Maggie is a fixer. She has a talent – no, a calling – for rescuing people from their unhappy lives and helping them land in a far better spot. At least that’s how she sees it – others can agree to disagree. Maggie has recently landed at the Royal Karnak Hotel in Egypt – she’s not on the run, not necessarily – and has vowed that she is done helping other people if they aren’t going to be able to see the value she’s bringing them. That is, of course, easier said than done, when she sees the fractures and problems that she could so handily remedy in a variety of relationships. There’s workaholic Ben and his Adonis house-husband Zachary, but their bond is airtight. Then there’s the Bradleys. Geoff has such a glaringly obvious wandering eye and Shelley is obliviously going through the motions as the mom of an insufferable teenager. But Maggie has learned from her past and is leaving well enough alone. Until she runs into a young mother traveling alone with her eight-year-old son. There are lots of problems she can help them overcome. But things are not as they seem. Some problems can’t be fixed, and some kiddos may not be as sugary-sweet as they seem on the surface. In Christopher Bollen’s HAVOC, we encounter a knock-down, drag-out battle of wills that will utterly blow your socks off.
Let me be clear – this is not your mama’s literary hotel thriller. If you are coming into this expecting something like Nita Prose’s The Maid, be warned that this is significantly, exponentially, darker and far less quirkily fun. Fans of Bollen will find the best parts of his signature style in HAVOC – the strong sense of atmosphere and incredibly well-developed character psychology. Throw in a wholly unreliable narrator and a satisfyingly slow burn that is rounded out with a genuinely jaw-dropping conclusion, and you will leave this book speechless and disturbed… for at least several days.
Bollen will have you questioning everything you just read after you finish HAVOC. What, and who can you trust? (No one.) Should you reread this a second, third, or fourth time to figure out what just happened? (Probably.) Do you need to join a book club with English professors just so you can unpack this one? (Yes, and tell me when you find this club as I’ll be right behind you signing up.) Will you be on the lookout for any and every Bollen interview where he explains himself and the layers upon layers of havoc that he just created in HAVOC? (I know I will!)
In the vein of The Bad Seed comes a twisty, atmospheric psychological suspense about a meddlesome elderly guest at a decadent luxury hotel who believes she has left her problematic past behind, until she decides to interfere in the lives of a young mother and her eight-year-old son, and finally meets her wicked match.
The war between age and youth has never been so vicious.
Eighty-one-year-old widow Maggie Burkhardt came to the Royal Karnak to escape. But not in quite the same way as most other guests who are relaxing at this threadbare luxury hotel on the banks of the Nile. Maggie, a compulsive fixer of other people’s lives, may have found herself in hot water at her last hotel in Switzerland and just might have needed to get out of there fast... But here at the Royal Karnak, under the hot Saharan sun, she has a comfortable suite, a loyal confidante in the hotel manager, Ahmed, and a handful of sympathetic friends, similar “long-termers” who understand her still-vivid grief for her late husband, Peter. Here, she is merely the sweet old lady in Room 309.
One morning, however, Maggie notices a new arrival at check-in: a mournful-looking young mother named Tess and her impish eight-year-old, Otto. Eager to help, Maggie invites them into her world. But it isn’t long before Maggie realizes that in her longing to be a part of their family, she has let in an enemy much stronger than she bargained for. In scrawny, homely Otto, Maggie Burkhardt has finally met her match.
A propulsive, addictively-readable breakout from the critically acclaimed author of A Beautiful Crime and The Lost Americans, Havoc is brilliant, twisty psychological suspense that will get under your skin like the most unforgettable Hitchcock classics.
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