Written by Sam Ali
If you enjoyed And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie or The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware, this is the next book for you!
A quiet hotel in the midst of winter, contrasting personalities put together, and murderous events happening over the course of a weekend makes up this chilling and suspenseful murder mystery by Shari Lapena. Lapena is known for her novels, The Couple Next Door and A Stranger in the House—a mixture of dialogue with strange, unique characters, and mysteries that keep you guessing until the very end of the book. But, An Unwanted Guest is most definitely her best novel yet.
This book would be the perfect winter read when cozying up by the fire, while it’s storming outside, or trying to figure out a puzzling mystery within this book. I loved the Agatha Christie vibe throughout this entire book. When I say that though, it’s got a more And Then There Were None type of feel. A bunch of strangers are together during a certain amount days, and slowly, one by one, a guest gets murdered.
When I first heard of Shari Lapena, it was November 2016, and I got her first book, The Couple of Next Door as an early Christmas gift. I devoured that book so quickly. And by quickly I mean I literally finished it in about seven hours because I was just dying to know how this baby went missing. The Couple Next Door had a lot of dialogue—more of “he said” then “she said” type of dialogue, which at times, began to get hard to read and a bit repetitive with no proper flow to the story, or the characters.
But this book has shown how much her writing has grown and flourished since her first one. Shying away from the “he said, she said” type of dialogue, Lapena carefully crafted together the dialogue between characters that made the book flow together perfectly! Page by page, chapter by chapter, I was eager to find out who was behind the murders, and by the end, Lapena did deliver and surprise with the big murder reveal.
The one thing I do wish this novel had was a bit more character background. I loved how each chapter had a different character telling their perspective and feelings, and some of those characters were so interesting, that I just wanted to read more about them! An Unwanted Guest had themes of human survival and instinct, complex characters, and an incredible mystery!
An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
Have you read An Unwanted Guest? Will you be checking it out? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
A weekend retreat at a cozy mountain lodge is supposed to be the perfect getaway . . . but when the storm hits, no one is getting away
It’s winter in the Catskills and Mitchell’s Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing–maybe even romantic–weekend away. It boasts spacious old rooms with huge woodburning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine cellar, and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or just curling up with a good murder mystery.
So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity–and all contact with the outside world–the guests settle in for the long haul.
Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead–it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic.
Within the snowed-in paradise, something–or someone–is picking off the guests one by one. And there’s nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm.
