The Woman in Suite 11

 The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware (2025), 387 pages

I was dense and didn't connect that this might be a follow-up to The Woman in Cabin 10. I realize it has that on the cover, but I listened to the audiobook and it totally escaped me. So, when I heard the name Lo Blacklock, all the pieces came together. If you have the time, I highly suggest re-reading The Woman in Cabin 10. It came out in 2016 and getting a refresher on that mystery will enhance this one. There is a ten-year time jump between the two stories. I appreciated this as Lo has a bit more backstory as do the supporting characters. Lo, though (and I do say this with love), is still a fumbling, naive human that you would have thought had learned more through her first murder experience. But Ware does write solid, intricate, twisty mysteries and I will continue to read them. I do hope she continues this series and lets Lo grow a bit in her detective skills. Although, I suppose it wouldn't be Lo if she wasn't a completely trusting and generous soul. 

The White Octopus Hotel

The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell, 368 pages

Eve is a reclusive art appraiser for a London auction house, happily doing her job when an old man walks in. He says his name is Max Everly — coincidentally, the same name as her favorite composer, born more than a century earlier — and he has a gift for her. After leaving Eve's office, the man disappears from her life, though she's intrigued by the small white octopus he's given her. A bit of research on the octopus takes Eve to an abandoned hotel in the Swiss Alps, and as she's exploring, she falls through time to the heyday of the hotel in the 1930s, where she once again meets a much younger Max Everly.

Sprinkled with time travel, mysterious magical objects, and a curiously fun hotel (my favorite element is the hidden eavesdropper in the speakeasy, who gives his signature cough whenever someone is lying), this book is a lovely read. Yes, it dabbles with the fantastical and magical, but it's not a full-on fantasy novel. An excellent magical realism read for fans of books like The Night Circus.

Shiver

Shiver by Allie Reynolds, 390 pages

A decade after a highly competitive season, a group of retired pro snowboarders have gathered off-season at an elite ski resort to catch up, hit the slopes, and remember their late friend (and super-competitive schemer), Saskia, who went missing at the end of that season 10 years ago, and has recently been legally declared dead. But from the moment they arrive at the mountaintop resort, things seem a bit off. No employees are to be found, their cell phones go missing, and an icebreaker activity ends up revealing secrets...but without telling *whose* secrets they are. Told in alternating chapters between now and a decade earlier, Shiver keeps the twists coming and the adrenaline pumping, and nobody is what they say they are.

Oh, this was a FANTASTIC thriller. Competitive elite athletes, a snowbound resort mystery, mind games, infidelity... this has it ALL. Absolutely loved this thriller, and tore through it faster than one of these snowboarders heading down the mountain. So good!

The Sanatorium

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse, 390 pages

UK police officer Elin has been on an extended leave of absence after her mother's long illness and death. She's still considering whether she wants to return to the force when she and her boyfriend travel to a remote resort in Switzerland to celebrate Elin's brother's engagement to her childhood friend, Laure. The recently opened hotel is home of an old tuberculosis sanatorium, which becomes particularly creepy after Laure goes missing and a hotel employee is found dead. With a snowstorm and avalanches cutting off access for the local police, Elin's detective skills are called into action, placing her in more danger than she's ready for.

There's nothing quite like a locked-room (or snowed-in resort) thriller to get the adrenaline pumping, and the mix of the hotel's history as a sanatorium adds a nice gothic element. That said, the reveal is a bit of a letdown, being completely unguessable by readers. For a much better snowy thriller, check out my next post.

Frankenstein

Frankenstein / Mary Shelley, 231 p.

September's read for the Classics Book Group proved far more engaging than I had anticipated.  Most of us know the story, more or less; I didn't realize how little the novel had to do with monsterish-ness and how much it had to do with psychology, loneliness, grief, and regret over stupendously bad life choices.  On the question of what the novel has to say about science, the jury is likely to remain out forever.  Shelley is too sly to tell us directly what she thinks, at least in these pages.  Atmospheric and worth a read to celebrate the 200th anniversary of publication.

The little hotel

The little hotel / Christina Stead, 216 pgs.

Kathleen wrote about this book here which certainly made me interested.  The setting is a little hotel where all kinds of things are happening.  Who knew so much went on at a place like that?  It sort of reminds me of the library.  People come and go but there is a crew who stays the whole time.  The young proprietress is working hard with her husband to keep the place running, dealing with staff, guest and all the crazy things that go along with the human condition.  This is just one long chapter about a time period in the hotel and all that happens.  It is so much fun to read and I think I enjoyed every page.

The Little Hotel

The Little Hotel / Christina Stead, 209 pp.

Some time ago Jonathan Franzen wrote an essay about another Stead novel, The Man Who Loved Children, praising it in the highest possible terms.  Whether he was responsible for renewed interest in Stead, an Australian who did most of her writing outside her homeland, I can't say.  But we currently have several brand-spanking new copies of her novels, just issued by Text Classics, so I thought I'd give one a try.

Set in a '4th-class hotel' on Lake Geneva in the years just after WWII, The Little Hotel is full of Brits, Americans, Belgians, Swiss, and Italians who have washed up for a variety of reasons, nearly all of them having to do with money and the need to hide it in Switzerland.  In between gossiping, fighting, drinking, and insulting the servants, they all plan to leave at any moment, for fear that the Russians will descend and confiscate all of those precious funds.  Every page of this is funny, some of it hilariously so, but the undercurrent of pathos is strong.  I loved every page.

Audrey at Home: Memories of My Mother's Kitchen

Audrey at Home: Memories of My Mother's Kitchen by Luca Dotti  256 pp.

This is a loving memoir of Audrey Hepburn (with recipes) written by her son, Luca. In spite of her rail thin physique, Hepburn was a great lover of food and cooking. In spite of the quantities she ate, she did not gain weight as a result of suffering near-starvation during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands during World War II. Included in the book are hundreds of photos, many never before published. Fifty recipes with detailed directions are included. There is a variety of favorites of Hepburn, her family, and friends. Because she retired from acting to raise her children, there is very little about her movie career. The focus of the book is the post-Hollywood Audrey Hepburn as a wife, mother, and later an ambassador for UNICEF. This is a sweet, quick read (lots of pictures).