Enigma of Room 622

A burnt-out thriller writer desperate to regain his creative spark becomes intrigued by a decade-old unsolved murder at a glamorous Alpine hotel in this meticulously crafted novel—a matryoshka doll of a mystery built with the precision of a Swiss watch—from the internationally bestselling author of The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair.One December night, a corpse is found in Room 622 of the Hotel Verbier, a luxury resort in the Swiss Alps. An intense police investigation begins, yet few leads are found. Time passes, and without any breaks in the case, public interest wanes.Years later, Joël Dicker, Switzerland’s novelist extraordinaire, arrives at the Verbier to recover from a bad breakup, mourn the death of his longtime publisher, and hopefully begin a new novel. While trying to solve the puzzle of his next book, Joël’s expertise in the art of the thriller put to the test when he decides to play Sherlock Holmes and look into the hotel’s long-unsolved murder case. He finds his Watson in Scarlett, a beautiful aspiring novelist staying in the next room, who joins Dicker in the investigation.Meanwhile, in the wake of his father's passing, Macaire Ebezner is poised to take over as president of the largest private bank in Switzerland. The succession captivates the news media, and the future looks bright—until it doesn't. The bank’s board, including Lev Levovitch—Geneva’s very own Jay Gatsby—has other plans, and Macaire’s triumphant rise to the top soon becomes a race against time.The Enigma of Room 622 is a diabolically addictive thriller in which a love triangle, a power struggle, shocking betrayals, and deadly envy play out against the backdrop of a not so placid Switzerland, as the truth twists and turns into something most . . . unexpected.Translated from the French by Robert Bononno

"Joël Dicker's innovative page-turner ... weds the allure of a jigsaw puzzle with the split-second timing of an Agatha Christie mystery.... [The Enigma of Room 622 is an] exhilarating tour de force" -- Wall Street Journal"This astonishingly smart, emotionally satisfying, and strangely intimate novel is not to be missed." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)"A tale of romance, masterful duplicity, and... [a] cleverly jigsawed plot, [The Enigma of Room 622 is both]... homage to Agatha Christie, and ... a touching farewell to Dicker's late publisher." -- Booklist"How is the latest Joël Dicker? ...Tension crackles on every page. Melodrama veers to suspense ... [Dicker] has mastered the genre." -- Le Figaro"A new meta-mystery from the Swiss author unfolds with uncanny precision and evolves from a hotel whodunnit into something more nebulous. The elegant surroundings bring to mind classic mysteries, with notes of subversion peppered throughout." -- CrimeReads"Joël Dicker is a bright . . . star of suspense." -- Lisa GardnerPraise for previous title: "Unimpeachably perfect.... It's [Dicker's] light touch and engaging voice that make [his] writing so infectious." -- The New York Times Book Review[Dicker] stages his drama as masquerade and, at curtain call, finally takes off the mask. In a novel where the clues are interwoven with such precision, Dicker's true loyalties are pronounced loud and clear: paternal love..., writing, his mentor Bernard, ... Albert Cohen, Tolstoy, and García Márquez, and attachment to his city, Geneva. -- La Tribune de GenèveIn short... [The Enigma of Room 622 is] a simmering concoction that even Agatha Christie would find irresistible, ...[taking the reader] along for a dizzying ride. -- Le ParisienWith The Enigma of Room 622, Dicker's strengths as a storyteller resurface once again ... we are caught in a fascinating assembly of clues -constructing and reconstructing scenes during which the characters disappear into an elaborate game of charades. -- Le Journal du DimancheEven if means writing another page-turner, Jöel Dicker gives us his all, having as much fun playing with conventions as ever, and, in turn, elevating the detective novel to new heights -- Le SoirOne of the most widely read Francophone authors in the world... [Dicker] knows how to captivate readers ... twist and turns ... meticulous investigations, he jumps back and forth in time, all the better to lose us yet drive us impatient for the final denouement. Pure reading pleasure. -- Lire

JOEL DICKER was born in Geneva in 1985, where he later studied Law. His first novel was awarded the Prix des Ecrivains Genevois. The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair (La Verite sur l’Affaire Harry Quebert) was shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt and won the Grand Prix du Roman de l'Academie Française and the Prix Goncourt des Lyceens.SAM TAYLOR is a novelist and journalist who has lived in France for more than a decade. His first literary translation was Laurence Binet's HHhH, which was longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.