The Enigma of Room 622

July 1, 2022
Swiss writer Dicker's latest thriller concerns a corpse in a hotel room and a fight for the top job at a private Geneva bank. As in his breakout novel, The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair (2014), Dicker has a framing story here about a writer. Only this one is named Jo�l, and he refers frequently to his beloved publisher, Bernard de Fallois, the name of the real author's publisher, who shepherded Quebert and died in 2018. Whatever tribute was intended, though, it seems a dubious one given the novel's problems. In the framing story, the writer stumbles on an unsolved murder and investigates while using the material to write his latest thriller, which is--you guessed it. As for the corpse, the crime occurred when a new bank president was about to be named. The likeliest candidate, the former bank chief's son, may be sidelined because 15 years earlier he traded his shares to a shady financier in exchange for something outside the banking world (the potential for spoilers makes it hard to be more precise). The heart of the story concerns a love triangle as well as the love/hate between fathers, or father surrogates, and sons. But that worthy heart is smothered in layers of adipose backstory, and the tortuous plot proves nearly impossible to follow given the constant shifts among, and fuzziness of, the three main time frames. Fast readers may get the most enjoyment from all this if they can fly lightly over the clunky dialogue, flat characters, improbable behavior ("Sagamore, swallowing the last slice of pizza, stood up"), repetitions, and clich�s, and so quickly motor past the first 400 pages to the point where the investigation finally picks up some speed. But that pleasure is short-lived, for the plot twists soon take over and quickly evolve from surprising to utterly implausible. A flawed outing that may disappoint even Dicker's fans.

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September 15, 2022
Jo�l, a bestselling author, retreats to the Swiss Alps' luxurious Hotel Verbier to mourn the loss of his cherished publisher. Scarlett, the next room's alluring occupant and a welcome distraction, recruits him to investigate the Verbier enigma: the hotel has renamed Room 622 to Room 621 to conceal the scene of an unsolved murder. During a pivotal Ebenzer Bank conference, Ebenzer scion Macaire discovered that a board member, Tarnogol, was scheming to thwart Macaire's imminent election to bank president by electing his rival, Lev Levovitch, instead. Macaire, an undercover operative for Swiss banking espionage division P-30, was ordered to protect his operations by eliminating Tarnogol, but before he could, another board member was killed and Tarnogol disappeared. The killer's identity and tragic motive are shrouded in a tale of romance, masterful duplicity, and misguided loyalty born 15 years earlier when Macaire; his wife, Anastasia; and Levovitch met. The cleverly jigsawed plot, from the author of The Truth about Harry Quebert (2014), pays homage to Agatha Christie, and the final moments reveal a touching farewell to Dicker's late publisher and friend, Bernard de Fallois.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from October 3, 2022
The discovery of a body in room 622 of the Hôtel de Verbier in the Swiss Alps propels this intricately plotted tour de force from Swiss author Dicker (The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair). Sixteen years after the unsolved murder, author Joël Dicker, who’s reeling from the recent death of his beloved publisher, arrives at the luxury hotel, where he and an aspiring author he meets by chance resolve to explore why there’s no longer a room 622. The present-day action shifts between their research about the cold case, full of the reminiscences of the few witnesses they can track down, and the story of Macaire Ebezner, whose planned succession to the presidency of his family bank—which was holding its annual gala at the hotel at the time of the murder—is being thwarted by a board who prefers his business rival, rising star Lev Levovich. Flashbacks to the days leading up to the murder include the points of view of Macaire, Lev, and Macaire’s wife, each of whom comes across as brilliant and bumbling in turn. Dicker’s quasi-autobiographical frankness, his heartfelt tribute to his publisher, and the pull between past and present keep the pages turning. This astonishingly smart, emotionally satisfying, and strangely intimate novel is not to be missed.

October 4, 2022

Nearly a decade ago, Dicker took the international literary community by storm with The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, a clever, out-of-nowhere hit. The author's "overnight" success and status as an in-demand thriller writer looking for material for his next book forms the basis for this metafictional novel. He finds inspiration in a story of financiers jockeying for position as president of a prestigious Geneva bank and their connection to a murder in a hotel room. Macaire Ebezner, the would-be heir to his family's banking empire, sold his shares 15 years ago, presumably losing his father's trust in the process, and now has to rely on a series of dubious schemes and shady alliances to ensure his ascension to the throne. These details are discovered and narrated by a writer named Jo�l, who is still mourning the death of the publisher who helped turn Harry Quebert into a sensation, and his assistant Scarlett. This layering of truth onto fiction promises depth, but it's not clear what this adds to the central mystery of the victim in Room 622 and who killed him, beyond an inflated page count. VERDICT Twists abound in this elaborate mystery, but readers will have to power through clich�d dialogue, jarring time shifts, and thin characterization to enjoy them.--Michael Pucci

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