Manderley is the new luxury hotel in Santa Barbara boasting to be the most secure facility of its kind anywhere. The hotel owner’s father was murdered in a hotel by a cheap bomb so a secure facility was the number one priority, luxury was a close second. Movie stars, politicians, billionaires are all anticipated to flock here; a place where their secrets are safe and their safety is tantamount.
Manderley opens in twenty-four hours and final preparations are under way. Security is enclosed in the top floor control room monitoring the plethora of cameras...or are they? Something is wrong at Manderley. VERY wrong. A killer is in the hotel and is determined that no one leave alive.
Yes, this book is pretty gory. Perfect Halloween read! But this book is also masterfully constructed. There are so many books which attempt to use multiple narrators and points of view that just manage to confuse the reader. Wohlsdorf uses multiple cameras to impart the action and sometimes the point of view changes from paragraph to paragraph, with no notation that the view is changing, but as a reader you are never at a loss about what is going on. (I checked with two other people who read this book and they had similar experiences, so it’s not just me saying this.) I was amazed by how well constructed this slim (230 pages) book was as being a great thriller. There are at least three twists that really got me and while she ties up all the loose ends of the action, you are still left with a few questions.
A great amazingly crafted horror/thriller that makes you grateful that you can’t afford to stay in a hotel like Manderley.
