Your hotel runs on anonymity. What’s harder to write: a character with secrets, or a character pretending not to have any?
It’s much harder to subtly convey that a person is lying without giving too much away. If a character is hiding something from others that the reader knows about, that dramatic irony creates instant tension and raises the stakes.
What drew you to set the story in modern Vienna, and how does the city’s history and culture shape the narrative?
Vienna has such an old fashioned style, that sometimes you turn a corner and step back in time. It’s a strange place where you can have the best of both worlds- the old and the new (though on a hard day, you may deal with the worst of each). Like the ticket sellers who lurk outside the opera, dressed as Mozart, wearing brocade jackets and powdered wigs and scrolling on their iPhones. I love that clash, and playing with that kind of imagery.
How does Sterling’s role as a concierge influence the way she approaches solving the mystery?
She lives to serve, darling. She isn’t a typical Concierge, and the Orient is a love hotel where people can entertain their fantasies without judgment. But people are shy about making requests of an erotic nature. So, Sterling’s adept at reading people, coaxing out their deepest desires, without making them feel ashamed. It helps her build a natural rapport with suspects. But it can be difficult when her job is not to please them, but to intimidate them. But for the most part, she finds she can accomplish most tasks by killing them with kindness.
There’s a contrast between indulgence and danger—what message, if any, did you want readers to take from that?
It was important to me to subvert genre expectations around sensuality in crime fiction. Usually, if a character dares to enjoy a few small deaths (while trying to solve the mystery of a large death) that means they are a cheating spouse, a suspect, or imminently about to become the next victim. Sometimes a combination of all three. There’s an unspoken agreement that sex is something a character should be punished for.
Did you map out the mystery in detail before writing, or did it evolve as you went?
It evolved as I went, I was more of a discovery writer for the first draft. But after that I had to sit down and map out the different suspects and decide on the order they were found. I based the floorplan on the real hotel, and I used it to check the locations. For example, if a character was listening through a thin wall, I had to be certain they were hearing the correct room.
If the Hotel Orient had a signature cocktail, what would be in it—and what would it do to the drinker?
A champagne cocktail, and naturally it would be an aphrodisiac.
If your story were adapted into a film, what would be the most visually unforgettable scene?
Probably the discovery of the body, there’s a distinct use of the mirrors, which is based on the layout of the real suite.
What was the hardest scene to write without giving too much away?
The funeral.
Quickfire Questions
Q: If you had to hide a clue in plain sight in the Hotel Orient, where would you put it?
A: Under a pile of laundry on the floor of Sterling’s bedroom.
Q: If you had to write a sequel set in a completely different city, where would the Hotel Orient “reappear”?
A: Edinburgh. Sterling surely has a fondness for a man in a kilt.
Q: Which character would be the worst at keeping the hotel’s rules?
A: Nightingale. (If you know, you know)
