In modern day Vienna, city of spies, American Sterling Lockwood is the loyal Concierge & Keeper of Secrets at the infamous Hotel Orient, a love hotel where cameras are banned, aliases are required, and every guest has a secret.
After the double murder of two guests, including a tech mogul building an Austrian surveillance state, Sterling has to turn detective. But finding the truth will require breaking the Orient’s sacred code of secrecy, while keeping a few secrets of her own. The police struggle when modern investigative technology proves useless at the old-fashioned hotel. Because clients use aliases, pay cash, and stay mere hours, all suspects have vanished.
Sterling agrees to assist alongside her best friend and colleague Fernando, if only to avoid arrest and fight suspicion regarding her own movements that night. As enemies close in, she risks everything to solve a case haunted by the past in a city with a fetish for nostalgia.
It was some time ago that the first whispered words about the Hotel Orient first made their way to me. A mysterious author in a red dress at Harrogate, a series of cryptic posts on Instagram. The game, as a certain detective liked to say, was afoot.
Fast forward to Harrogate, July 2025. A bunch of bloggers and readers furtively picked up their hand-labelled bags from the reception at the Old Swan Hotel. A note from Sterling Lockwood, Concierge (and keeper of secrets) at the Hotel Orient was within.
We gathered, at Sterling’s request, in the lobby.
Then set out across the festival to spread the word. The Hotel Orient would be open for business very soon. And you’re all invited, darlings.
Fast forward once again to October, and a copy of Murder at the Hotel Orient dropped into my lap. Well, my kindle anyway. I dived in.
It’s a world of secrets, the Hotel Orient. A world where you can do what you will, where names are discouraged, where pleasures are taken (with consent, naturally), phones left at the door, and where your host Sterling Lockwood will look after your every whim. It’s a gloriously decadent setting, oozing with glamour, secrets and champagne, of course. With a side order of murder, naturally. Who would be so… gauche as to do the deed? It’s up to Sterling to find out. One can’t let the good name of the Hotel Orient be besmirched in such a fashion, can one?
The book is fabulous, I adored Sterling, smart, witty and pithy. I also loved her stiff-upper-lipped police nemesis Andreas and watching them gradually, oh so very gradually start to succumb to Sterling’s charms.
And of course Serafina. But you’ll need to read the book to find out more about her. Vienna itself plays a huge role in the book too, and it was fascinating to wander the streets and clubs and bars and soak up the atmosphere. We’re back to the ‘give a book a good sense of place and make me a happy boy’ thing.
I hope we get to see much more of the Hotel Orient and her concierge/keeper of secrets. Because I feel that there are a LOT more secrets to be peeled away.
Get this on your lists for next year kids. And remember, Sterling is watching, and will know if you’ve been naughty or nice. As to which she prefers, well you’ll have to wait and see…
Highly recommended.
Murder at the Hotel Orient by Alessandra Ranelli is published by Baskerville in May 2026. Many thanks to the publisher for an advance copy for review, and to Alessandra for inviting me to take part in the publicity shenanigans in Harrogate!
