An Unwanted Guest

By: Shari Lapena

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

Another thrilling domestic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door and Not a Happy Family

“A gripping mystery perfect for fans of Agatha Christie.”–Good Housekeeping

“Another nail-biter perfect for an all-nighter.”–Entertainment Weekly

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 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.

©2018 Shari Lapena (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A gripping mystery perfect for fans of Agatha Christie.”–Good Housekeeping

“Proving that time periods may change but people do not, Lapena delivers a solid whodunit with an ending that would make Dame Christie proud.”–USA Today

“Another nail-biter perfect for an all-nighter.”–Entertainment Weekly

Keeps you guessing

Good reader
Great story
Keeps you guessing until the very end!
I highly recommend this book.

Good story but bad editing

I had pre-ordered this book since I had read some of Shari Lapena's other books and had enjoyed them. There are many characters to distinguish right from the get go and the not so great editing made it kind of difficult. I had to listen to the first few chapters twice to fully grasp what was going on because POV changes were edited poorly and ran together.

The story was interesting and the middle of the book clipped along as a nice pace.

Make it through the bad editing in the first quarter of the book and you're good.

If you are looking for a Agatha Christie

Then you got a Christie novel. This is a classic “group of people trapped in one place with a murderer and a storm outside”.
The only flaw: the narrator seemed a bit mechanic (like AI)

Loved it!

Great read and suspenseful. Enough detail about each character without going overboard! would highly recommend!

Just ok

Ok story. Terrible narration. Not worth a credit. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

It drug on for hours

I liked the story itself, but my goodness it drug on forever. If I had been reading this I would not have lasted more than a chapter. This book is painfully slow.

I was interested ... and then

Not a fan of the narrator, she's very blah and doesn't do voices well. Considering there are like 15 people it would have been nice.

The story started great, I thought it would be an exciting murder mystery and it just fell off once the cops got there at the end. Like ok, here is the killer, here is why, the end.

Just Eh.

Loved the book, didn’t love the narrator

I thought this was a great novel, but the narrator’s performance made me crazy. It was just—off. I couldn’t picture the characters speaking in the tones/inflection she used for specific situations. I still made it through, and I would recommend it, but that was slightly annoying.

A collaboration of the shining meets clue.

I got major “clue” vibes from this book added on with “the shining” because of the big snow storm. But it was overall a good book! I’ve always really enjoyed Shari’s novels and this was also a win for me!

Eh

This book is pretty slow, and the plot twists at the end aren't THAT great.