The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson

"Since I have no family of my own, I am yearly asked by friends and colleagues to their homes for the Christmas holidays.  I always say no, pleading my case that I am perfectly content to be alone for a week.  And mostly I am." - from The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson 

Looking for a fun, murderous little Christmas tale?  Well, The Christmas Guest might just be for you.    A quick, short read (around a 100-page novella), The Christmas Guest is meant to be devoured in one sitting (per the author, no less) and it's an easy accomplishment, not just from its brevity but also from the highly enjoyable and twisty story. 

We start in present day New York and through diary entries, flash back to the Cotswold countryside in England in 1989 where American college student Ashley Smith is spending Christmas week with her classmate Emma Chandler and Emma's family.  There is definitely a bit of a slow burn as Ashley chronicles arriving at the Chandlers' Starvewood Hall, introduces the motley group of characters, including Emma's brother, Adam.  Quickly enough, Ashley sees herself as the heroine of a gothic novel that her mother so enjoyed reading, complete with a drafty old house, a potential love interest, and a mystery taking place in the village.   

The majority of The Christmas Guest is the Christmas week of 1989 as told from Ashley's perspective, with cozy fires, drunken nights, and the various members of the Chapman family.  It reaches a speedy and shocking conclusion thirty years later, once again at Christmas.      

The premise feels sneakily like an Agatha Christie tale - Cotswolds, manor house, snow, holiday, dysfunctional family simmering with issues - with a smattering of Charles Dickens - a dark, bleak English Christmas - but Peter Swanson injects his well-versed thriller writing skills into the story and throws a loop that this well-seasoned reader didn't see coming.   

The Christmas Guest is a perfect read for those who don't want a Christmas rom-com but who want an atmospheric set-in-winter gothic mystery (but not a full-length one) and/or who are generally just bah, Humbug about the whole holiday season.   Grab a blanket, a hot beverage, curl up with this book for a few hours that will leave you wondering about the true Christmas spirit. 

Disclosure:  This book was purchased by me with my own funds.  My views and opinions are my own.  I was neither paid nor compensated for this review.