An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena
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.
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 and try to make the best of it.
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 - and one another.
As I started reading this book, I was worried it might be hard to follow. There were a lot of characters introduced in quick succession and I though it could be hard to keep them all straight. Luckily, that was not the case! As the story kept moving forward, the characters and their voices became more distinct and unique, making it easy to figure out whose point of view you were experiencing the from at that time.
The overall mystery aspect of the narrative was really well done in my opinion. I never felt like I was able to fully predict what was going to happen next. I had my hypotheses and guesses but I was pretty much wrong every time. It was so fun to be able to try and be a sleuth along with the characters as they attempted to piece together the events that took place.
The content of the narrative wasn't too gruesome or gnarly and the fact that it is set at a snowed in, quaint little hotel or lodge, makes this feel like something of a cozy murder mystery read. The whole story takes place over a weekend so it is very fast-paced. There is little time for the author to make any one part of the drag and that is something that I really enjoyed. It definitely contributed to this book being a page turner in my opinion.
Taking into account the style and tone of this book, I think it hearkens back to some of the great classics from authors like Agatha Christie. This book really resembles and draws inspiration from And Then There Were None from Christie. I loved that specific Agatha Christie novel and reading An Unwanted Guest felt very similar, but not in a bad way. Lapena places the narrative in modern times and uses creative ways to effectively cut the characters off from the outside world to provide an environment that results in the feeling that both the reader and the characters have been transported to a different time.
I personally thought the ending was great! It was not an outcome I saw coming which is really commendable for a mystery novel. The murderer was revealed with perfect pacing, allowing the reader plenty of time to eliminate suspects and puzzle together the events being retold by the characters.
I was overall really impressed by this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a not too hard hitting murder mystery narrative.
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