The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson

 

Title:  The Christmas Guest

Author:  Peter Swanson

Narrated by:  Esther Wane

Publisher: HarperAudio

Length: Approximately 2 hours and 48 minutes

Source: Purchased from Amazon.com

Do you like to read novellas or short stories?  I do, especially during the busy holiday season.  I have enjoyed Peter Swanson’s thrillers in the past and was excited to see what he would craft with a Christmas story.

Ashley Smith is an American Art student studying in London in the 1980s.  She is excited to be invited to spend the Christmas season with a fellow student Emma Chapman at her family’s country estate.  Ashley is intrigued and smitten by Emma’s brother Adam.  There is also a sinister stranger lurking in the woods between the manor house and the local pub the young people like to hang out at.  Has Ashley stumbled into a romance, a gothic story, or something else at this picturesque estate over the Christmas season?

I don’t want to get too much more into the story as I appreciated all the twists and turns.  As with other Peter Swanson novels, things are not what they seem at first glance and the characters are much more than they first appear.  I liked how this story was told through Ashley’s diary entries from the 1980’s and the second half was Ashley filling in the rest of the story in the present day.  This is definitely NOT a Hallmark Christmas story, but I loved the English manor atmosphere, the mystery, and the psychological thriller aspect.  It was a good Christmas story and definitely had me thinking at the end.

Esther Wane was a good narrator and was the voice of Ashley through the novel for me.