Praise

The New York Times' #1 Thriller of 2024 — highsmithian, highly readable, twisty and shrewd. Hanya Yanagihara (on Instagram), author of A Little Life. Atmospheric, diabolical fun — Lucy Foley, author of The Midnight Feast. Disturbingly enjoyable — Emma Healey, author of Elizabeth is Missing. A taut, wicked masterpiece — Mona Awad, author of Bunny.

Synopsis

Five years ago, 81-year-old Maggie Burkhardt fled her native Wisconsin in suspicious circumstances. She has come to rest somewhere she can imagine staying forever: the Royal Karnak Hotel in Luxor, Egypt.

Maggie is no sweet little old lady. She has a nasty, nosy habit: she spies on her fellow guests and manipulates situations to "liberate" them from what she sees as unhappy relationships.

Wrongly assuming eight-year-old Otto and his well-meaning mother will be easy targets, she is soon locked in a death-spiral with her young prey. Has she finally met her match in a child one-tenth her age?

Crackling with the perceptive, acid wit of The White Lotus and haloed by Shirley Jackson’s cruel, dark magic, Havoc is a decadent and ghastly delight.

Readers are saying

Absolutely brilliant and insane. I went in knowing very little about the book and I’m glad because it made it even more of a wild ride. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I loved this book from the first page… The conflict between the old and the young in this cat and mouse tussle is brilliant. It’s a hard to put down novel and has a great twist at the end ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I had an absolute blast reading this. Otto and Maggie are wild characters and their behavior is shocking! ⭐⭐⭐⭐