"The Hitchcock Hotel"

Stephanie Wrobel is an international and USA Today bestselling author. Her first novel, Darling Rose Gold, was published in March 2020, hitting the Sunday Times, USA Today, and Globe and Mail bestseller lists. The book has sold in twenty-one countries and was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, the Barry Award for Best First Novel, and the Macavity Award for Best First Novel. Her second book, This Might Hurt, about a woman trying to rescue her sister from the clutches of a cult that promises fearlessness to its followers, published in 2022.

Wrobel applied the Page 69 Test to her third novel, The Hitchcock Hotel, and reported the following:

Page 69 of The Hitchcock Hotel begins with host Alfred suggesting his old friends and weekend guests resurrect their film club, followed by a group dinner. They all agree, then part ways.

“Does seven o’clock work for everyone? If no one objects to a slightly later dinner, we can eat after the movie. Say around eight thirty?”

“Sure,” Grace says. “I’m going to put in a few hours of work until then.”

“I’m heading out for a run.” TJ pulls his earbuds from his pocket.

“In this weather?” Samira says. “You’ll be soaked.”

“No big deal,” he says. “I’ll dry.”

The three of them say goodbye to us, then make for the lobby.

“Can I talk to you for a minute, Alfred?” Julius asks—it can’t be—nervously? I almost say Me? But he’s already leading me by the elbow across the room, away from Zoe, who stares at her toast as if she’s vacated her body.

I put my hotelier voice back on. “Has everything been to your expectations thus far?”

Julius appears puzzled. “What? Yes. Listen. I’m a big fan of what you’ve set up here.”

Part of me is thrilled, filled with pride. Another part is skeptical. Julius is hardly a movie fan. He took film studies because he heard it was easy, and he joined the film club for fear of missing out. “I’d like to invest,” he adds.

I chuckle politely. Another stupid prank.

He scowls. “I’m serious.”

“As in an angel investment?”

Julius fusses with the silk scarf tied around his neck. “More like a grant.”

“A grant?” I repeat. “You mean a donation?”

“Call it what you want. I’m no savant, but I’ve heard money is key to the success of small businesses.”

My brain struggles to compute this new reality.

I don’t think the Page 69 Test works very well for this book. In The Hitchcock Hotel, page 69 is one of transition, of getting the characters from one scene to the next, which means it fails to give readers the sense of pace and plot zigzags that set the tone for most of the novel.

One thing page 69 does telegraph well is a sense of my ensemble cast. Here’s Alfred, unfailingly polite and trying to convince everyone to watch a Hitchcock film, just like in their college days. Grace is the workaholic hedge fund manager—even on her weekend away, she’s working. TJ, a muscled bodyguard, heads off to exercise. Samira, the group mom, worries over his welfare if he gets caught in the rain. Zoe, who struggles with alcoholism, is hungover. Last but not least, trust fund kid Julius tries to solve a problem (ongoing friction between him and Alfred) by throwing money at it. In just over two hundred and fifty words, we get glimpses into the heart of all six of our potential victims—and the killer.

Visit Stephanie Wrobel's website.

The Page 69 Test: Darling Rose Gold.

My Book, The Movie: Darling Rose Gold.

Q&A with Stephanie Wrobel.

--Marshal Zeringue