Havoc

About the book

The New York Times' #1 Thriller of 2024

'Highsmithian… highly readable, twisty and shrewd' HANYA YANAGIHARA (on Instagram), author of A Little Life

'Atmospheric, diabolical fun' LUCY FOLEY, author of The Midnight Feast

'Disturbingly enjoyable' EMMA HEALEY, author of Elizabeth is Missing

'A taut, wicked masterpiece' MONA AWAD, author of Bunny

Five years ago, 81-year-old Maggie Burkhardt fled her native Wisconsin in suspicious circumstances. She has come to rest somewhere she can imagine staying forever: the Royal Karnak Hotel in Luxor, Egypt.

Maggie is no sweet little old lady. She has a nasty, nosy habit: she spies on her fellow guests and manipulates situations to 'liberate' them from what she sees as unhappy relationships.

Wrongly assuming eight-year-old Otto and his well-meaning mother will be easy targets, she is soon locked in a death-spiral with her young prey. Has she finally met her match in a child one-tenth her age?

Crackling with the perceptive, acid wit of The White Lotus and haloed by Shirley Jackson’s cruel, dark magic, HAVOC is a decadent and ghastly delight.

Readers are saying…

'Absolutely brilliant and insane. I went in knowing very little about the book and I’m glad because it made it even more of a wild ride' ⭐''⭐⭐⭐

'I loved this book from the first page… The conflict between the old and the young in this cat and mouse tussle is brilliant. It’s a hard to put down novel and has a great twist at the end' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'I had an absolute blast reading this. Otto and Maggie are wild characters and their behavior is shocking!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Praise for this book:

"Diabolically good. Gets you in its mad, twisted grip and doesn't relinquish until the jaw-dropping end. Bollen is a stunning writer and Havoc is a taut, wicked masterpiece." - Mona Awad

"Havoc is delicious, wicked, and utterly brilliant - a novel about age and power, a battle between two ruthless and fascinating minds. It sank its teeth into me from the first page, and didn't let go." - Katie Kitamura

"A lot of books claim to be Highsmithian, but this one actually is: A highly readable, twisty, and shrewd satire presenting as a thriller about entitlement, loneliness, jealousy, and the eternal friction between the young and old. Utterly enjoyable." - Hanya Yanagihara