Review: The Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel by Boris & Arkady Strugatsky

The Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel [1970] – ★★★★

Boris and Arkady Strugatsky were brothers known for their philosophical sci-fi (Roadside Picnic, Hard to be a God, Noon, etc.), some of which were also later adapted into well-known films, but The Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel can be said to be a rather unusual entry in their bibliography. It is a “locked-room” detective mystery and reads like one – we see Inspector Glebsky arriving into one small hotel in a secluded European valley at the peak of the winter season, and, there, encountering a rather unusual group of residents: a magician, a rich and eccentric businessman, and a self-proclaimed famous physicist, among others. Strange things start to happen in this hotel, and Inspector Glebsky is soon forced to abandon his holiday plans to begin his investigation into a crime which no guest residing in the hotel could have possibly committed. A wintery read through and through, The Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel is a page-turner of a novel that rethinks traditional detective tropes as it provides entertainment full of intrigues.

The cosy mystery starts on a “supernatural” note. As Inspector Glebsky arrives in the hotel, he is introduced to the hotel’s “museum room” and that is the room where the Dead Mountaineer, a man who tragically died skiing some years back, spent his last hours. His room is preserved as he had left it, and Kaisa, a hotel maid, talks nonsense about the room, and there are incidents of barefoot traces leading to and from the room, as well as unexplained disappearance of the Mountaineer’s articles of clothing.

There is a cohort of eccentric personalities in the hotel too: couple Mr. Moses and Mrs. Moses are very posh and the very definition of wealth, taking up the whole of the hotel’s first floor, du Barnstoker, a magician, has arrived to stay with his brother’s teenage child– Brun, whose gender remains a mystery to all, and Hinckus, a man allegedly dying from tuberculosis, may not be who he says he is. In sum, everyone has their own agenda here, even if they act as friends to each other and even host parties. We definitely start to follow the train of thoughts of the Inspector, but his thoughts on the strange visitors and their ironic interactions and unexpected liaisons go in different directions, and we are soon also lost. Surprise follows surprise, and when one of the residents is found murdered, Glebsky, a seasoned police inspector, can only scratch his head. Mysterious notes, new visitors and a misplaced gun do not clarify the situation in the least, but only deepen the mystery. It does not also help that the hotel is soon cut off from the civilisation as the avalanche has descended and all connection with the outside world has been lost.

The Strugatsky brothers are no Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie, however, and the duo soon turn the story into a trope direction they are most familiar with – sci-fi, but not before pinning their larger-than-life characters against each other firmly and in such a way that it is not clear who is a friend and who is a foe, and creating a truly magical atmosphere of a wintery season at one small hotel surrounded by untouched snowy landscapes. It seems we do hear the sounds of gently falling and squeaking snow outside, while we hold that cup of hot brandy in our hands as we begin drowsing near the burning fireplace.

⛷️ The Strugatsky brothers pile up mysteries and suspicions in their story like they would gather up snow and dump it all on one side in the preparation for building a snowman. No snowman really emerges from their efforts (not the real one, anyway) and, instead, they provide an odd sci-fi genre “opt-out” in the end, making a rather drastic “U-turn” in the last fifteen pages or so. However, isn’t it the case that enthusiasm and journey should count more than one’s ultimate destination? Where Strugatsky brothers’ story may lack in a satisfying and believable conclusion, it definitely makes up for in an atmospheric read full of unexpected turns.