An Unwanted Guest

A group of guests arrive at Mitchell's Inn, an isolated luxury hotel in the Catskill Mountains, just as a winter storm approaches. The weather worsens and the hotel becomes cut off from the outside world, with no electricity, no cell service, and no way to leave. When one guest is found dead, panic begins to spread through the stranded visitors and staff. More deaths follow, and the survivors must determine if there is a killer among them while they remain trapped together in the darkness. An Unwanted Guest follows the classic locked-room mystery format while building tension through the claustrophobic setting and deteriorating trust between characters. The story moves between multiple perspectives as alliances form and suspicions mount. The novel explores themes of isolation and human nature, questioning how people behave when stripped of modern conveniences and forced to confront primal fears. Through its confined setting, the book examines what happens when social masks slip and survival instincts take over.

Readers compare this to classic Agatha Christie mysteries, particularly "And Then There Were None." The locked-room mystery format in a remote winter setting resonates with thriller fans. Readers liked: - Fast pacing and short chapters - Multiple viewpoint characters - Atmospheric winter setting - Clean writing style without graphic content - Plot twists in final chapters Readers disliked: - Characters feel underdeveloped and similar to each other - Limited character backstories - Some found the ending rushed - Several readers noted predictable reveals Ratings: Goodreads: 3.82/5 (79,000+ ratings) Amazon: 4.3/5 (5,800+ ratings) Common reader comments: "Perfect weekend read" "Characters blend together" "Good airplane book" "Wanted more depth from the characters" "Atmospheric but predictable" The book performs best with readers seeking quick, entertaining mysteries rather than complex psychological thrillers.

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🏨 The novel's setting - a remote luxury hotel in winter - draws inspiration from classic locked-room mysteries like Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." 📚 Shari Lapena was a lawyer and English teacher before becoming a full-time writer at age 50, publishing her first thriller "The Couple Next Door" in 2016. ❄️ The Catskill Mountains, where the story takes place, have a history of grand hotels and resorts dating back to the early 1900s, known as the "Borscht Belt" era. 🔍 The book pays homage to classic mystery devices like power outages and snowstorms, which were popularized by Golden Age detective fiction writers in the 1920s and 1930s. ✍️ Despite being a bestselling thriller author now, Lapena's first published book was actually a literary novel called "Things Go Flying" that received little attention.