Rich involves the reader in the world through descriptions that feel authentic and work to highlight the procedures and precarity of the job: “We’re trained not to move guest items unless absolutely necessary … I heard on my first day how all the cleaners were searched routinely at the end of every shift – bags, lockers, jackets and pockets.” The unusual perspective of a cleaner makes for an engaging viewpoint. Hotel 21 has a catchy title, a great premise and solid plot momentum from start to finish.
Any sign of trouble, even a whiff of a problem, and I walk.”
She is, in many ways, a woman on the run from her own life, a fact that is immediately evident from the book’s evocative opening lines: “I have a first-day rule. Noelle, an Englishwoman in her 20s, moves across the UK from one job to the next, never settling too long in one location, always leaving after the first accusation, before suspicions can be confirmed. Right in time for the summer holidays, Senta Rich’s debut novel is a sharp, easy read about a hotel cleaner who steals from guests as a way of managing painful emotions from her past.
0 kommentar(er)
