The Enigma of Room 622

tags: dramedy, mystery

⭐⭐⭐⭐

From Goodreads

One night in December, a corpse is found in Room 622 of the Hotel Verbier, a luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps. A police investigation begins without definite end, and public interest wanes with the passage of time. Years later, the writer Joel Dicker, Switzerland's most famous literary ingenue, arrives at that same hotel to recover from a bad breakup, mourn the death of his longtime publisher, and begin his next novel. Little does Joel know that his expertise in the art of the thriller will come in handy when he finds himself investigating the crime. He'll need a Watson, of course: in this case, that would be Scarlett, the beautiful guest and aspiring novelist from the next room, who joins in the search while he tries to solve another puzzle: the plot of his next book. Meanwhile, in the wake of his father's passing, Macaire Ebezner is set to take over as president of the largest private bank in Switzerland. The succession captivates the news media, and the future looks bright, until it doesn't. The bank's board, including a certain Lev Levovitch - Geneva's very own Jay Gatsby - have other plans, and Macaire's race to the top soon becomes a race against time... A matryoshka doll of a mystery built with the precision of a Swiss watch. Joel Dicker presents a diabolically addictive thriller where a love triangle, a power struggle, shocking betrayals and dangerous envy play out against the backdrop of a not so quiet Switzerland, where the truth twists and turns into something no reader will see coming. A European phenomenon, Dicker's latest page-turner is his most personal novel yet

This is the first novel I've read by this young Swiss author. The novel is full of flaws and at first I was not liking it but I found myself laughing at the absurd characters and story and slowly realized I was loving it up to the very last twist at the end. Speaking of twists, a novel usually has just one or two. Enigma has several twists that I failed to guess who was dead and who killed him until all the possible characters and suspects have been cleared. In the book, the author Joel Dicker misses and pays tribute to his long time publisher who just died and he does it nicely without being maudlin or intrusive in the main story.

The dialog, situations, the love triangle, the unbelievable characters are silly but oh so entertaining. The author wrote himself into the story which is not a new idea because William Goldman wrote a fictional character of himself in The Princess Bride. I am comparing the silliness and comic book feel of Enigma to the The Princess Bride, being almost a satire maybe, I am not sure. The book is a tad long at over 600 pages, my only complaint, but I didn't notice because I was enjoying the novel. The mystery of Room 622 storyline was confusing at the beginning because of the several timelines jumping back and forth but I got used to it and didn't mind after 200 pages. I just paid attention to the years things happened, what's what, and who's who. 

Great read. Highly recommended for readers with sense of humor and adventure.