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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This one caught me by surprise.
Take a loud American student with no family and place her in a friend's manor house in the Cotswolds for the holidays. Throw in a handsome brother, a set of crabby parents, the warmth of the local pub and gossiped hints of murder. Mix it all together and watch the crime and criminal emerge.
I'm neither a fan of Christmas settings nor of italics (half the book!!) but both were pleasing in the end.
As told in the afterword, Christmas is the perfect time for a crime - too much family, too much booze, too much darkness. A one-sitting novella is just the ticket for wiling away to hours before dinner is ready.
My library hold didn't come through until mid-January and I savoured the 96 pages over a couple of days but neither of these details altered my enjoyment.
Take a loud American student with no family and place her in a friend's manor house in the Cotswolds for the holidays. Throw in a handsome brother, a set of crabby parents, the warmth of the local pub and gossiped hints of murder. Mix it all together and watch the crime and criminal emerge.
I'm neither a fan of Christmas settings nor of italics (half the book!!) but both were pleasing in the end.
As told in the afterword, Christmas is the perfect time for a crime - too much family, too much booze, too much darkness. A one-sitting novella is just the ticket for wiling away to hours before dinner is ready.
My library hold didn't come through until mid-January and I savoured the 96 pages over a couple of days but neither of these details altered my enjoyment.
I guess the police are stupid enough to fall for the plan here, but the reader isn't. I have a rule against reading books with women murder victims and I didn't know I was breaking it... So fair warning, it's a(nother fucking) book by a man about killing women.
3.6⭐️ A creepy Christmas murder mystery novella set in the Cotswolds. Fun! Lmk if anyone wants to borrow before the season is up
The Christmas Guest is a small bite of a read, a little snack that can be read in one sitting. It’s immersive and fun and a bit disturbing. We hear from two voices: Emma Chapman, the English student who lives at Starvewood Hall, and Ashley Smith, the American classmate Emma has invited home for the holidays. Ashley speaks to us through the words she pours into her diary.
The author pulled me in right from the Dedication: “For two aunts – Pearl Taylor Moynihan, who disliked Christmas, and Sue Ellis Swasey, who doesn’t particularly like it either.” The dedication is followed by an Epigraph that calls out to A Christmas Carol.
The novella opens with our narrator, living in New York and alone on Christmas Day except for her cat, sorting through her crowded bedroom closet. She comes across an old diary, written by a friend thirty years ago. Although hesitant to “go back in time to that annus horribilis, that murderous year,” she cannot stop herself and begins to read.
The author pokes fun at himself and his “gothic” novella, with Ashley, the diary’s author, revealing that things are both exciting and creepy and almost willing herself into a gothic romance or thriller. (“Chance of gothic thriller murder mystery: Growing by the minute.”) There are a few twists, but in a weird way this is a comfort read for the cozy mystery reader. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out where the story is going, but the atmosphere makes it worth the read.
The cover is amazing – cute and cozy but also sinister. I read an advance reader copy of The Christmas Guest from Netgalley. (Although it comes out in October, I recommend waiting until Christmastime to read it.
The author pulled me in right from the Dedication: “For two aunts – Pearl Taylor Moynihan, who disliked Christmas, and Sue Ellis Swasey, who doesn’t particularly like it either.” The dedication is followed by an Epigraph that calls out to A Christmas Carol.
The novella opens with our narrator, living in New York and alone on Christmas Day except for her cat, sorting through her crowded bedroom closet. She comes across an old diary, written by a friend thirty years ago. Although hesitant to “go back in time to that annus horribilis, that murderous year,” she cannot stop herself and begins to read.
The author pokes fun at himself and his “gothic” novella, with Ashley, the diary’s author, revealing that things are both exciting and creepy and almost willing herself into a gothic romance or thriller. (“Chance of gothic thriller murder mystery: Growing by the minute.”) There are a few twists, but in a weird way this is a comfort read for the cozy mystery reader. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out where the story is going, but the atmosphere makes it worth the read.
The cover is amazing – cute and cozy but also sinister. I read an advance reader copy of The Christmas Guest from Netgalley. (Although it comes out in October, I recommend waiting until Christmastime to read it.
My brother gave me this novella last Christmas- I saved it because I wanted to read it during the Xmas season. Definitely not what I expected!
dark
fast-paced
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
3.5 stars
Fun and quick read. What’s not to love about murder in a small English town during Christmas?
Fun and quick read. What’s not to love about murder in a small English town during Christmas?
Dark little Christmas story! Super quick and enjoyable!