When Amelia was eleven years old her mother died. She had to move from America to London to live with her aunt Iris and teen-aged cousin Tristan, who became her best friend and protector. Iris DeLaney was a famous true crime author and media darling-her specialty was researching unsolved crimes in haunted places. She preferred old historical crimes so her subjects wouldn't be affected by bringing up recent upsetting history.
In 2015, when Amelia was thirteen, Iris began to focus on a crime that took place in 1960's Vienna. Gitta Aiglar, heiress and owner of a castle on her family's estate, was found murdered along with her husband. The only survivor was five-year-old Augustin Aiglar, their son, who hid from the attacker and remembered nothing about his parent's murder. Ghosts were said to roam the castle which was abandoned for years. Iris decided that this murder would be the basis of her new book and queried the owner of the castle, now the Hotel Burg Hohenfels, for permission to stay and explore the atmospheric scene. It turns out that the proprietor was Augustin Aiglar himself and he gave her complete access to archives, family records, and to the hotel grounds. Delighted, Iris brought Amelia and Tristan with her to Vienna for the summer, to enjoy the hotel while she worked.
The night before they were to leave, Tristan went out on his own to the hot springs pool for a last soak. Amelia followed him, as usual, but concealed herself. While she was waiting, she saw Aiglar stalk up to Tristan, hit him, and leave. She ran over to Tristan who had a gash on his head and was face down in the pool-when she lifted his head she knew he had drowned. She was the only eyewitness to the crime and Aiglar was convicted and jailed for life on her word.
Iris was devastated-she never wrote again and had no ability to care for Amelie. As soon as Amelie could, she returned to America, renamed herself Mia, and made sure no one knew who she was or what she had experienced. She became an EMT to learn the ability to save people in emergencies, so she could compensate for not being able to help Tristan.
One day, she received a text from Iris, which was odd as she never contacted Mia...it said to turn on the news. What she saw horrified her-Augustin Aiglar demanded a retrial from jail and said he could prove that it wasn't him. Already tabloids and true crime podcasts were taking his side and speculating that it was actually Iris who murdered her son so she could write another bestseller from it. Mia realized that there was only one thing that she could do...return to Burg Hohenfels, now reopening as Renewal Hotel by a well-known influencer and minor celebrity, get a staff position as a nanny, and check out the scene of the crime to uncover the truth. But what she found there was beyond her wildest imaging.
The author is very good at misdirection and twisting the knife where it will hurt the most. Every character is lying and as the reader tries to figure out whodunnit and why, we remember traces of the song "Hotel California," "you can check in any time you want-but you can never leave." Please enjoy your stay, indeed.
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