On my good days, I can complete a novel of 350 or less pages in a day. But if the story is not engaging and if it’s a week day, which involves picking up and dropping off the kids at their schools, I can finish off a novel in two days, in style!
Luckily, I started this one on a Saturday and by night fall, I was ready to review it. So here goes the review….
Review:
Written By : Freida McFadden
Published On : Self Published in 2021
Read By Queen Bee On : 19 th October 2025
Do Not Disturb, rightly starts with Quinn Alexander, who doesn’t want to be disturbed!
Why?
Because she is busy washing off the blood on her hands. She had just killed her husband Derek Alexander!
Turns out Derek is a giant A**!
Although, Quinn’s ex boyfriend, a cop, Scott Dwyer is at her main door, investigationg the neighbour’s complaint, she manages to send him off, without raising his suspicion.
All the while, the dead body is in the kitchen, blimey!
Quinn could have just used the self defense theory to get out of the murder rap, but she doesn’t.
She is mighty scared and the best idea she comes up with is to run away! (Running away is a clear cut sign of guilt, any reader of crime thrillers and murder mysteries knows it.)
The story would have ended after a couple of pages, if Quinn had just surrendered to the police, showed him the bruises on her neck and proved the abuse, but nope.
Bumbling and painfully amateurish, she manages to reach a dilapidated motel called The Baxter Motel, all the while leaving enough clues for anyone to follow her. Turns out, she has always been lucky, but smart, she is not.
From this instance, the novel turns into a thriller, even reminding me of the classic Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock, which I had watched, as a teen. (Take a bow, Mr.Hitchcock. It is an unforgettable movie, made in 1960, but is still relevant. More on that later.)
We meet Nick Baxter, the owner of the motel, who has an invalid wife, Rosalie, who was once a celebrated chef, but now, she just sits by the window and spies on her husband, through a binoculars.
Then there are other characters like Claudia, elder sister to Quinn; Rob, her husband, who is a plumber. A psychic, who is a permanent guest at the motel etc.
We also get to know the back story of the motel owner and his wife. (I felt the backstory could have been a little short. It completely diverted me from the MC, Quinn.)
Incidentally, the Baxter Motel is infamous for the murder of one of its guest, Christina Marsh. (Two years prior to the current story line.)
Just as Quinn decides to run away from the motel, she is stabbed…
What will happen to her?
Is the motel owner guilty of crime?
Who stabbed Quinn?
Who killed Christina Marsh?
Who is Derek Alexander’s mysterious girlfriend?
All the questions are answered at the end. Some of them may surprise you and some may not!
P.S:
1. The novel is worth a read, probably one of the writer’s initial works. I, for one, loved being reminded of the Psycho. Go ahead and watch it, now! The movie is unforgettable.
2. It is the second novel of Freida, where the ex – boyfriend is a cop!
Till the next post, bubye.
