{{DISCLAIMER: I write my review as I read}}

"Hitch without the cock."

Alfred's mother was a huge Hitchcock fan but she wanted to try and change his mind because she wasn't a blonde, why wouldn't she have just bleached her hair if it was that important to her to work with him? Bleach did exist back then.

Oh my gosh so interest in the hotel has weaned over the last few months and Alfred is decided that he's going to make a murder mystery and use his friends so he can get business back. That's why he gave the staff the weekend off because he needed time to set this up and to be alone.

Tj and Grace sleeping together is something I didn't see that coming. Plus Alfred has a spot where he can spy on the "guests" to see what they are doing.

Now I feel pretentious like Alfred. He's collecting phones to watch a movie like their old professor. I once made a guy turn off his phone, mine included just so we could watch The Crow and live in the moment of 1994.

Alfred taking the phones to another room - there has to be a reason for that. I wonder if someone will be going through them.

Look at that the phones are missing. And Alfred was gone for an extra 20 minutes after the phones were put in there. [Yeah, he took them and blackmailed Grace into giving him TJ's password, which seemed too convenient that she knew it & it was her birthday]

Julius makes a suggestion that they should go see if Alfred's car is in the parking lot and everyone shoots the idea down saying that they don't know what he drives, but wouldn't it be simple to deduct whose car is whose? If all the staff is off for that day and you already know each other's cars there would be only two options.

Alfred and Danny are missing. Their phones are missing. They've had weird stuff happen at night. Zoe being poisoned. But they stop to make breakfast rather than leave. Zoe even washes the dishes. This baffles me. Alfred can't get into their phones but they're waiting to get the phones back and endangering their life over these. It feels like a weird cheap reasoning to keep the characters in the hotel.

Team Julius right now because he's the only one who wants to get out and leave. He even offered to buy everybody new phones if they could go, but he's being the best friend because he's following them around trying to be supportive. And then we find out that he has testicular cancer.

"Every privilege can find a disadvantage"
So very true.

Did you find Alfred's phone once they get into his room and Grace is being very protective of the phone. She ends up handing it over to TJ and of course TJ finds the voice message of them talking about not telling Rob about their affair. TJ almost deletes it and that moment but decides to email it to himself because he wants to break up their marriage. Then he deletes it. It's actually pretty smart because she's already heard this message so she would assume that it was Alfred who sent it to Rob.

Apparently they're searching for the phones and they eventually come across Alfred who somehow fell down the ladder in the closet. Magically out of the dark comes Danny who has been missing this whole time to confront each one of them and put doubt in their minds that maybe one of them did it. They start seeing that Julius is the one that said they had to make it look like an accident if they were to murder someone so of course Danny saying it might be him. Clearly it can't be the actual Alfred that is "dead" and must be a prop that he made, but can a prop be that life like that it could actually trick people into believing it's a real body?

All the tires have been slashed on the vehicles. It's not like they're isolated though they still have Alfred's phone to call out with if they need to call or somebody to come pick them up. It can't be crazy that people picked up people at hotels.

I have to laugh because when Alfred was alive they despised him and did not consider him like a friend. This second he dies they reference him as a friend constantly.

Okay so now we're getting a different POV of Alfred. Alfred told Julius' Dad that he was selling cocaine on the side to which Julius' dad ignored him for months and told him he would cut him off if he didn't stop. Alfred really trying to act like the victim always. And he did all this just because Julius had made fun of Alfred in front of a woman. I'd say that's way over the top. You almost feels like Alfred is actually jealous of Julius having money. In the end though Julius ends up seeking Revenge and ratting him out to Dr Scott with his essay business. I don't blame him I would have done the same thing. What did Alfred expect?

Got to be honest this whole looking for a phone thing is just knocking the momentum down of the book. It's like a hundred pages of looking for these phones. We get it the phones are missing can we move on?

Oh my God thank God we found the phones because I just couldn't take anymore. Samira supposedly had the phones in her room but this was after she found Alfred that she saw them there and she got sick so she forgot to tell everyone. I guess that's a reason I mean they've only been harping about these phones all day. It would be convenient for her to forget these phones, Zoe is right she was with them the whole time when they went outside. She kept saying I got to go and I want to leave but she never actually left, and Julius is the only one who really did leave cuz he was going to go outside to get some fresh air but he was the one to find the cars outside. All the characters were counted for when they went outside including Danny, leaving only the "dead" Alfred behind.

I'm really starting to question how much Grace is a part of all this. Everything she says what contradict itself later in the book. Like Zoe says Grace said her phone was practically dead and her battery is still going when they pull him out of the bag.

