Title: THE OVERNIGHT GUEST
Author: Heather Gudenkauf
Read: March 2022
Expected publication: out now
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2
Book Description:
True crime writer Wylie Lark doesn’t
mind being snowed in at the isolated farmhouse where she’s retreated to write
her new book. A cozy fire, complete silence. It would be perfect, if not for
the fact that decades earlier, at this very house, two people were murdered in
cold blood and a girl disappeared without a trace.
As the storm worsens, Wylie finds herself trapped inside the house, haunted by
the secrets contained within its walls—haunted by secrets of her own. Then she
discovers a small child in the snow just outside. After bringing the child
inside for warmth and safety, she begins to search for answers. But soon it
becomes clear that the farmhouse isn’t as isolated as she thought, and someone
is willing to do anything to find them.
My musings:
Claustrophobic, “snowed-in” mysteries make for the
best escapes, especially when it’s a heatwave outside! I usually enjoy
Gudenkauf’s books, so I was very excited to read THE OVERNIGHT GUEST with our
reading group – and we had a lot of fun sharing our wild and wonderful theories
along the way.
THE OVERNIGHT GUEST plays out in
three separate timelines. In the present, true crime writer Wylie Lark has
ensconced herself in a remote farmhouse in the snow to finish off her latest
book when a blizzard cuts off all electricity, phone reception and roads into
town. In the second timeline, a young girl witnesses the abuse of her mother at
the hands of her father. And in the third timeline, twenty or so years in the
past, teenager Josie Doyle lives through the most horrific night of her life,
when her parents are shot and her brother and best friend disappear. Gudenkauf
cleverly weaves all these stories together into a tense, suspenseful mystery
that only gradually gives up all its secrets. If you love the kind of story in
which you can play armchair detective, then this one should definitely appeal –
I guessed some elements but was totally in the dark with some of the others.
For lovers of atmospheric settings,
THE OVERNIGHT GUEST is the type of mystery where the snowy landscape features
almost like another character and adds to the suspense. If the thought of being
trapped in a blizzard with an unexpected visitor wasn’t terrifying enough, the
house itself holds a dark secret that was not for the faint of heart.
I’m normally not a huge fan of too
many POVs and usually find myself drawn more to one than the others, and one of
the threads contained a theme I would not usually choose to read. However,
despite initial misgivings I was soon intrigued by the story, and even though
Josie’s POV was by far the most compelling for me, the different threads soon
came together to make for a compelling mystery. There were a few plotholes and
unanswered questions at the end, which bugged me, but overall I enjoyed the
story and thought it made for a good buddy read.
All in all, THE OVERNIGHT GUEST was
a suspenseful, claustrophobic mystery with an atmospheric setting that quickly
captured my attention and kept me interested until the end.
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