THE HITCHCOCK HOTEL by Stephanie Wrobel – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel
Published by Berkley on 24 September 2024
Genres: Adult, Mystery
Pages: 352
Format: Finished hardcover
Source: Publisher
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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.