Oh my gosh it's raining when the detectives show up. Every good mystery has a rain going when they're being investigated. So exciting.

I don't even think these detectives or cops are real or we're paid off. I think Alfred set this up. There have been no ambulances that have shown up to even try to attempt to resuscitate him or pronounce him dead. I understand it's a small town but geez I live in a town of like 500 and we even have an ambulance.

Tj slashed the tires
Samisa pushed Alfred in the attic and he fell
Someone told Grace about the affair

We find out that TJ slashed the tires to keep Julius there longer. What a ridiculous thing to do. Julius agrees that he will help out out TJ but he has to come and live with him as a roommate.

So Alfred really is dead and there's a root mark on his neck so they think that Samisa didn't kill him after she just pushed him. Don't understand how they would come to this conclusion since they literally picked the body up and they wouldn't have an idea yet of what caused the death.

We find out in the past that Grace slept with Alfred in an effort to find out what he knew and if he was going to say something about her helping him.

Despite Dr Scott having terminal cancer he fell from a building six stories. The police investigate all the students of his class because they think foul play, but wouldn't most people think that maybe he had just ended it since he knew he was going to die? In the end though so happens to catch Alfred running out of the building making her think that he's the one who pushed the professor.

We finally get to figure out what it is that Alfred had over Grace. He tricked her into thinking that Dr Scott was looking into her for the cheating scandal so he convinced her to help him murder Dr Scott so that she wouldn't get in trouble, but if we remember Julius said that he knew Grace was a part of it but he wouldn't turn her in, just Alfred. In the end though praise decides that she's going to be the one that pushes Dr Scott off the roof because Alfred freaks out and can't do it. This was a bold move that I did not see coming.

It's so ridiculous to think that Alfred could hold a pair of eyeglasses over Grace. This many years later and she's still looking for thrm and he's still blackmailing her with them. It's so ridiculous. Like the police are going to be like oh man this pair of glasses were left at the top of where he fell not that they picked it up when he went down. So ridiculous like how would they even match it to him other than the prescription but to open a case based on just eyeglasses you would have to have way more to go on.

Ahhh I knew that he made it up!

Omg Danny is Dr Scott's wife!!! I did not see that happening...How did she get a job with him if she has the same last name?

I'm supposed to believe that an almost 80 year old lady climbed a ladder with a glass of milk to put it in Alfred's attic area. Even a younger person would struggle.

Everyone minus Grace just walks away and Danny sells the hotel.

Final Thoughts:
Reading this book there is a lot of spoilers to Hitchcock movies, so if you haven't seen a lot of these movies they will be spoiled for you.

There is a part in the book where Zoe asks Alfred about all Hitchcock's behaviors and how he can still like him so much. It brings up the conversation of can you separate the artist from the art. I thought this was a good part of the book that added something that made you question on how far you should stop supporting an artist before it's too much. Should we stop supporting artists that do bad stuff within our lifetime or should we not support them overall even in the past?

At the end of the day though I think it was weak to try to get the characters to stay in the hotel just so they could get their phones back. Using this plot device kind of felt like it cheapened their experiences that they were going through. No one would stay through all this and deal with all this craziness for a phone. Maybe a few people would hold back looking for their phones but I find it hard to believe that five characters would be so dead set on finding their phones that they would go through everything the characters have went through to get them back.

There were plot holes to the story. If Samira pushed Alfred out of the attic down the ladder why would nobody have heard it? She makes a comment about how even through the vent she could hear people snoring so I doubt they could not hear the altercation between Alfred and her with a knife. They just all slept through this.

IG | Blog

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for the advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you so much Berkley Pub for the #gifted book although the carrier lost it😭and PRH Audio for the audiobook narrated by the stellar cast Michael Crouch, Gail Shalan & Helen Lloyd for the perfect spooky experience!
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If you love the “friends with vengeance” trope, or you love anything Hitchcockian, this book is an absolute treat for you! Alfred and a group of 5 friends share a LOT of history during their college history, and Alfred has held a longtime grudge against them for not supporting him when they needed him the most.

Now Alfred is a different person who has worked hard to own a building that he turns into a Hitchcock-themed hotel complete with props and birds. However the hotel isn’t doing as well as it used to, and he devises a sinister plan by inviting his group of friends for a getaway weekend at his hotel, by the end of which he hopes his hotel will achieve nationwide success. Of course, this is Stephanie Wrobel’s story so you can be guaranteed unexpected twists right from the first body count. 👀

This book is my first five star thriller going in to the last quarter of the year. The atmosphere was foreboding throughout the book and Alfred was an absolutely calculating narcissist. BUT the surprise I got in the major plot twist was just mind-blowing. If you love thrillers, add this book to your cart **IMMEDIATELY**

Some of Hitchcock's work haunt my nightmares, and this books homage to director was spot on.

