We chat with author Rosemary Hennigan about The Hotel Guest, which follows a young woman who returns to the upscale hotel where she became entangled with a mysterious group of guests years before, and the soon-to-be-published memoir about that summer’s disturbing ending that threatens to upend all their lives.
Hi, Rosemary! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello! I’m a writer from Dublin and The Hotel Guest is my third novel. Before I wrote novels, I qualified as a solicitor in Ireland and England and worked in research and policy in the NGO sector. You’ll find these influences in my books, where I also like to blend suspense and mystery with explorations of psychology and power—plus characters doing things they shouldn’t!
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I was a big reader as a child to the point that I’d run out of books on trips and holidays. On one of these occasions, my mother suggested I try writing my own stories instead and I loved it. My primary school encouraged me to enter a ‘write-a-book’ competition, which let me imagine myself as a writer. For a lot of writers, a love of books begins in childhood and I feel very strongly about encouraging children towards reading and writing.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’, CS Lewis.
- The one that made you want to become an author: ‘Little Women’, Louisa May Alcott. (I desperately wanted to be Jo March!)
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: ‘When We Cease to Understand the World’, Benjamín Labatut.
Your latest novel, The Hotel Guest, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Don’t trust the wait staff!
What can readers expect?
It’s a slow burn psychological suspense following a waitress named Kit at a luxury hotel in the French Alps. She falls in with a group of philosophy researchers, who call themselves the Olympians. Over the course of the summer, their experiment with philosophical freedom turns dangerous, dragging Kit into a secret that comes back to haunt her ten years later…
Where did the inspiration for The Hotel Guest come from?
The setting is a big part of this book because I first had the idea for the central character of Kit when I was on holidays in the French Alps. I was people-watching on a hotel terrace and eavesdropping on a guest who was being really rude to one of the staff. The waitress stayed so calm and professional throughout but, as she turned from the table, the mask slipped and I caught a glimpse of how she was really feeling. That split second shift from calm to anger is what hooked me to the idea of a waitress who is not what she seems.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I really enjoyed capturing the mood and atmosphere on the lake and loved spending time in the Olympians’s world. I wrote the book during the long dark months of Irish winter, pretending I was experiencing a heatwave in France, which is one way to cope with the weather!
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
The trickiest part was making the philosophy researchers sound credible and authentic without boring readers. Existentialism is quite a jumpscare when you’re reading a suspense novel, but I promise there’s very, very little philosophy—just the tiniest bit!
What’s next for you?
I’m working on my next novel, which has been a lot of fun because I haven’t plotted it out or used an outline. I have a premise and a group of characters but everything else is developing organically on the page. It means writing the story feels like I’m in on the mystery.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
I can’t wait to get my hands on “Said the Dead” by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, a truly brilliant Irish writer and poet. I’m also keen to read Maggie O’Farrell’s “Land” and Emily St John Mandel’s “Exit Party”.
