HAVOC

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 BunnyFive years ago 81-year-old Maggie Burkhardt fled her native Wisconsin in suspicious circumstances. She has come to rest somewhere she can imagine staying forever: the Royal Karnak Hotel in Luxor Egypt.Maggie is no sweet little old lady. She has a nasty nosy habit: she spies on her fellow guests and manipulates situations to ''''liberate'''' them from what she sees as unhappy relationships.Wrongly assuming eight-year-old Otto and his well-meaning mother will be easy targets she is soon locked in a death-spiral with her young prey. 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 Jacksons cruel dark magic HAVOC is a decadent and ghastly delight.Readers are saying''''Absolutely brilliant and insane. I went in knowing very little about the book and Im 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. Its 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!''''