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What do I do? I liberate people who don’t know they’re stuck. I help them to press the eject switch That’s one definition.
Another? I sow chaos. I clean house.
I change people’s lives for the better, whether they see it that way or not. Only once did my actions end for the worst. But I don’t like to talk about the murder.

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I’ve found that the best way to hide a secret is to keep it from yourself.

Maggie Burkhardt, senior (81) in residence at the posh Royal Karnak Palace Hotel in Luxor, Egypt, lost her husband a while back. Not long after, unable to cope, she took to staying at serial hotels. Luckily for her she was left resources sufficient to support a peripatetic lifestyle. She has stayed in eighteen hotels over the last five years. This one feels like home, or at least home for now. She has been there three months, succeeding in making friends with the hotel manager and several of the other long-term guests, who see her as a sweet old lady. Seems like a comfortable set up, until a mother and son arrive.

Tess keeps hoping that her husband will rejoin them from a film job in Paris. He keeps putting off their reunion, though. Otto is eight years old, with an old soul. Not old soul as in wise and mature. More old as in ancient demon god. He is already an accomplished purveyor of mayhem, a full bore, bad seed sociopath. The Karnak is not big enough for the two of them.


Christopher Bollen - image from Warwick’s

Maggie is a first-person narrator who walks us through her days at the Karnak, introducing us to some of the staff and co-residents, while offering a look at the area. We take her view of things, even if, maybe, that view is a bit jaundiced.

As noted in the quote at top, Maggie's self-assigned mission in life is to liberate people who don't know they're stuck. Most of her targets are married, unhappily from outward appearances. Maggie sees herself as an avenging angel of a marriage fixer. She is not above planting evidence and whispering lies to encourage marital dissolution. Otto catches her in the act and the game is on.

This has a feel to it as Maggie and Otto take turns going at each other in devious, and in increasingly hurtful and dangerous ways. Neither qualifies as a good guy. It is an entertaining battle of the generations, but then gets serious as the stakes keep growing.

With the ramping up of tension, there is increasing manifestation of guilt on Maggie’s body, a sort of Dorian Gray-ishness, and we come to wonder about some of the things that Maggie reports as fact. What secrets is she keeping from herself? The unreliable narrator element offers a frisson of unsettling recognition.

Bottom line is that this is a fun, if discomfiting, thriller, offering a host of twists and turns. It will keep you wondering just what the hell these two will do next.

Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war. - William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

Review posted - 03/28/25

Publication date � 12/3/24

I received an ARE of Havoc from Harper in return for a fair review. Thanks, wife.



This review will soon be cross-posted on my site, . Stop by and say Hi!

=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to Bollen’s , , , and pages

Profile � from his site

Christopher Bollen is a writer based in New York City. He’s the author of five novels and his journalism has appeared in many publications. He is currently the editor at large at Interview Magazine and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.

Interviews
-----Writers Digest - by Robert Lee Brewer
-----Behind the Stack - video � 37:04 with Brett
-----EveryLibrary - - video � 35:10 � with John Chrastka
-----The Creative Independent - - from 2017 � some interesting material here on his process and dealing with editors

Items of Interest
-----Wikipedia -
-----Wikipedia -
-----Wikipedia - - the hotel on which the Karnak is based