Six college friends are summoned to The Hitchock Hotel by itsowner, a former classmate. These so-called friends have much to rehash since graduation, including long held secrets and loves. Told from multiple POV's, and alternating between the past and present, we get a glimpse into the messy relationships of the guests.

In keeping with Hitchcock, the story pulls the reader into the plot, wondering what horror lurks around the corner. A binge-worthy book for this spooky season.

Thank you, Berkley Publishing Group | Berkley

This was so much fun! I love old Hitchcock movies, and genuinely wish there were more big themed events like the Hotel in this book that catered to fans -- like, not a convention per se, but maybe some sort of realistic LARPing event?! I love the idea, and felt the added layer of mystery/revenge here to only strengthened how much fun I was having already with the story and vibes. I'd read one other book by Wrobel in the past (Darling Rose Gold), and although this is completely different, I can recognize the writing style and find her stuff to be very engaging and accessible.

The nitty-gritty: Secrets, lies, blackmail and murder combine in this excellent locked-room mystery.

Whether or not you’re a fan of Alfred Hitchcock and his films, I guarantee you’ll have fun reading The Hitchcock Hotel. This is a locked room mystery with fantastic twists, plenty of unreliable characters, a bit of humor and a lot of Hitchcock movie trivia. Stephanie Wrobel is a fantastic writer, and her wonderfully developed characters are one of the best things about this book.

Alfred Smettle owns and operates a themed hotel called the Hitchcock Hotel, an ode to his lifelong passion of all things Hitchcock. At barely two years in business, the hotel isn’t as popular as it was when it first opened, and so Alfred decides he needs to do something drastic to drum up interest. He decides to invite his five best friends from college for an all expense paid weekend at the hotel, spinning it as a reunion of sorts—the friends haven’t seen each other in years—but secretly, Alfred is planning something shocking that will make his hotel popular again.

As his friends arrive one by one, Alfred takes pleasure in showing off all the hard work he’s put into the hotel. With thousands of dollars in movie memorabilia, old movie props and even rare scripts and books about Hitchcock, the hotel is decorated from top to bottom to look like something that might appear in one of Hitchcock’s movies. But instead of being impressed, his friends—Grace, Zoe, Samira, TJ and Julius—can’t wait for the weekend to be over. It turns out that something terrible happened during their senior year in college, and no one really likes Alfred anymore.

As the weekend stretches on, old secrets begin to emerge. Every single person in the hotel is hiding something from the others, including Alfred’s stern-faced housekeeper Danny. The tension is rising, tempers are flaring, and the stage is set—for murder.

This is a rather ambitious story, with so many twists and surprises, but somehow the author manages to keep everything reined in. It’s also a very character focused story, and the pacing may seem on the slower side at first. But that’s because Wrobel takes her time building each of the six main characters’ backstories, which means when everything goes south in the second half of the book, the reader knows exactly why because we understand them so well. The chapters alternate among all six characters, with Alfred’s point of view in first person (he is running the show, after all!), and I loved all the back and forth, as everyone’s secrets come to light.

As for the characters, they were such a fun bunch! Alfred is a little weird and creepy. He wears turtlenecks to cover up a birthmark and everyone makes fun of the way he dresses. And of course his obsession with Hitchcock makes him a bit eccentric. The reader knows he’s plotting something from the beginning, but we don’t know what or why. Both questions are eventually answered, and it was fun trying to unravel all the bits of information we learn from each character and piece all the clues together. In addition to each one of them hiding something important from the rest of the group, we also find out there are various alliances among the group, so expect plenty of fun twists along the way.

Lurking in the background, watching the proceedings with her eagle eye, is the housekeeper Danny, an elderly woman with a few secrets of her own. I loved her story arc, because I honestly wasn’t expecting the way it played out.

Wrobel captures the Hitchcock vibe perfectly. The hotel itself is an old Victorian house, set high on a hill overlooking Reville, the college the six friends attended together. Alfred has gone to great lengths to make every detail in his hotel authentic, including a screening room where Hitchcock’s films are constantly shown on a rotating basis. There’s even an aviary full of crows (a nice nod to The Birds), although this was the one story element that I wanted more of. I thought the crows would be more of a plot point, but their presence in the story never really goes anywhere.

