Do Not Disturb

Do Not Disturb (2021) is a psychological thriller by Freida McFadden. After Quinn Alexander kills her abusive husband in self-defense, she feels as though she has no choice but to run. However, a snowstorm forces her to stay at the rundown Baxter Motel for the night. Told through a shifting first-person point of view, the novel follows Quinn, her sister, her brother-in-law, the hotel owner, and the hotel owner’s wife, all of whom struggle with their own secrets surrounding Quinn and the motel. The novel explores themes of The Psychological Impact of Trauma and Abuse, The Dangers of Jealousy, and Appearance Versus Reality.

This guide uses the 2021 paperback version of the text self-published by Freida McFadden.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of pregnancy loss, suicidal ideation, physical and emotional domestic abuse, sexual content, illness, cursing, violence, and death. The novel also features an offensive depiction of a person with bipolar disorder.

Plot Summary

Quinn Alexander kills her abusive husband, Derek, after he thinks she is having an affair and nearly chokes her to death. As Derek lies dead on the floor, police officer Scott Dwyer comes to Quinn’s door after reports of screaming heard by the neighbors. She manages to convince Scott it was just a movie, but his visit makes her panic. Deciding that she has no choice but to run, Quinn cuts off her hair, packs up her belongings, and flees in her car, intending to go to the Canadian border.

As night falls, the weather gets worse as a winter storm approaches. A police officer pulls Quinn over, but he just tells her that she has a broken taillight. Quinn realizes she has no choice but to find a place to stop for the night. Quinn finds the Baxter Motel, a rundown building by the side of the road. Quinn hides her car behind a closed restaurant out back, then goes into the motel where she meets Nick Baxter. He tells her that he and his wife, Rosalie, own the hotel. He shows Quinn to the second floor where there are three rooms. Quinn is staying in room 203, and she sees another guest looking out of room 202. Nick offers to bring her dinner later.

Realizing that she has no socks, Quinn goes to room 202. The old woman inside, Greta, invites her inside and offers to lend her some. As Greta looks for socks, Quinn asks about room 201. Greta tells her that a young woman, Christina, was killed there, so Nick no longer rents it. The police suspected Nick, but Greta is insistent that Nick had nothing to do with it.

The next morning, several feet of snow have fallen over the motel. Quinn checks the news and finds nothing about Derek’s body. She begins to wonder if he is really dead, overwhelmed with panic at the thought that she never checked for sure. She angrily puts her wedding ring in the bedside drawer.

Desperate to continue her escape, Quinn begs Nick to help her shovel out her car. As they shovel, Nick gets a phone call from Rosalie, who seems angry because Nick is out with Quinn. Nick insists that he is just being kind. After hanging up, Nick explains that Rosalie has multiple sclerosis. She used to own the restaurant out back but is no longer able to walk. Instead, she spends all her time in her bedroom. After an hour, Quinn is still unable to get her car out. Nick insists that she will have to wait until the plow comes that afternoon.

Back inside the hotel, Greta spots Quinn in the hall and invites her in for lunch. Greta talks about her life as a fortune teller in the carnival. Since retiring, she has lived at the motel. She asks Quinn if she can read her future. Greta talks about a dangerous man in Quinn’s past. She then grows panicked, warning Quinn that there is danger in her future. She refuses to read the rest of her fortune, causing Quinn to flee from the room. She gathers her things and tries to leave, but is stopped by Nick in the lobby. He insists that Greta’s readings are for show, pointing out that he, too, can tell that she is running from a man based on her panic and her missing wedding ring.

Placated, Quinn returns to her room. She turns on the television. The newscaster reports that they found Derek’s body. They are looking for Quinn in connection to his murder. Quinn decides that she needs to leave. However, when she gets to the stairs, she hears the voices of police officers below. She hears them ask Nick about Quinn, but he insists that he has never seen her and that she is not at the hotel.

When Nick comes to her room, she thanks him for lying for her. He tells her that he knows she is in trouble and that the man likely deserved what Quinn did to him. Overwhelmed with emotion, Quinn kisses Nick; however, he immediately pulls away, insisting that he loves his wife. Once Nick is gone, Quinn is angry and embarrassed at herself. She decides that she is going to try to leave or else wait in her car until the plow finishes. Once she gets outside, she hears footsteps coming toward her. Someone demands to know how she could do what she did, then stabs her in the abdomen.

