The Woman in Suite 11: A Novel
In this follow-up to #1 New York Times bestselling author Ruth Ware’s multi-million copy mega-hit The Woman in Cabin 10, Lo Blacklock returns to attend the opening of a luxury hotel, only to find herself in a white-knuckled race across Europe.
When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel—owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann—arrives, it’s like the answer to a prayer. Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago.
The chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva is everything Lo’s ever dreamed of, and she hopes she can snag an interview with Marcus. Unfortunately, he proves to be even more difficult to pin down than his reputation suggests. When Lo gets a late-night call asking her to come to Marcus’s hotel room, she agrees despite her own misgivings. She’s greeted, however, by a woman claiming to be Marcus’s mistress, and in life-or-death jeopardy.
What follows is a thrilling pursuit across Europe, forcing Lo to ask herself just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save this woman…and if she can even trust her?
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Community Reviews
Is it worse to read a bad book, or to read a bad sequel to one of your favorites?
Lo Blacklock leaps at the chance to reboot her career when invited to profile a reclusive billionaire at his newly opened luxury hotel. She unwittingly encounters familiar faces from the ill‑fated cruise that changed her life a decade ago. Late one night, a woman claiming to be the billionaire’s mistress shows up at Suite 11, insisting she’s in danger and begging Lo for help. What begins as a career opportunity turns into a high‑stakes cat‑and‑mouse chase across Europe, forcing Lo to confront old traumas.
Did we really need a sequel to The Woman in Cabin 10?
I was thrilled when I heard Lo Blacklock was returning, but after finishing The Woman in Suite 11, I’m genuinely disappointed. Ruth Ware is one of my faves, but this one missed the mark entirely.
The plot was all over the place, Lo’s choices made absolutely no sense, and I found myself constantly questioning why any of it was happening. It felt like a disjointed attempt to tie up threads that never needed revisiting, and honestly, it just left me disappointed. This book sounded very promising but literally NOTHING MADE ANY SENSE. Yes, I know fiction doesn’t always have to mirror real life, but there should at least be some logic behind character choices and plot developments and this had none.
Lo’s story had a solid, satisfying end and reviving her character here felt forced and unnecessary.
Maybe read it if you want to… but honestly, the first book was better. And it should’ve stayed the only one.
Trigger Warnings: mental health struggles (anxiety, panic attacks), manipulation, murder, kidnapping, trauma, and brief child endangerment
This is a case where I think I should have read the preceding novel first. Could it be a stand-alone? Sure. But there are so many references to the main character's nightmarish story ten years ago, depicted in "The Woman in Cabin 10", that I felt I missed out on some key things impacting this outing. Laura 'Lo' Blacklock is a 40-ish mom, married to husband Judah, who gets a unique invitation to a luxury hotel in Switzerland. Lo is a travel writer, but has had to sideline her career as she raises her two sons. I'm not sure why she is the one who quits working, when her husband doesn't. They're both writers, he works from home mostly. But whatever. Maybe there's a reason why, that doesn't get explicitly covered. Anyway, Lo finds that once she gets to her destination, where she is hoping to interview the elusive hotel group owner, that there are many other characters there that she encountered in the previous novel. And this is where I felt a little lost for not having read the first book. One of the characters, Carrie, who gave Lo all kinds of unknown grief in the previous book (remember, I had not the other book so I have no clue) - enough to give Lo recurring nightmares. Carrie buddies-up with Lo, enlisting her in a scheme to escape from the billionaire, Marcus Leidman, who owns the luxury hotel group. Carrie has been Marcus' mistress for many years. Lo agrees to help Carrie. But things are not what they seem, as Lo gets more deeply involved in the machinations Carrie has orchestrated to free herself from Marcus. Lo did have a chance to interview Marcus, where he dropped in conversation that Marcus' son, Pieter, is not necessarily his heir apparent for the corporation. This will play a role in the plot line. Without giving too much away, there are a lot of twists and turns in this story, and Lo is put in danger by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her husband comes over from America to help her get extricated from the situation. I liked him, maybe he was covered more in-depth in the other book - and I think I need to go read "The Woman in Cabin 10", and find out. I did just learn that the 'Cabin 10' book was made into a Netflix movie with Keira Knightley and a whole bunch of other recognizable and not-so-recognizable actors. So will check that out.