A mystery set in an Alfred Hitchock themed hotel where college "friends" are reunited for a weekend. What could go wrong? I wanted to like this more than I did, but it was an interesting read. If you're a movie buff, definitely check it out for the Easter eggs.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and Netgalley for the electronic copy.

This is hands down one of the best mystery/thrillers I've read in a long time and definitely in 2024. For fans of Hitchcock, multiple narrators, and flashbacks. Oh and did I mention secrets. These characters have more secrets than Gretchen Weiners hair.

I became a fan of Stephanie Wrobel's writing after reading Darling Rose Gold a few years ago. The Hitchcock Hotel didn't shine quite as brightly for me, but it was an entertaining read. I absolutely loved the locked room setting inside a Hitchcock-themed hotel. The group of friends gathered here were not very likable characters. Sometimes that worked well, and sometimes it made me feel like I didn't care what happened to any of them. We got to know the characters mostly through backstories and flashbacks. I would have liked a little more of the action to happen inside the (amazing) hotel. Even with these minor complaints, I'm glad I read it. There were some interesting characters here. It meandered a bit in the middle, but still a fun read.

In this twisty noir mystery, a group of college friends are reunited at a Hitchcock themed hotel opened by the more outcast member of their friend group, also named Alfred. Going back and forth between their college-aged timeline and their current stay at the Hitchcock Hotel they reckon with past mistakes and the things that drove some of them apart. There’s a couple issues when it comes to the dynamic of the friend group in essence that they’re all kind of terrible. The other major issue is that there are a lot of plot conveniences that only happen because the plot needs it to happen. It seems like the author wanted to do a Hitchcockian narrative in modern day, and the vibes are right, but the existence of modern technology makes none of it make sense. So they kind of go above and beyond to yadda yadda that whole issue. I did find this very fun on a surface level, but I don’t think it’ll be the most memorable read of the year.

Hitchcock fanatic, and owner and manager of the new Hitchcock Hotel, Alfred Smettle is not your average fan. Filling his new hotel with props to match the most famous of movie scenes, Alfred has recreated a lair fit for the master of suspense himself. To celebrate the hotel’s first anniversary, he invites his college friends for a reunion of sorts…

As a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies (Rear Window, Vertigo, Suspicion to name a few faves) this book was a must read for me. Having never read Darling Rose Gold, I had zero expectations as to the author’s writing style, and wound up very pleasantly surprised here.

Stephanie Wrobel does a masterful job of recreating what Hitchcock did best - creating that delicate balance between mystery and suspense, never giving the audience too much information at any given time, but just enough for them to try to solve the mystery. As the layers of our MC’s plan are slowly peeled back, not without a few twists here and there, we are treated to accompanying anecdotes from some of Hitchcock’s most famous films. While you don’t have to have a seen a single one to enjoy the story, I would beware that if you are planning on watching them sometime soon, this may include a few spoilers, though maybe not beyond what you may already know from pop culture trivia.

Read if you like:
▪️locked room mysteries
▪️dual timelines/dual POVs
▪️atmospheric reads
▪️Hitchcock movies
▪️fun twists
▪️easy to binge

Thank you Berkley Pub for the advanced copy.

A fun, atmospheric read that kept me turning pages!

This book kept me on my toes as to who was going to murder or be murdered. I enjoyed the setting and theme the most, I found it highly enjoyable. As a film major I appreciated the Laura Mulvey quote.

The cast of characters and backstory were very well developed, and I enjoyed the twists that unfolded by the end.

A cute and fun read for film enthusiasts and mystery readers alike!

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A little late on the review but this is a suspenseful horror book. It revolves around a group of friends from college that are in a film class. Each character is given the right amount of depth and back story. Definitely a good October spooky read!

Hitchcock Hotel proves to be an utterly delicious, if not diabolical, locked door murder mystery that does perfect work of paying homage to Hitchcock and Christie all in one tight, tense plot.

Stephanie Wrobel does incredible work weaving together a group of friends, reluctantly reunited for a weekend getaway at an old college friend's Hitchcock themed hotel, where secrets, lies and uneasy truths are all bubbling just below the surface. I was hooked from the very opening pages at the haunting nature of the hotel, and of Alfred. With every chapter, as things get more tense and uncomfortable, you get more addicted and more desperate to see how everything will play out - and whose dead body might just turn up.

Every character in this story is so perfectly developed and with all their very own reasons for wanting to keep the past in the past and Alfred happy in the present. I could not have guessed with even my best effort, at the secrets that they all had, and as each is revealed it just made the present day mystery all the more juicy.

Absolutely no spoilers for this one, but this is one whodunnit that you just cannot miss this season. It is excellent company as the weather gets cooler and you want something a little deranged to dive into.

Many thanks to the publisher for my copy!

Alfred owns a Hitchcock themed hotel and invites his college friends to stay for the weekend. The friends haven’t been together since they left college due to some things that happened during their senior year. During their stay at the hotel, Alfred has some surprises planned for them. However, things don’t go exactly as he planned.

