Title:- The Vacancy in Room 10
Author:- Seraphina Nova Glass
Date published:- April 9th 2024
No. of pages:- 298 pages
Genre:- Thriller
Rating:-
Plot:- 4/5
Writing:- 4/5
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When Anna Hartley’s husband, Henry, calls her with a terrible, guilty confession, she can’t believe what she hears. It has to be a bad joke—the mild, predictable artist she married would never hurt a fly, let alone commit murder. But her confusion turns to horror when police find his body washed up on the banks of the Rio Grande.
Desperate for answers to the millions of questions his untimely death has raised, Anna checks in to The Sycamores, the run-down motel turned apartment Henry rented as an art studio. As she absorbs every bit of gossip the eclectic mix of residents are willing to share about her husband and each other, she begins to piece together a picture of a very different man than the one she married, and the life he led behind her back. The more she learns, and the less sense things seem to make, she finds herself wondering: Did she ever really know Henry at all?
But Henry’s secrets aren’t the only ones; as Anna’s search for clues expands, Cass, the mysterious, jaded motel manager, seems more and more determined to keep Anna in the dark. And when threatening letters start appearing at her door, Anna has to decide what’s more important—the truth, or her own safety.
I still haven’t read On the Quiet Street by this author and I am yet to read the book. Vacancy in Room 10 is her latest novel that talks about a struggling artist who calls his wife and tells him that he had killed someone before taking his own life. Anna, who is the wife goes to the motel where she would stay for the next couple of months, to know what Henry was really up to while staying at the motel. But someone clearly doesn’t want her there and poke around the investigation.
Good points :- I actually like the setting of the story. The run down motel named Sycamores, the booze, the parties and all that, it seemed so realistic and as a reader you feel like you are also in that motel as well. The story is told in Cass, who is the manager of the motel and Anna who is the wife of Henry, the man who committed suicide. The story is written in moderate pacing and I do like how Cass is thrown into a situation that she was unable to get out of.
Bad points — the story seemed a little far fetched but then despite that, I liked the story.
Overall verdict – this was a good thriller and I do like the setting of the story. Worth 4 stars.
Seraphina Nova Glass is an Assistant Professor of Instruction and Playwright-In-Residence at the University of Texas, Arlington where she teaches Film Studies and Playwriting.
Her novel On A Quiet Street was nominated for an Edgar Award, was a New York Times
Summer Read, an Amazon Bestseller and Editor’s Pick, and also featured in the Boston Globe and Bustle.
Publisher’s Weekly has named her “a writer to watch.” She’s also an award-winning playwright and holds an MFA degree in
Dramatic Writing from Smith College, and a second MFA in Directing from the University of Idaho.
She is a proud dog mom and loves to travel the world with her husband. She resides in Dallas,
TX.
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