The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson
Standalone, Christmas Thriller
eBook, Hardcover, audiobook, 112 pages
October 17, 2023 by William Morrow
Blurb:New York Times bestselling author Peter Swanson pens a spectacularly spine-chilling novella in which an American art student in London is invited to join a classmate for the holidays at Starvewood Hall, her family’s Cotswold manor house. But behind the holly and pine boughs, secrets are about to unravel, revealing this seemingly charming English village’s grim history. Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone, but a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, country residence of the Chapman family. The Cotswold manor house, festooned in pine boughs and crammed with guests for Christmas week, is a dream come true for Ashley. She is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma’s aloof and handsome brother. But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Is she in a grand romance? A gothic tale? Or has she wandered into something far more sinister and terrifying than she’d ever imagined? Over thirty years later the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time. What began in a small English village in 1989 reaches its ghostly conclusion in modern-day New York, many Christmas seasons later.
My Review:This Christmas will be killer.
This book begins with a woman reflecting on her life and how she doesn’t accept invitations to people’s houses for Christmas. Instead she cleans, and comes upon an old journal from many Christmases ago.
We follow Ashley Smith as she is invited to pretty, more popular Emma’s house in the Cotswolds for Christmas. She diligently recounts through a series of journal entries her arrival at Starvewood Hall, meeting Emma’s parents and charismatic brother Adam who she immediately falls for.
But a darkness follows Adam, who has been accused of murdering a girl he was involved with some months earlier.
This book was a fast, interesting read that held my interest to the very end. It has a twist halfway through that the reader may or at not suspect but is still thrilling nonetheless followed by a second half that seems to explain the behind the scenes of part one.
I honestly did love it. This was my first read by this author but I will definitely check out his other books as I have been meaning to for a while.
For anyone wanting a seasonal read filled with murder and mystery, I definitely recommend The Christmas Guest!
My Rating:
5 of 5 Knives!
