Alfred, a true Hitchcock fan, has opened a hotel themed after the movies by his favourite director, and it’s full of memorabilia and references to films like North By Northwest, The Birds, Vertigo and more. When the hotel reaches it’s first anniversary, he decides to invite his former college film studies buddies for a celebration, even though they haven’t spoken in 16 years, since something happened on campus… but maybe now is the perfect time to bring them all back together? After all, a Hitchcock themed hotel could really do with a decent murder…

Stephanie Wrobel is the author of Darling Rose Gold, which I reviewed HERE, previously. I think that book was good but had it’s issues. This one is a love letter to Alfred Hitchcock, and often has a tone of playful cheese, which plays into Hitchcock’s own sense of humour as well as adding to the overall style of this story. The book itself it quite stylish, my copy has great cover art and inside, it has pages which divide the story, with section headings and little quotes, and they feature a spooky pattern of wintry branches reaching their fingers across the page. I loved that. There are also crows featured, and little titbits of references to the films throughout, which were a lot of fun to spot. Some references are openly stated, others are just there for you to find, like a character called Danny, who references Mrs Danvers from Rebecca. If you know, you know.

Alfred is our main character, he created and owns the hotel, and as such is the lead in some chapters, though at other times we get the story from different characters perspective as the plot pieces together. We are given the characters name at the top of the chapter, so it’s always nice and clear. Generally, Alfred is first person and others are third person, which I liked. Alfred is like a few of Hitchcock’s lead characters: they’re morally ambiguous but not unempathetic. I liked his lugubrious and slightly sinister presence, and wanted to see what his plan was. And it if would work out for him or not. The others in the group are a range of types, the successful business woman, the woman with the divorce secretly looming, the alcoholic with a secret, the rich playboy facing his mortality and the average joe who turned out to be very handsome. They’re characters which are recognizable, but not stock characters. And all of them know something and maybe are not as innocent as they seem. I think they all were well written and worked really well as a group of college friends all grown up, and also as pawns in the game that Alfred has maybe set up.

I love a Hitchcock movie. Some I’ve watched several times. I think this book captures a lot of the charm and dark playfulness of his style, but also, cleverly, it also uses the less savoury parts of the directors personality in a good way as well. Hitch was notoriously controlling of some of his stars and sometimes had an obsessive relationship with them. This is not swept under the rug in this book, but is used to play into the whole. I liked how this was handled. I also loved the Victorian house that one character says looks like the house from Psycho. I love a big old house and I think I would be tempted to stay in a Hitchcock themed hotel. It sounds like spooky fun to me. Also, I would love to restore and own an old haunted house, so that made this book doubly appealing to me. The house sounds pretty amazing, and that haunted feel adds a lot to the over all atmosphere of the story. It’s also set in Fall, leaf peepers are mentioned, and pumpkins. It’s definitely got the spooky, October feels covered. Also, because we have Alfred’s perspective a lot of the time, we get his view of all of this, the scene set, as though through a cinematic eye. His obsession with Hitchcock and his movies being his comfort watch means he sees things often as though through a camera lens.

Plot wise, this was a really nicely paced read. From very early on, we know that Alfred is up to something, and that it’s something very sinister, and this also lends us the idea that the others that are coming to the hotel are owed a comeuppance in some way. What did they do to Alfred? What happened that he has never let go of? Also, since we know this early on, we also know that things might not go according to plan for Alfred. All of this is set up really well, and is reminiscent of a Hitchcock film in and of itself. From that opening, we get plot developments flowing along nicely, with little bits of the past revealed to us as we go, which work really nicely as plot twists, allowing us to see behind the facade of each character, and also how they all relate to each other, their bond. It’s really good fun, like a puzzle, and makes for a page turning read. I was really enjoying finding out where it was all going, who knew what and wat was going to happen to whom…

The book takes in themes of haunted houses, voyeurism and loneliness, the isolation of those who watch from the outside, which feels very Hitchcock to me, the idea that you can be alone in a room full of people. It also explores the people we are in college and who and what we become later in life. It has a bit of a kooky, fun, creepy, darkly comic style, but it also has a lot of tension and genuine drama, fraught friendships, and doesn’t give away too much too soon.

Read It If: of course, Hitchcock fans might be the obvious readers for this one, but with it’s sprinkling of falling leaves and pumpkins, it’ makes for great Spooky Season reading for everyone.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for the ARC of this book for review.