The New York Times'' #1 Thriller of 2024''Highsmithian… highly readable, twisty and shrewd'' HANYA YANAGIHARA (on Instagram), author of A Little Life''Atmospheric, diabolical fun'' LUCY FOLEY, author of The Midnight Feast''Disturbingly enjoyable'' EMMA HEALEY, author of Elizabeth is Missing''A taut, wicked masterpiece'' MONA AWAD, author of BunnyEighty-one-year-old Maggie Burkhardt has left it all behind and spent the last five years ping-ponging between the world’s luxury hotels.Now she has finally come to rest somewhere she can imagine staying forever: the Royal Karnak Hotel in Luxor, Egypt.Maggie is no sweet old lady. She has a nasty, nosy little habit: she spies on her fellow guests and manipulates situations to ''liberate'' them from what she sees as unhappy relationships.When an eight-year-old boy, Otto, and his well-meaning mother arrive at the hotel, Maggie sees two easy targets. But she is more wrong than she could possibly know, and is soon locked in a death-spiral with Otto – has she finally met her match in a child one-tenth her age?Crackling with the perceptive acid wit of The White Lotus and haloed by Shirley Jackson’s cruel, dark magic, Christopher Bollen’s new novel is a decadent and ghastly delight.Early readers are saying…''Absolutely brilliant and insane. I went in knowing very little about the book and I’m glad because it made it even more of a wild ride'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐''I loved this book from the first page… The conflict between the old and the young in this cat and mouse tussle is brilliant. It’s a hard to put down novel and has a great twist at the end'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐''I had an absolute blast reading this. Otto and Maggie are wild characters and their behavior is shocking!'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