This is touted as a dark thriller reminiscent of books and movies about bad seeds and kids born evil. It was, however, a messy psycho drama that made me want to throw my kindle at the wall.
The premise, an 81 year old widow, Maggie Burkhardt, travels to Egypt during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. While staying at the Royal Karnak Palace Hotel in Luxor, Maggie can’t help herself. She likes to meddle in other peoples’ lives. Helping them, she thinks, to be free of their troublesome relationships and bad decisions. Unfortunately, a new guest at the hotel threatens what she has come to know as her home and family. She’s going to have to take care of him. The issue, however, is that Otto, her nemesis, is only 8 years old.
As wild as that sounds, for a while I thought the author could pull this off. But that was before I figured Maggie out and knew I wasn’t going to be able to prevent the coming train wreck of a story. I’m very tired of unreliable narrators and unlikeable main characters. If this had not been an ARC, I wouldn’t have finished it. I kept going and all my supposition proved right. The worst of it all, however, was the ending. Umm no. That was just terrible. I’ll not be recommending this one.
I was able to listen to the audio book while also following along in the e-book. The narrator, Maggie Meg Reed, was OK but I really didn’t like the voice she used for the main character and especially it grated on my nerves to hear her do the voice of Otto.
This is a standalone and is not part of any series.
Tags: mental illness, Covid, dark, thriller, murder, Egypt
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