A burnt-out writer’s retreat at a fancy Swiss hotel is interrupted by a murder mystery in this metafictional, meticulously crafted whodunit from the New York Times bestselling author of The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair. Macaire es el tonto útil que es un buenazo y que da la impresión de que sería un fracasado si no hubiera nacido rico. Lo peor con él es que se quiere jugar a dar a entender que tiene un lado oscuro. En serio, es que parece incapaz de matar ni a una mosca. Da alguna sorpresilla, pero cuesta ver maldad en él. Six-thirty in the morning. The Hôtel de Verbier was dark. Outside, it was pitch dark and snowing heavily.

The Enigma of Room 622 (Hardback) - Waterstones The Enigma of Room 622 (Hardback) - Waterstones

No me salté páginas porque nunca hago eso, pero creo que sobraban muchas. Cuando por fin llegamos a los grandes descubrimientos, no me convencieron. Por muchas explicaciones que dé el autor, yo tengo mis dudas sobre la capacidad de alguien para ser tan camaleónico… o más bien, para hacerlo como él dice sin que se note… Y no diré nada más. Scarletta Leonas, another guest at the hotel, discovers that the reason there’s no Room 622 is that an unsolved murder has occurred. She begins working with Joël as a sort of assistant and the two amateur sleuths attempt to establish the sequence of the events leading up to the weekend of the murder. The small board of the bank was to decide on who would succeed Abel -- whereby the board members themselves were ineligible.Como es habitual en sus libros hay muchos personajes principales en la historia, en esta en concreto hasta él mismo forma parte del elenco, el Escritor, con mayúsculas, algo que supongo que parte de la crítica y muchos lectores no le perdonaran porque puede dar la impresión de que el ego del autor bordea o supera todo lo admisible, a mí no deja de parecerme un juego en el que el autor nos invita a participar, un metalibro o un experimento de metaliteratura. More time is dedicated to the murder in the past, which was a bit of a disappointment since the ‘today’ story is more interesting than the murder in the past. The wealthy private bank family machinations of the earlier murder seem unrealistic, bland and contrived, like having a complex plot explained to you after a movie leaves you totally befuddled.

El enigma de la habitación 622 by Joël Dicker | Goodreads El enigma de la habitación 622 by Joël Dicker | Goodreads

B- : too convoluted in its presentation for its own good, but there's some entertainment value to it, not least in how ridiculous the main plot winds up being I spent a great deal of my listening time confused. There are constantly changing non-linear timelines and points of view. El enigma de la habitación 622 (2020) ha empezado siendo una decepción tal que aunque haya ido mejorando a medida que avanzan las páginas, no ha sido suficiente para que se me pasara el mal sabor de boca. Porque esperaba pasármelo muchísimo mejor, la verdad. Being simultaneously a little too perfect and a little too rife with mystery, I found the Verbier to have made the perfect setting for The Enigma of Room 622. Lush in its decor and populated by a wide cast of eccentric guests and idiosyncratic staff members, it feels like there’s always something of import happening somewhere, and always someone plotting something from the shadows. Ultimately, it feels like an outlandish setting, the only kind which could have allowed for the proper development of the novel’s plot. It makes for an almost comic unraveling as to what actually was going on all those times -- ingenious, certainly, arguably, but also rather far-fetched (to put it mildly).

Yes, his narration mode is attractive (as much as he is. Google Images him. You will thank me later). BUT, the clichés: the men characters who always have to be scared of commitment or unable to make the right decision (hello narrator, hello Lev), the women characters who are always desperate to be loved or love (hello Anastasia), the lines that sometimes seem to come from a Hallmark movie. Aside from the affair, espionage and corporate politics, embezzlement has been going on at the bank. All the angles are there to set up a murder mystery, but who had the most likely motive? For a large part of the story we are kept in the dark about the murder victim’s identity so we are left wondering not just who the killer was, but who was killed. It’s an interesting device. The presidency has always been handed down in the family, and Macaire expects to be named president -- but in those days leading up to the announcement he learns that some people seem to have other plans.

The Enigma of Room 622 by Joël Dicker | Hachette UK

Anastasia es la princesita que nació pobre y cuya mayor condena es su belleza, ya que el dejar extasiados a los hombres provocó que se casara con uno al que no amaba. No me creí ni su amor por Lev ni su cariño por Macaire, dijera lo que dijera, el asunto del dinero se veía que no le era indiferente del todo. He writes that when, after two months, the affair came to an abrupt end he decided he needed a break he headed off to Verbier -- a place Bernard was also fond of.

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The only thing enjoyable was reading about Bernard de Fallois. I just wished I didn’t have to read it an egocentric story, with a far-fetched ending that gave me the same bitter taste as the Lost tv show ending. MY THOUGHTS: I was looking forward to a 'book within a book' mystery, which is not what I got. Think 'corporate conspiracy' instead. Sí, ya me he dado cuenta que no ha querido escribir una novela negra, sino más bien una novela de suspense inglés, más ligera, pero no hacía falta hacerlo de un modo tan chabacano, con ese tono como de novelita barata donde todo vale. A pesar de que este es un libro con cerca de una docena de personajes importantes y múltiples saltos en el tiempo, es imposible dejar de leerlo. Desde el momento en el que Joël como personaje llega y empieza a hacer sus pesquisas, pasando por el punto en el que sospechas que tu propia sombra sea la culpable de aquel asesinado, y llegando a la etapa en la que todas las conversaciones, todas las observaciones y todas las pistas encajan y te apuntan al asesino, es un libro espectacular. Son más de 600 páginas que se pasan en un abrir y cerrar de ojos.