The narrative shifts to Claudia’s perspective the day before. Claudia is Quinn’s older sister. She argues with Scott to try to get more information about the case, frustrated that he did not go into Quinn’s house. She decides that she is going to try to find Quinn herself. Claudia hears from Scott that Quinn was pulled over the night before with a broken taillight. The revelation makes the police believe that Quinn is responsible for Derek’s murder. Claudia decides to drive along the highway where Quinn was last seen, where she finds the Baxter Motel.

Claudia checks in, and Nick takes her to room 203. She finds Quinn’s ring in the bedside drawer. She then spots Greta across the hall and tries to talk to her, but Greta refuses to let her in. Instead, she tells her that she will find Quinn if she finds Rosalie’s Diner. Outside, Claudia finds Quinn’s car parked behind Rosalie’s Diner. She then sees Rosalie watching her from her bedroom window. She takes out a knife and makes her way toward Rosalie’s home.

The story flashes back to Rosalie’s life before her illness. In high school, she falls in love with Nick. He encourages her to follow her dreams, buying the building to open Rosalie’s Diner and starting the motel. After getting married, Rosalie tries to have a child but instead has a miscarriage. Shortly thereafter, she is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Despite Nick’s insistence that they should find a way to modify the restaurant, she starts spending all her time confined to her wheelchair, causing the restaurant to fail and close.

Two years before the events of the novel, Rosalie sees Christina at the hotel. Christina starts spending more and more time with Nick, until one day, Rosalie sees them kiss. She confronts Nick about it, and he confesses how difficult it has been to care for Rosalie throughout her illness. The two reconcile, having sex for the first time in years.

That night, Rosalie sees Nick outside in the middle of the night taking garbage to the dumpster. A few days later, the police arrive, and Christina is found dead in her room. Convinced that Nick killed her, Rosalie confronts him, and the two fight. Their marriage gets worse over the next two years, with the two barely speaking to each other.

In the present, Rosalie sees Quinn arrive. She watches her over the day she is there, then sees her kiss Nick in her room. Nick immediately comes over to apologize to Rosalie, but she insists that she cannot trust him. When Nick realizes that Rosalie has been spying on him, he tells her that they can no longer be together.

That night, Rosalie sees Claudia outside the window. She watches as she crosses the parking lot with a knife in her hand. She desperately texts Nick and tries to call the police, but the storm prevents her from doing so. Rob, Claudia’s husband, gets home from work and realizes Claudia is gone. As he starts to clean up the house, he finds a phone hidden in Claudia’s clothes. There are several calls and texts to the same number.

The phone rings and it is Scott. He tells Rob that he is calling from the phone they found on Derek’s body—the same number that was texting Claudia. Rob and Scott realize that Claudia must have been having an affair with Derek.

Claudia enters Rosalie’s house. She thinks of how angry she is toward Quinn for killing Derek—whom she fell in love with a few months before. They had been having an ongoing affair, with plans to leave their spouses to be together. She has always been bitter toward Quinn, as she had to drop out of college when their parents died to care for Quinn. Meanwhile, Quinn got a rich husband and good life. When Claudia found Quinn outside the hotel, she stabbed her, then put her in the trunk of her car. Now, she plans to kill Rosalie, assuming that Rosalie saw what she did to Quinn.

When Claudia enters her room, Rosalie desperately pleads with her to leave her alone, insisting that she didn’t see anything. Rosalie manages to lunge at Claudia, bringing her to the ground and knocking her unconscious.

Two-and-a-half years later, Quinn has survived her sister’s attack. She spent a short time in jail but was successful in arguing that she killed Derek out of self-defense. Claudia is still in prison, refusing to see Quinn. Rosalie is working in the kitchen again at Rosalie’s Diner. They modified it so that she could run the kitchen. She is pregnant and plans to take maternity leave soon. Nick comes into the kitchen and tells her that she needs to say goodbye to Greta before she leaves to travel the world.

Greta reveals to Rosalie that she is the one who killed Christina. She also tried to scare Quinn away, telling her she was in danger. She is adamant that Nick loves Rosalie, despite the mistakes he has made. She killed Christina to keep their marriage together. Rosalie is shocked by the news. She initially wants to call the police; however, her water breaks. Nick insists that they go to the hospital. She tries to tell him about what Greta did, but Nick reveals that Greta has already gone.

As they leave for the hospital, Rosalie reconsiders everything. She decides that everything Greta did was for her. She promises herself that, if she has a girl, she will name her Greta.