Cover Image: The Enigma of Room 622

The Enigma of Room 622

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Member Reviews

I found this excessively dry--which may be due to the fact that it's in translation. Lots of other thrillers like this out there that are better.

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Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

I read almost 40% of this novel and I was connected with none of the plot and characters so I had to mark it DNF.

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This was, quite possible, one of the most incredible books I've ever read in my life. As an avid Agatha Christie reader, it is not often that I get the immense joy of being shocked, surprised, and puzzled by a book. Then this book entered my life, and all of that joy and more was mine! I cannot recommend this book highly enough to those who enjoy complicated mysteries (and can handle a lot of time jumps). What an incredible read!

Caveat: This book is a slow burner at first, so trust the process and stick with it. It isn't fast paced thriller, but is well worth the time and the pages.

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I don’t know if it was an issue with the translation or if it was meant to be so but the book felt very funny even when discussing seemingly serious issues. The characters all felt sort of caricaturish and the twists and turns were so bizarre. But I did find myself thoroughly entertained and kept guessing till the end. So I would definitely recommend it to those who love to read a mystery that keeps one entertained but sometimes strays outside the boundary of believable.
Rating : 3.5 stars

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This book caught my eye by its interesting cover and catchy title. Unfortunately, I was thoroughly confused within the first few chapters and couldn’t push myself to finish. I had to DNF about a quarter through. Enigma was certainly a good title, I just didn’t have the patience to try and figure it out,

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This book was disappointing. I was looking forward to reading it and it was one of my more anticipated books of the year because the mystery sounded like it would be something I would really enjoy. Unfortunately, I found the entire story to be too convoluted.

I’m usually very good at suspending my disbelief when I’m reading fiction, but I just couldn’t do it for this book. The story was far to farfetched, and I found myself getting annoyed with all of the stories within a story that was going on. Every time I thought they were done adding layers, another layer was added, and there was just too much going on.

I also wasn’t a fan of the author making himself a character and how the author constantly praised himself in the story. It was too much.

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3.5/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and Joel Dicker for allowing me to read and review this book.

This book jumps around in timelines a lot. It’s a book within a book and a mystery within a mystery. Everything connects and intertwines in ways you could never imagine. This book is long, but necessarily so. It’s a really good book with well written characters and story line. I really enjoyed reading this book and following the story lines.

This book leaves you wondering and guessing about everything until the end. Then everything starts wrapping up, and continues wrapping much further than you think it would.

I feel like this could be a book I could read multiple times and endlessly pick up on things I hadn’t before

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This book was not for me. It was difficult to get into the rythm of it although I did find the premise interesting. The characters also felt flat at times for me. I would be willing to read more from the author though.
Thanks to Netgalley and Harpervia for my copy of The Enigma of Room 622.

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DNf at 5%, I couldn't get into the writing and the voice. I was expecting something a bit more like a locked room mystery or Agatha Christie-esque and this was just disappointing.

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I can appreciate the principle of this story. A mysterious murder in an exclusive hotel in the Swiss Alps. A murder among the most elite members of society. A murder that remains unsolved. Now years later a mystery writer travels to the hotel and with the help of an inquisitive woman, they solve the mystery. This is a very layered story, and it has many different levels, just like an onion. I will give the author credit here because I could never really figure out just what had happened that night in room 622. I think everyone who reads it has the same suspects, and we were all wrong. if I have one critique, it is that the story is a long one, and it jumps around to at least 3 different times, and it make things a little confusing. If you can keep yourself interested, it is a worthwhile journey. Review posted to Facebook, Instagram, Litsy, LibraryThing, Amazon, and Goodreads.

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Thank you Netgalley, author, and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this e-arc.

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Interesting story that goes back and forth between current day writer and a story he is researching from the past. Many twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing the whole time.

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A September 2022 Amazon Best of the Month Pick

“Dicker salutes Agatha Christie even as he drops the reader through one trapdoor into another, so that by the end, we doubt we’ve ever read another novel quite like it. (We haven’t.) Fans of Ruth Ware and Lucy Foley will hug this book in between chapters; the many readers who love Anthony Horowitz’s mysteries will celebrate. And me? I’ll be reading it again.”—A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

"[The Enigma of Room 622 is an] exhilarating tour de force"–The Wall Street Journal

A burnt-out writer’s retreat at a fancy Swiss hotel is interrupted by a murder mystery in this metafictional, meticulously crafted whodunit from the New York Times bestselling author of The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair.

A writer named Joël, Switzerland’s most prominent novelist, flees to the Hôtel de Verbier, a luxury resort in the Swiss Alps. Disheartened over a recent breakup and his longtime publisher’s death, Joël hopes to rest. However, his plans quickly go awry. It all starts with a seemingly innocuous detail: at the Verbier, there is no room 622.

Before long, Joël and fellow guest Scarlett uncover a long-unsolved murder that transpired in the hotel's room 622. The attendant circumstances: the succession of Switzerland’s largest private bank, a mysterious counterintelligence operation called P-30, and a most disreputable sabotage of hotel hospitality. A European phenomenon, The Enigma of Room 622 is a matryoshka doll of intrigue–as precise as a Swiss watch–and Dicker’s most diabolically addictive thriller yet.

Translated from the French by Robert Bononno

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The cover is stunning, Sadly, the story and plot are messy. It's probably because the translation (I hope). It's messy and too long. It supposed to be interesting but now it's bland.
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

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Not my favorite read.

Financial intrigue crossed with cloak and dagger spy activities are not really my thing. I was sure this was going to be more murder mystery, but the large cast of characters and twisty storylines focused more on the actions that came before and it really lost the thread of the murder mystery for me.

A story within a story kept things unnecessarily confusing and didn't bring anything positive to the plot, except a significant amount of additional pages.

I didn't find this anything like Agatha Christie. Perhaps it lost something in translation to English?

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A deeply engaging novel with surprises everywhere. Recommended for fans of Clancy, but will engage any mystery lover.

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Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Joel Dicker can craft a mystery. This was interesting, though a little on the long side. Could have benefited from being shorter.

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Thank you NetGalley and HarperVia for the copy of The Enigma of Room 622. This book was not for me because it was too long and confusing. It was hard to connect with the writing style and I felt like the author was trying hard to be clever, but it fell flat. It's a shame because the premise of the book was intriguing, but the execution was off. 1.5 stars rounded up to 2

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The Enigma of Room 622 uses a clever framing device — a. mystery within a mystery — but I ultimately found it was too bogged down to work. At times it felt like a farce/satire, but at others deadly serious. It didn't quite work for me.

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Interesting premise, acceptable follow through. This was twist on a whodunit with a mystery within the mystery. However, it took a long time to setup everything; a third of the way through the book and I felt like things were still being setup. The pace was slow and it was a bit wordier than it really needed to be. Maybe something was lost in translation? I think it had the potential to be a fun and engaging book, if only it wasn't so long and verbose. Cut this down and I would have enjoyed this much more.

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This book was just ok for me. I found that the mystery was good but there were so many other things in the book that it felt kind of wordy and taking away from the main part of the story. I did enjoy it I just thought I was going to enjoy it more.

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