Thank you to Tor, NetGalley, and Joel Dicker for the e-Galley of this book.

If you're a longtime fan of Agatha Christie and are looking for a trip down nostalgia-lane, this book is well worth your time to read. I enjoyed twists, turns, nooks, crannies, and secrets throughout. If you're new to the mystery genre or prefer the contemporary style, you'll likely find this book to be 30% longer than it needs to be and grow bored.

A fun read, but not for everyone.

✨BOOK REVIEW✨
The Enigma of Room 622

Wow! This was a BIG book!
It gave off Knives Out vibes, and I was loving it. I did feel parts were a bit dragged out at times for me. I mean this book is almost 600 pages…..which did allow for many twists and turns, but also for some areas that I like to call “filler”. I feel like the story could have been better without all the details the “filler” brought to this story.
All in all, I did enjoy this book, even though it wasn’t as fast paced as I was hoping for!
Dicker can write a good mystery for sure!
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 for me!

QOTD: Have you ever stayed in a Hotel that was haunted or had a murder???

AOTD: I have stayed in two that I know of! Three Valley Gap and The Fairmont. No ghosts sited sadly 👻

This one comes out September 13th!
Be sure to pick up a copy!

Many thanks to the amazing team @harpercollinsca for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

#theenigmaofroom622 #harpercollinscanada #netgalley #bookreview #bookinfluencer #bookrecs #bookrecsofinstagram #canadianbookstagrammer #albertabookstagrammers #mystery #goodbook #thickbook #bookreviewers #bookpeople #read #readthisone #whodunnit #mysterybooks

"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."

Hotels and the secrets of "removed" rooms will always get me to pick up a book!

Between the fantastic cover and title, I wanted to love this book. However, it felt like a chore to keep trying to return to this novel with its slow pacing and lengthy flashbacks. Given the length of the book I decided to call it quits about 20% of the way in. It may be that this is simply not the right narrative style for me.

I really enjoyed this story! It’s best to go into it knowing nothing other than a murder has occurred. Let the story sweep you along and see how long it takes you to figure out what is going on!

This book had such a promising premise. However, I was very disappointed with the way this story was told. It was a little boring in the first part and I found I could not continue reading it.

This unfortunately was a DNF about 25% of the way through. The story and setting sounded so intriguing so I was excited to dive in, but it was just too convoluted and long winded for me to sit through 600 pages. Thank you Netgalley and Hapervia for the opportunity to read this book. I think fans of books like The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle will enjoy this book.

This book was not enjoyable for me. I felt like it was all dialogue without anything actually happening. The characters were confusing and I wasn’t interested in the plot. I’m sure other would enjoy this, but it wasn’t for me.

**Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review**

3/5 stars for a number of reasons.
The characters were engaging and mysterious while having their own trove of problems. The twists and turns were some that I did not expect.

My only complaint truly is that I was so uninterested by Jöel’s portion of the story to discover the truth and flashbacks to Bernard. I was more engrossed into the Bank plot line of this and the twists that unfolded throughout the actual mystery.

If the story was just the Murder of Room 622, this book would have gotten 5 stars from me hand down. I expected nothing that I read in the plot line and found myself trying to finish this book and quickly go through Jöel’s plot to get more information on the mystery.

Overall not a terrible read, but I would have just preferred the mystery.

An interesting tale told through multiple viewpoints. The Enigma of Room 622 builds slowly, with hints of mystery along the way and is definitely one to pick up when you're looking for something to really invest your time in. I thought it dragged on in parts, but the characters were compelling enough.

I probably would have loved this book if i had never read anything by Agatha Christie.

But I have. Because I'm a 43 year old woman who has been reading mystery novels since the age of 4.

This was just okay.

Overall I thought it was an interesting story. I will say I didn't see most of the twists coming but admittedly some seemed obvious to me. I think the ending to the story was the most helpful in understanding on why the story was taking place but I would have rather just read the core story then having the second story in there. It just made it too long I would say if you like Fredrik Blackman you might like this one as well.

What makes this book different from all others? And why should anyone care?

The biggest highlight of this book is that it's a phenomenal murder mystery. It executes the "mystery" part of the brief exceptionally. I wasn't able to piece the mystery together and solve it until two or three pages before the author got there, which I really enjoyed. The construction of the plot and throughlines are beautifully crafted, making this a very technically excellent book.

My only complaint is with the pacing. The first half of the book is very slow and almost unrewarding from a murder mystery perspective. With that, the second half of the book made up for a lot of my complaints with the first half, but with a book nearly 600 pages long, it took a lot of faith in the author for me to continue to pick up the book and keep reading. I am really glad that I finished it though.