This is a murder mystery, so expect a dead body at some point, but there’s much much more to the story than just a simple whodunit. There are so many things I’d love to talk about in this review, but I’m going to keep my mouth shut because it’s more fun to make those discoveries for yourself. I’ll admit I did guess a couple of the twists, but not all of them! 

Grab The Hitchcock Hotel if you’re in the mood for a murder mystery that’s a bit different from the norm. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for Stephanie Wrobel’s next book.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

First, I want to note that I found 2 different summaries on Amazon for this book.

Telling the story from multiple viewpoints, I was easily able to keep the characters apart. Usually I struggle when there are too many characters, but this crew was easy to follow. Meeting and living together in college, where each studied film, they are brought back together to stay at Alfred’s Hitchcock Hotel.

It seemed no one wanted to attend the “reunion” for their own reasons, but each friend seems to have a secret from college they are holding over another and when all the threats had been made, each and every one of the original crew showed up for the weekend.

The book moved at the perfect pace. Droplets of information and secrets were revealed bit by bit, leaving enough to intrigue and yet revealing enough to satisfy. I loved the setting of the hotel. I’ve always wanted to stay at a themed hotel! It just seems so fun.

I listened to the first part on audiobook and then finished it on e-book.

This recent novel, a tribute to the Master of Suspense, was the perfect spine-tingling way start to spooky season. 5 college friends reunite for a weekend at their friend Alfred’s Hitchcock-themed hotel. The group first met in film class, bonding over Hitchcock’s suspenseful thrillers, but their friendship faded over the years—perhaps for reasons best buried in the past. As the weekend takes a sinister turn, the living are left to investigate what happened and why.

I went through a Hitchcock phase and this book made me want to re-watch all the classics (Rear Window has always been my favorite, hands down). Wrobel plays with the tropes of Hitchcock’s films in a way that even casual fans could appreciate. There are Easter eggs sprinkled throughout, nodding to various films and even to lore about the director himself. The story flashes back to the past, embedding a campus mystery (for all you dark academia fans) that proves just as engaging as the murder mystery in the present.

My only qualm was with the ending, which felt a bit contrived, but that fits the Hitchcock style—a resolution that is hinted at all along and still manages to be a little far-fetched. Overall, this was a fun read!

Thank you @berkleypub and @netgalley for providing this book for review. All opinions are my own.

I love the title and the cover and the premise. I love all of the movie references and quotes (especially that one about surprise vs suspense) and even some of the creepy characters. I guess my problem with everything is how it desperately tries to come together - and it falls short for me. Maybe it takes too long for all the pieces to fall into place - I enjoyed the ending so maybe building some suspense might have helped it along.
Another problem, too many of the characters just aren’t very interesting. I can tolerate a lot, I’m not one of those people who has to have “likable” characters, in fact I like it more when some are despicable, but these people were just meh and maybe that’s the biggest problem.
I appreciate the effort but it was too “put down-able”.

4 stars!
I may have woken at a hotel this morning but definitely not the Hitchcock Hotel - the sprawling Victorian house in the White Mountains that is dedicated to the master of suspense. Alfred Smettle is the founder, manager and owner of this place . Guests come to the hotel and will enjoy over a full time of film screenings, movies props and memorabilia. For the first anniversary of the hotel, Alfred invites his good old friends from college for a college Film Club reunion.

Well, I am almost done and loving it! I am not quite a fan of Alfred Hitchcock but this book certainly made me research more about the renowned film maker. Not to be giving out spoilers but this book has twists! Quite a number, if I dare to mention. Beautiful writing and so worth the read time.
So grab your copies now and enjoy a good ole’ Hitchcock fashion of suspense.
Special thank you to Berkley via Netgalley for the e-arc material!
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#berkleypublishing #randomhouse #bookreview #advancereaderscopy #suspensereads #bookrecommendations #stephaniewrobel #bookworm

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

This thriller was so dang fun (and that's coming from someone who doesn't normally read thrillers).

First of all, I am obsessed with the vibes of the setting and premise. As a lover of film, and as someone who grew up watching Hitchcock films, you can best believe I will eat up anything that 1) is themed around a Hitchcock film and 2) analyzes and critiques his films. I absolutely love the concept of a Hitchcock-themed hotel, which made this book so fun to read from start to finish.

The thriller aspect of this book was SO good. I never reread a book's synopsis before starting. Which means that, even if I'm somewhat familiar with the premise, I have no idea of the specifics, which makes for such a fun read. I was kept guessing from start to finish, and I was hooked on each characters POV. This author did a wonderful job of keeping you in suspense, wanting to know the full story behind each of the characters and their relationships. There are plenty of twists woven throughout this story, but let me tell you, there was one that had my jaw on the FLOOR.

