• South Florida Sun Sentinel: Best mystery fiction books of 2024

    November 2024

    2024 wraps up another stellar year for crime fiction. Rich plots, diverse and fully realized characters, and vivid settings punctuated these stories. The landscapes ranged from metropolitan cities to rural areas. The emphasis on family relationships were a major part of myriad mysteries.

  • Washington Post: 3 thrillers after Hitchcock’s heart

    November 2024

    A fashion stylist once told me that when she asked potential clients to name their style icons, there were two clear favorites: for men, Cary Grant, and for women, Audrey Hepburn. Simplicity, class and a dash of humor: Both Grant and Hepburn embody classic elegance — the kind that looks effortless but actually requires copious amounts of time and attention.

  • New York Times: 3 Psychological Thrillers That Will Creep You Out

    October 2024

    There’s some heavy subtext in the air when five guests arrive for a weekend at THE HITCHCOCK HOTEL (Berkley, 340 pp., $29), a New England inn stuffed with movie artifacts and presided over by their former college classmate Alfred Smettle. The group has seen little of each other since graduation 16 years earlier, in part because of a terrible series of events surrounding the film studies class they took together.

  • Criminal Element: Book Review: The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel

    October 2024

    Stephanie Wrobel discovered the joy of books and storytelling at an early age but later made the decision to pursue a more practical career as an adult. After college, she worked as a copywriter, helping to pen and produce advertising spots for a variety of well-known brands in the Chicago area. Then, as a freelancer, she made the fateful decision to apply to graduate school, earning her MFA in creative writing from Boston’s Emerson College—and getting serious about her prospects as a novelist in the process.

  • The Film Stage: Recommended New Books on Filmmaking

    October 2024

    It seems appropriate to read about some of our greatest filmmakers during the fall. (Festival season! Prestige pics! Megalopolis mania!) Plus, a guide to cinema for kiddos from A24, a look at one of Schwarzenegger’s most fun flicks, and lots of noteworthy novels. And watch for one more roundup before the end of 2024.

  • The Hitchcock Hotel is a USA Today bestseller!

    October 2024

    USA TODAY collects sales data from booksellers representing a variety of outlets: bookstore chains, independent bookstores, mass merchandisers, and online retailers. Using that data, we determine the 150 top-selling titles of the week. The top 150 are published online Wednesdays at 6 a.m.

  • Parade: The 39 Best New Book Releases This Week

    September 2024

    Here are the 39 best new book releases this week: September 24-30, 2024. I don’t know where you are reading this, but where I’m writing it the temperature today was 93 degrees, so it doesn’t feel like Fall!

  • Katie Couric Media: Best New Books to Read This Week

    September 2024

    The temperatures are dropping and the fall feelings are ramping up (not to mention, pumpkin spice is widely available once again). That means cozy season is approaching — that wonderful time of year when there’s nothing more delightful than getting swept up in a good book, TV show, or movie.

  • TIFA Time: 9 Festival Books

    September 2024

    As megawatt authors swarm the city for the Toronto International Festival of Authors, it’s a bookworm’s paradise.  Those within commuting distance can see literary heroes like Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and Andrew O’Hagan in person between Sept. 19 and Sept. 29, but everyone can dive into these featured festival books that are worth reading.

  • The Big Thrill interviews bestselling author Stephanie Wrobel

    September 2024

    An obsessive Alfred Hitchcock fan opens a place called The Hitchcock Hotel, fills every room with memorabilia dedicated to the Master of Suspense, then invites a group of former friends from his college film club—whom he hasn’t spoken to in 16 years and still holds a longtime grudge against—to spend the weekend there alone with him. What could go wrong?