The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart – Review

Published: February 22, 2022

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Series: Standalone

Genre: Science Fiction, Thriller

Pages: 336 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 4.5/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
An impossible crime. A detective on the edge of madness. The future of time travel at stake. From the author of The Warehouse.

January Cole’s job just got a whole lot harder.

Not that running security at the Paradox was ever really easy. Nothing’s simple at a hotel where the ultra-wealthy tourists arrive costumed for a dozen different time periods, all eagerly waiting to catch their “flights” to the past.

Or where proximity to the timeport makes the clocks run backward on occasion—and, rumor has it, allows ghosts to stroll the halls.

None of that compares to the corpse in room 526. The one that seems to be both there and not there. The one that somehow only January can see.

On top of that, some very important new guests have just checked in. Because the U.S. government is about to privatize time-travel technology—and the world’s most powerful people are on hand to stake their claims.

January is sure the timing isn’t a coincidence. Neither are those “accidents” that start stalking their bidders.

There’s a reason January can glimpse what others can’t. A reason why she’s the only one who can catch a killer who’s operating invisibly and in plain sight, all at once.

But her ability is also destroying her grip on reality—and as her past, present, and future collide, she finds herself confronting not just the hotel’s dark secrets but her own.

At once a dazzlingly time-twisting murder mystery and a story about grief, memory, and what it means to—literally—come face-to-face with our ghosts, The Paradox Hotel is another unforgettable speculative thrill ride from acclaimed author Rob Hart.

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Holy moly, this was a fun read! Imagine this – an ultramodern hotel in upstate New York full of wealthy patrons waiting for their turn to travel through time and witness history first hand. At the onset of the story a massive snowstorm is bearing down on them, a handful of the world’s richest men are arriving to bid on ownership of the hotel and timeport, and there are… aberrations occurring. Oh, and most of the hotel patrons are assholes, but so is the main character and she doesn’t care one bit to air her grievances or share her opinion.

January Cole is head of security at the Paradox Hotel and this unholy trifecta of events has exponentially increased her workload and stress levels which isn’t great, since she’s officially Unstuck. It’s the not-so-technical term for someone who has spent way too much time in the timestream and now she’s seeing ghosts from the past and having weird glitchy moments where she’s no longer in the present. She’s also the only person who can see the body in room 526, so in addition to all that other stuff, she now has a murder investigation on her hands. Her boss is also trying realllllly hard to get her to take a cushy job far away from the effects of the timestream, where she can relax and hope her symptoms don’t progress.

This book was honestly wild from page one and I loved it! I personally loved January though I could see how she might not be everyone’s cup of tea, or in her case, probably whiskey. She’s got a bad attitude and a job to do and no one is going to get in her way while she does it. Not senators, not the ultra-wealthy buyers, not even a trio of hangry dinosaurs. Between January and her trusty robot assistant Ruby (equipped with googly eyes for extra personality) nothing can stop her! She’s sweary and rude, but I appreciate that she takes zero shit from anyone. When you learn a bit more about her history you see that it’s really a defensive mechanism of sorts and she’s got some serious trauma that she needs to address.

I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent, but let me reiterate how darn delightful this book was to read. It’s literally one terrible event after another, but looked at through the lens of January Cole it’s just a nasty puzzle that can’t stop her and I love a tenacious character. I love a good mystery and a well-done wonky time travel theme is pretty cool so this ended up being a win for me! I’d definitely recommend this for fans of Dark Matter and Recursion by Blake Crouch!