About the Book
Mess Hopkins, proprietor of the seen-better-days Fairfax Manor Inn, never met a person in need who couldn’t use a helping hand — his helping hand. So he’s thrown open the doors of the motel to the homeless, victims of abuse, or anyone else who could benefit from a comfy bed with clean sheets and a roof overhead. This rankles his parents and uncle, who technically still own the place and are more concerned with profits than philanthropy.
When a mother and her teenage boy seek refuge from an abusive husband, Mess takes them in until they can get back on their feet. Shortly after arriving, the mom goes missing and some very bad people come sniffing around, searching for money they claim belongs to them. Mess tries to pump the boy for helpful information, but he’s in full uncooperative teen mode — grunts, shrugs, and monosyllabic answers. From what he does learn, Mess can tell he’s not getting the straight scoop.
It’s not long before the boy vanishes too. Abducted? Run away? Something worse? And who took the missing money?
Mess, along with his friend Vell Jackson and local news reporter Lia Katsaros, take to the streets to locate the missing mother and son — and the elusive, abusive husband — before the kneecapping loansharks find them first.
Format: eARC (254 pages) Publisher: Level Best Books
Publication date: 24th October 2023 Genre: Mystery
Find Sanctuary Motel on Goodreads
Purchase links
Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review
The Fairfax Manor Inn may be a bit run down (and the adjoining mini golf course may have seen its last hole in one) but the motel is a place of generosity and philanthropy thanks to Mess Hopkins who has a heart of gold and makes a wonderfully engaging protagonist. I think most of us would agree with his view: ‘So many people in this world . . . needed help. And not just a cup of sugar or a hand moving a heavy sleeper sofa into the basement. Serious life-changing help.’ Unfortunately his Uncle Phil, who has been given reponsibility for overseeing the business in the absence of Mess’s parent, would be the exception.
Mess forms a really touching relationship with Kevin, the teenage son of the missing woman, although doing so takes a lot of patience. By the way, if you’re wondering how Mess got his nickname, you’ll have to read the book.
I loved the cast of secondary characters, particularly Mess’s friend and sidekick, Vell, who has a seemingly inexhaustible list of contacts. He boasts, ‘I got my own personal Internet, on the streets. People see me coming, they’re dying to tell me stuff. Think of me like Vellipedia.’ I also really enjoyed the back-and-forth banter between Mess and Vell. Mama (although she’s actually Vell’s grandmother) is another fantastic, larger than life character. She has a laugh ‘like a thunderstorm’, is a giver of huge bear hugs, has turned her ability to read people into a money-making venture and believes there’s no such thing as a table with too much food. Just as well, as both Vell and Kevin, have seemingly insatiable appetites.
If Mess and Vell are the good guys then of course you need some bad guys to even things up and the author provides us with plenty, including the missing woman’s abusive husband and some heavies working for the local organised crime head honcho. Mess and Vell have some narrow escapes and in the process of resolving the mystery of the disappearance of Kevin’s mother uncover some distinctly dirty goings-on.
A motel with its ever changing population of guests is a great location around which to base a crime mystery series so I’m looking forward to future arrivals at Fairfax Manor Inn, plus seeing if its owner can avoid making a ‘mess’ (sorry!) of his budding relationship with Lia.
Sanctuary Motel is an enjoyable crime mystery with a plot that will keep you guessing and characters you’ll find yourself rooting for.
I received an advance reader copy courtesy of Level Best Books via NetGalley.
In three words: Entertaining, intriguing, humorous
Try something similar: In Strangers’ Houses by Elizabeth Mundy
About the Author
Alan Orloff has published ten novels and more than forty short stories. His work has won an Anthony, an Agatha, a Derringer, and two ITW Thriller Awards. He’s also been a finalist for the Shamus Award, and has had a story (‘Rule Number One’) selected for the Best American Mystery Stories anthology.
He loves cake and arugula, but not together. Never together. He lives and writes in South Florida, where the examples of hijinks are endless (Photo/bio: Author website)
Connect with Alan
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