Room 706

In the unsatisfying debut novel from journalist Levenson (Creativity and Feature Writing), a married Londoner’s life flashes before her eyes while she’s trapped with her lover during a terrorist attack. Kate Bright, 36, is very much in love with her husband, Vic, and their two children, but a part of her wants something just for herself. For six years, she and her married lover, James, have been meeting in a hotel room every few months. As James showers following their latest tryst, Kate basks in her “post orgasm buzz.” Then she hears on the news that a gunman has taken over their hotel. With nowhere to go, Kate sifts through the decisions and events that have led her here, beginning with her mother’s death from a car accident when she was a university student and meeting Vic soon after. She meets James several years later, after she and Vic are married with their first child; he’s also happily married but longing for something more. Now, while holed up with James, she texts with Vic, telling him she’s in the hotel, but lying about why. Levenson keeps the story moving all the way to its cliff-hanger ending, which fails to offer any meaningful resolution about Kate’s choices and her fate. The result feels like a half-baked thought experiment. Agent: Sarah Fuentes, UTA. (Jan.)