This is a book I'm going to keep thinking about for a while, and it's a book I'll continue to admire for the plot twists and turns.

This book seemed promising based on the blurb and the first few chapters. However I made it about 20% of the way through and unfortunately had to DNF. I’ve tried multiple times to pick it up but I just can’t get into it. The plot bounces from past to present far too often, and I feel like in the chapters about the past, the author uses far too much detail about the events leading to the murder. It was just too wordy and slow paced for me.

I loved this book. From page one I was sucked into the story and mystery. It is so fun and keeps you guessing all along. The story is so masterfully written and paced. The characters are so fun to read about and their stories. I would definitely recommend this book

While on an escape at a hotel in Switzerland, a writer named Joel is determined to understand why the rooms on the six floor are missing the number 622. After some investigation, Joel and his equally curious new friend Scarlett, find out that there was a murder that took place in the hotel years before and the hotel management is determined to rewrite the hotel's history by erasing room 622. Inspired by the information they discover during their investigation, Joel begins to write his next novel based on the events of that fateful night in room 622.

I really enjoyed Joel Dicker's novel "The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair" so I was eager to give this a read. But I can confidentially say, this book was not for me... at all! The plot description is what drew me in, but the story ended up being way too convoluted. It's told in multiple timelines, bouncing back and forth between them so quickly that its hard to keep track of what happens when. I also felt like we spent way too much time within the storyline of the actual events leading up to and including the murder. I know we need to know what happened, but truly that could've been its own novel entirely. The chapters where we went back to Joel and Scarlet jarred me because I had totally forgotten about them since we hadn't spent time in their storyline for a while. I was also confused, is the character of Joel supposed to be Joel Dicker? Did I miss that, because there was a moment where he mentions that he wrote "The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair." Thought it was very strange.

This book was also entirely way too long. 500 pages! 500 pages that could've easily been 250 to 300. Like I said the storylines of the events leading up to and including the murder and the one with Joel and Scarlett didn't fit together well. I feel like there was a barely a thread of a connection, and I wasn't able to connect with either Joel or Scarlett enough for me to care about them. I also wasn't a fan of the ending: that Joel's investigation never even happened. He never went up to the Hotel, Scarlett wasn't real, it was just all an allusion to him getting so invested in writing his book that it felt like he was actually on the hunt investigating. As a reader, the "it was a dream" trope really makes me feel as though I have wasted my time. I couldn't tell was the murder even real, or was it all just fiction for his book? Wasn't made clear.

Overall, I think this was a great plot but with convoluted execution and just wasn't the book for me. I want to thank HarperVia and Net Galley for giving me an advanced copy.

I really struggled with this one.. I was so excited by the blurb, the cover, and the potential. It started out interesting, but quickly got bogged down in excessive detail, lots of backstory that didn't actually feel relevant to the developing mystery, and a meandering writing style that did not mesh with the whodunit nature of the story as described in the blurb.

I also had a hard time connecting with the characters. The protagonist was fairly unlikable, and the characters around him felt pretty one-dimensional and stereotypical. While that isn't necessarily a problem in a mystery, when the main character is when you can't connect with it is very difficult to keep reading - especially in a difficult and lengthy book that moves very slowly.

I ultimately couldn't finish. I tried repeatedl, as there would be flashes of brilliance and great storytelling, but that would almost immediately be followed by dozens of pages that I had to slog through and eventually it just was too much work for the style of book..

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for this ebook.
Sadly I had to DNF.
It started out good and caught my attention. It was interesting. But then it started to drag on and I needed it to get to the bulk of the plot already. I became bored.
This had potential though and maybe those that power through end up enjoying it.
I usually do not rate books I DNF but I can’t submit this Netgalley review without a star rating.

Probably a top favorite book of the year. I got immediately pulled into this story and the writing style. I don't know how to explain the tone and style of writing, but it is perfect. I loved both storylines and the way they weaved together. I don't know how Dicker did it, but he got me to be so invested and interested in bank management drama. I think it's best to go into this book blind and just enjoy the ride. There is great mystery, great characters, and a beautiful relationship between a writer and editor. There is a murder mystery at the center of the story, but it really isn't about that, it's more of a slow burn character driven study. The ending was beautiful. I think this is a book I will revisit and I hope to read more from this author.

This book was full of twists and turns. A writer is at a hotel for some time to think. He notices there is no room 622. He starts to investigate to write a book about it and it is a long story.

I liked the overall plot of the book. It was very unexpected. But this book is very long and took awhile to read. There are also a lot of back stories on back stories of the characters so it got to be a lot of information. But you want a long book to read that’s full of drama, this one is good.