Publishers Weekly
★ 08/07/2023
Swanson (The Kind Worth Saving) does more with less in this punchy thriller that packs all the potency of his longer works. In 2019, an unnamed narrator decides to spend Christmas cleaning her New York City apartment. In the process, she rediscovers an “immediately recognizable” diary written by an American grad student in London named Ashley Smith, and flips to December 1989, a “murderous year” the narrator is hesitant to remember. The action then shifts to Ashley’s diary entries, recounting her invitation to the country home of her colleague, Emma Chapman, for the holidays. En route, she wonders if her time at the estate will feel like “a romance novel, or maybe a murder mystery.” It quickly becomes both: she’s met at the rail station by Emma’s hunky brother, Adam, and falls for him immediately, only to learn that he’s the prime suspect in the recent murder of a girl who looks exactly like Ashley. Swanson has plenty of knockout twists up his sleeve, but they never feel cheap, and he manages to build three-dimensional characters despite the brief page count. This is a perfect introduction to one of the cleverest talents in contemporary genre fiction. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber Assoc. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
The book gets darker and more shocking as it goes along….The twist will make you rethink everything you’ve read before.” — New York Times Book Review
"A brief but potent book with the weight and wallop of a much longer one. It still affords Mr. Swanson enough space in which to work his characteristic trick of pulling the rug out from under a hapless audience. Here’s a hint for those who take up this book: Never mind unreliable narrators; beware the unreliable reader." — Wall Street Journal
“Swanson does more with less in this punchy thriller that packs all the potency of his longer works….[He] has plenty of knockout twists up his sleeve, but they never feel cheap, and he manages to build three-dimensional characters despite the brief page count. This is a perfect introduction to one of the cleverest talents in contemporary genre fiction.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The Christmas Guest never ceases to amaze, and the huge time and plot jumps from one section of the novella to the other is handled brilliantly by Swanson. It will puzzle readers in the best of ways and will make them want to go back to the beginning and read this short, fascinating story all over again." — Book Reporter
“Carefully crafted and featuring an eloquent blending of psychological and suspense in a Christmas backgrounded crime thriller of a read from start to finish.” — Midwest Book Review
“Smart, surprising, cool and fun, with a deeply satisfying ending. I loved it!” — Gillian McAllister, New York Times bestselling author, on The Kind Worth Saving
"An expertly wielded icicle to the heart that packs a lot of menace into its 93 pages....The Christmas Guest isn’t just good for a novella; it might become a dark little yuletide classic." — AirMail
Library Journal
08/04/2023
In diary entries from 1989, Ashley Smith, an American guest to a British Christmas week, reveals her excitement about the invitation she has received from a fellow college student: Emma Chapman has invited her home to Starvewood Hall in the Cotswolds. Emma warns Ashley that her parents are awful, and that women seem to fall for Emma's brother Adam, but orphaned American Ashley dreams only of an English manor house at Christmas. No one warns Ashley, however, of the house's isolation, or that Adam was recently suspected of killing a young woman. Upon arrival in the Cotswolds, Ashley is enchanted by the Chapman clan, visits to the local pub, and evenings spent playing games with the family. Ashley is half in love with Adam and takes every opportunity to spend time with him. Then her Christmas visit turns creepy when she's followed through the woods. Thirty years later, the truth will be revealed about that haunting Christmas season. Despite the novella's gothic charms, readers might find it hard to root for the characters. VERDICT The author of The Kind Worth Saving, known for his books featuring psychopaths, introduces one in a Christmas ghost story that lacks sympathetic characters and falls flat.—Lesa Holstine
DECEMBER 2023 - AudioFile
One lonely Christmas night, Emma reads the diary of a fellow student she invited to her family's English manor house for the holidays 30 years before. Narrator Esther Wane uses a vague American accent for Ashley's diary and captures her wide-eyed pleasure at the gothic setting she feels she's been transported to. Ashley falls for Adam, Emma's troubled brother, who is suspected of murdering a local girl. The sound of fluttering pages frequently reminds listeners that, despite her lively tone, Ashley is only a memory caught in a diary. The character of Emma takes over halfway through, navigating the fallout of Ashley's story in Wane's crisp, haunted voice. With thrills, romance, and a ghost, this novella is a big gift in a small package. S.T.C. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