If you are a fan of thrillers with messy characters and a fun and engrossing premise, then you need to check this one out!

No Hitchcock trivia needed to read this one! But, you will learn some! This book was so addicting and I was totally sucked in from the start! I love a drama filled mystery and this one delivered all the goods! Each of the characters were so different with so many frickin secrets! I loved it! What a perfect creepy and spooky book for fall/spooky season!

Six college friends, a sixteen year gap in seeing one another and one reunion at a Hitchcock themed hotel. This is a recipe for suspense…and murder. Alfred has drifted away from his old college friends, but in inviting them to his new hotel, he hopes to rekindle things with his old Film Club friends. But things don’t go to plan when old resentments resurface and loyalties are questioned. And when someone ends up dead, it’s a race to find out who did it.

PROS and CONS:
I enjoyed the alternating chapters from each of the college friends. The atmosphere of the hotel lended a gothic undertone to the interactions between the former rivals and friends. What happened sixteen years ago to tear these friends apart? And why is Alfred so creepy!

READ IT?
It surprised me at the end - if you like twist endings, you’ll enjoy this one!

4 Stars

This was SUCH a fun mystery!
I feel like it's really hard these days to read a thriller that feels like it is unlike ones you have read before. Everything feels overdone or like you have deja vu while you are reading it.

But that was NOT the case with this novel. I had SO much fun reading it and it was incredibly inventive and unsettling. I was really irked by Alfred and he felt like such a CREEPER (and he was). I also found myself rooting for some pretty imperfect people and the end of the book just EXPLODED with plot twists.

I highly recommend this book and I hope more people start picking it up now that it's out in the world.

I always love a reunion thriller and this one was unique as the characters didn’t like each other very much. Alfred was an interesting MC and while I thought I knew where the plot was headed but was very wrong. I enjoyed getting snippets of the past throughut and seeing how it affected the present. While none of the characters were particularly likeable, they were all unique and interesting.

I was very excited for this book! I’m a huge thriller lover and Hitchcock fan. I really liked this book but I didn’t give it a 5 star raking because I kept waiting for a big twist and it wasn’t what I was expecting. Overall a fun read though.

Thank you Penguin Random House Audio for the ALC and Berkley Pub, #partner, for the advanced e-copy of The Hitchcock Hotel in exchange for my honest review.

This is the 3rd book I’ve read by Stephanie Wrobel and I am a fan! Her 1st book, Darling Rose Gold, will always be one of my favorite books and that is what made her a must-read author for me. ⁣
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This latest book uses one of my favorite tropes – the locked-room mystery and I could not have loved it more. Even though I didn’t particularly like many of the characters, I was quite intrigued by the fact that they shared a history and something happened in the past. There are secrets amongst them and I wanted to know them. I also will say that while I have not watched many Hitchcock films, I did love all the references to them and am now quite eager to watch them!⁣
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This book had so many twists and turns that I did not see coming. This atmospheric read was just perfect to kick off my fall reading!⁣
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Audio thoughts: This was so good on audio! Narrated by three narrators – Michael Crouch, Gail Shalan and Helen Lloyd – I thought each one did an amazing job bringing this story to life.

I'm a fan of Hitchcock movies, so I was drawn to this title. I've read Wrobel's previous books and thought they were pretty decent.

Unfortunately, this one didn't work for me. About halfway through, it was moving slow and not like a thriller at all. I think I was expecting something else.

The Hitchcock Hotel is a clever whodunit with a few twists and turns. Old college friends reunite to visit their old friend Alfred's Hitchcock-themed hotel. It is a weekend that will leave them haunted by the ghosts of their past. The characters in this story all bring a ton of baggage to the table and the mess of sorting it all out with their histories was done pretty well.

This book is reminiscent of the game/movie Clue which I loved growing up and I loved that vibe of it. Obviously, a body shows up at some point in the story, hence the whodunit.

If you're looking for a fun murder mystery, with interesting characters, movie themes, and secrets between old friends then The Hitchcock Hotel may just be for you.

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel is a chilling psychological thriller that delves into the dark undercurrents of obsession and manipulation. Set in a secluded hotel reminiscent of classic horror, the story unfolds as a young woman uncovers unsettling truths about her family and the enigmatic guests residing there. Wrobel’s evocative prose and intricate character development create a tense atmosphere that keeps readers guessing until the last page. With its unique premise and gripping narrative, this novel is a compelling read for fans of suspenseful fiction.