Wow! I am such a fan of the Birds and Psycho and Hitchcock's series, I knew I had to read this book. It did not disappoint at all! The Hitchcock references, the creepiness, the suspense. I didn't want to put this down. I loved it!!!

As a fan of Hitchcock, how could I not enjoy this!?

This story is multi-POV (which I love!) and the characters were pretty well developed so it was easy to distinguish each voice.

I always like a story where school friends meet up later in life and drama ensues - I found all of these characters awful - not to be depended on or trusted - but that made the story all the better. With friends like these, who needs enemies!?

As any seasoned thriller reader knows, reunions with old friends? Always a bad idea! The Hitchcock Hotel plays with that vibe perfectly, pulling you into a weekend getaway full of tension, secrets, and some delightfully eerie Hitchcock references. The setting—an old, Hitchcock-themed hotel—is atmospheric and spooky, giving off just the right kind of unsettling energy.

Alfred, the mastermind behind it all, is a character you’ll love to hate. His carefully laid plans and twisted motivations add a fun layer of suspense, even if things take a little while to heat up. While the pace was slower than I’d expected and the characters weren’t as deep as I’d hoped, the story still had its moments of intrigue—especially for fans of the “friends with vengeance” trope.

If you’re a Hitchcock fan, you’ll definitely appreciate the film nods throughout. It’s not the most heart-pounding thriller, but it’s still an enjoyable, atmospheric read that’s perfect for a cozy weekend. Just don’t expect to check out without a few surprises along the way! 👀

This was the first book that I read by this author.
It was ok, I mean it was good but it just left like it was dragging on and on
So much slow burn to this thriller/mystery horror type book vibe. Slow burns can be hard type of books to read it they drag and have too much info not needed to help the whole book.
A lot was about getting to know the character and I did not care for any of them so it bored me. They all seemed slimy, selfish and untrustworthy. The setting and the atmosphere were cool, I loved the whole Alfred Hitchcock-themed hotel with a bit of Bates Motel. Creepy vibes and hidden areas oh and the owner of the hotel was def an odd creeper. Alfred gave off soooo many classic movie character creep vibes. The writing at least in the beginning gave me some Poe (poetry) vibes.
So these 6 used to know each other 15 years ago from school, something happened they went their separate ways after college and now are invited to a reunion by the odd one out (Alfred) to his hotel and experience the Hitchcock Hotel. Sooooo much drama, secrets and emotions.
Multiple POV with past and present viewpoints.
THe ending just didn't do anything for me and another reason I cant give this book many stars for the review. I feel it had potential but it was a miss for me.

{10.8.24} - REVIEW: Hitchcock Hotel

Thanks to Berkley for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions below are my own.

This story follows a man who is running a New England hotel dedicated to Alfred Hitchcock. He has invited his crew of college friends to celebrate a special weekend reunion. But he has plans to give them a weekend like they could never imagine, ending with a death that will propel his hotel to infamy.

We get alternating chapters in the POV of each one of the friends filling in their backstories and mounting up the secrets. When a body finally turns up, it is not who you’d expect and quickly everyone’s motives become clear. It definitely ended with a bit of surprise. I think my challenge along the way is that I didn’t find anyone very likable so it was hard to root for them. It also had a bit of a slow start, but once the action got going, I was able to enjoy it a bit more.

This was a fun one.

You do NOT need to be a Hitchcock über-fan - you just need some familiarity with a few of the most famous movies.

The story is twisty and, while it's full of flashbacks (of course), they work.

While I'm getting really weary of 'reunion thrillers' where old friends with secrets get together in remote locations and toxicity ensues, the author handled it well with a few things that don't show up in the usual trope-fests.

An entertaining book and I would totally stay at that hotel.

I think Wrobel's writing may just not be for me... I loved the premise here and the cover is as perfect an image as any I have ever seen. It started with intrigue, blending past and present storylines in a way that I thought indicated great things to come. Unfortunately, I quickly fell out of love with the back and forth, which felt drawn out and kept pulling me out of the drama in both storylines by shifting timelines when it did.

The characters are pretty resoundingly odious (is it just me, or does this seem to be an overwhelming theme in books, particularly thrillers lately?) and I grew bored with their rants and obnoxious behavior quickly. I get that we all regress, to a degree, to the person we were when we "go back home again" but this was over-the-top and it's hard to believe any one of these people would have actually taken a break from their own self-indulgence long enough to go on the trip at all...

The sense of impending doom was heavy from the start, but when the hammer actually fell I found it to fall flat rather than with a clanging boom. All in all this one just didn't live up to its potential from my perspective. It felt like it needed a heavy edit to keep the pacing more even and steady - as well as more comeuppances all around!

VERY INTERESTING BUT WELL DONE

I enjoyed this book alot!

I loved how it all came together in the end, was easily digestable and I had fun overall.

I was intrigued from the very beginning. I loved how this group of friends were to reunite after 16 years at The Hitchcock Hotel. Alfred created this space after years as an employee at La Quinta Inn and as a lifelong Hitchcock Fan.

The friends appear one by one and the creepy things begin to happen. Every character is unlikeable as they are not good people and are each annoying in their own ways. Quickly we learn of a death and look for clues as to who may be responsible.

The final chapter is unexpected but ties the whole story together in a very clever way. Though, I did not enjoy that final narrator. (The rest of the narrators were good in the audio version of this book)

Advance reader copy provided by Berkley Publishing but all opinions are my own.

This was a fun read. I love the plot and concept. I felt like this was a book that you could easily finish in kne read. There was a point where the pacing felt off, and I wasn't as invested in all the characters, but it was fun and although I could tell or predict where things were going, I overall enjoyed it.

It was just ok. I felt like the story had so much potential and it focused on drivel and made you hate everyone.

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!
——
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”.