The Guest is the latest novel by the author of Behind Closed Doors and a slew of other domestic suspense stories. This one is about a married couple, Iris and Gabriel, who have two challenges in their life. The husband recently found a boy dying after an accident whose last words to Gabriel were negative regarding the boy’s mother. Gabriel decides to spare the mother’s feelings by changing the boy’s last words. Gabriel then endlessly rehashes that decision ad nauseum throughout the book. Their second challenge is a friend named Laure, who is the worst uninvited houseguest ever. And she just-won’t-leave. Soon more complications arrive to convolute the plot even more.
I think you can tell by my description above that I didn’t like The Guest as much as I wanted to. The characters are all unsympathetic. By the middle of the book, I wanted them to be punished for how annoying they were. The end slightly improved my feelings about the book. However, I’m not sure if it is worth slogging through the rest of it to get there. This book is probably best for diehard B.A. Paris fans only. 3 stars. I recommend reading the author’s best book (5 stars in my opinion), The Dilemma, instead.
Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.