Journalist and author Ellie Levenson’s debut novel begins with a premise that could easily fuel a high-octane thriller, even something in the Die Hard mould. Instead, it becomes a reflective story about choices, chance and the decisions that shape our lives, as well as the love that might save us.
Kate is a married mother of two pre-teen children living in London with her husband of 16 years, the almost too-perfect Vic. For years, however, she has maintained a discreet arrangement with James, also married, meeting in different hotel rooms a few times annually for uncomplicated, no-strings intimacy.
During one such rendezvous, their uneasy calm is shattered when a heavy police presence surrounds the hotel. A terrorist group has seized the building. Trapped in their room and uncertain about what is happening below, Kate does not attempt anything heroic. Instead, she reflects on how she arrived at this moment.
Levenson uses this confined situation to weave an intricate series of flashbacks. We revisit how Kate met Vic in a Rome cinema, their courtship and family life, her later encounter with James through work, and the powerful attraction that followed. Each memory seems to point inexorably toward the present crisis.
In the immediate now, Kate grapples with what she truly values: the messy, exhausting comfort of her family life or the uncertainty and looming danger beyond the hotel door.
Though framed by terrorism, the novel wisely keeps the antagonists vague. The real focus is Kate’s internal struggle as tension builds. What emerges is less a thriller than an intimate psychological portrait of a woman confronting her choices while time stretches painfully forward.
And she waits.
And waits.
Rating: four stars
Room 706
Ellie Levenson
Hachette Australia: Headline
Paperback $34.99 | Hardback $49.99 | eBook $16.99 | Audiobook $44.99