Locked room mysteries are some of my favorites and I did enjoy this one. I would have preferred a little more suspense and spooky vibes considering the setting, but a fun read nonetheless.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

• locked room whodunit
• great Hitchcock vibes
• unlikable characters

This was a fun suspense with dark academia elements 🖤 and I enjoyed the ride!

🗣 Thank you to netgalley and Berkley Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book via gifted eARC! All opinions are honest and my own.

I liked the way the book slowly peels back the layers in this twisty thriller where college friends with secrets get together for a reunion at an Alfred Hitchcock themed hotel owned by one of the group.

I haven’t watched many Hitchcock movies but I liked the references throughout. I also enjoyed the explanation of the twists.

Loved the atmosphere, the writing and the locked-room mystery. I did not see the twists coming at all and kept racing through this until the end. Highly recommend!

Thank you to netgalley and Berkley for the eARC! I absolutely loved this - this felt unique and fun. While I'm not usually a fan of multiple POVs, it absolutely worked in this story. This kept me engaged throughout and definitely was twisty in ways that I didn't see coming. I'll for sure be picking up more from Stephanie Wrobel. A great thriller, perfect for spooky season reading!

Well done Ms. Wrobel, well done! (Cue the standing slow clap!)
The Hitchcock Hotel is so different from Wrobel's previous work, which makes this thriller even more impressive! Following a classic locked-room style, this thriller was fun from the first page to the last.

These five friends all have some skeletons in their closet which made each one a nefarious character. They kept alluding to what happened 'senior year' in college, and the back story was revealed bit by bit. The unsettling beginning flowed into a murder mid-book, and by that point, there was no telling who was the offender!

I loved the Alfred Hitchcock Hotel themed setting, Wrobel did a great job of paying homage to the beloved director throughout the book and created a destination that I truly wish was real!

I received a free digital copy from the publisher

Thank you to Berkley Publishing group, Netgalley and the author for the opportunity to have an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Hitchcock Hotel for me was a slow start but once I got to about 30% I couldn’t put it down. I needed to know what happened in college that Alfred seemed to be holding over the group. They’ve mostly all reluctantly come to his hotel’s first anniversary where he wants to resurrect their Film Club from the days when they used to all be friends. He seems to have something to hold over each person that prevents them from leaving over their weekend stay.

As expected there were twists and turns and nothing was straight forward. Just when I thought we got the last twist, there was still more to come.

This is a great choice for a locked room thriller this October.

3.5 ⭐️
Alfred Smettle is the owner of the Hitchcock Hotel. He is an avid Hitchcock fan, and has “themed” the hotel after the many movies of the famous director. Alfred has invited his former college friends for the weekend, but he has a secret motive for this reunion. The only staff staying to help him is the housekeeper.
The friend group were very tight in college, and were in the Film Club. There were many entanglements and drama the last year of college for the friends, and after graduation the all drifted their separate ways. But…. Something big happened, thus the reason for Alfred’s invite.

If you are a Hitchcock film fan, you will enjoy the many references and clues woven into the frame of the story. Alfred is creepy as all get- think Norman Bates! The others aren’t really likable, and all have secrets- including the housekeeper. The mystery is good, and it kept me reading.
However, I felt the Hitchcock references and characterization of Alfred was a bit much. I realize the story plot relies heavily on the Hitchcock elements, but by the end I just wanted the straightforward mystery!
Overall it was entertaining. I like the films, and in the beginning liked figuring out the movie references!
Thank you NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing. This is my honest and voluntary review.

This had a good creepy vibe, great for the autumn season: an old house in a college town, converted to a boutique hotel and filled with movie memorabilia, a creepy housekeeper who is always lurking about, plus an aviary full of crows behind the house. All the characters have secrets in addition to being morally bankrupt. There are a couple of good twists that I didn't see coming. I read the author's previous book (Darling Rose Gold, loosely based on the Blanchard case), which had its own squirm factor. Fan of Alfred Hitchcock and psychological suspense will enjoy Wrobel's latest novel.

The Hitchcock Hotel is a suspenseful novel about a group of college friends who reunite at an Alfred Hitchcock themed hotel that one of them now owns. It is evident from the beginning that there is trouble amongst this group of friends. Something happened in college, and they are covering it up/holding it over each other's heads. There is a ton of foreboding, but when the "secret" is unveiled, I was pretty underwhelmed. The entire book moved at a slow pace and the twists were anticlimactic. This one wasn't for me.

Alfred Smettl, not Hitchcock, is an avid Hitchcock fan and offers guests at The Hitchcock Hotel round-the-clock film screenings, and movie props and memorabilia in every room. He invites his former friends from his college Film Club for a reunion and to finally address what happened in their senior year of college.

Told from multiple POV’s in both the present and past with each person's character fully developed. It was a little slow at the beginning, but well-worth reading to the end. The author gives readers enough information to peak your interest, but doesn't give it away until the end. An ending that left me guessing.

Wow, I was not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. I loved this book and couldn't put it down. The twists, the eeriness, it was fantastic. As a Hitchcock fan myself this was so much fun to read. I loved all of the characters, even Alfred, and I'm honestly sad that I finished it. I will definitely be picking up more from this author now.

Many thanks to Berkley for the gifted copy for my honest review!