The Guest
A Novel
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3.8 • 20 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
New York Times bestselling author B. A. Paris captivated psychological thriller readers everywhere with Behind Closed Doors. Now she invites you into another home full of heart-pounding secrets, in The Guest.
Some secrets never leave.
Iris and Gabriel have just arrived home from a make-or-break holiday. But a shock awaits them. One of their closest friends, Laure, is in their house. The atmosphere quickly becomes tense as she oversteps again and again: sleeping in their bed, wearing Iris' clothes, even rearranging the furniture.
Laure has walked out on her husband—and their good friend—Pierre, over his confession of an affair and a secret child. Iris and Gabriel want to be supportive of their friends, but as Laure's mood becomes increasingly unpredictable, her presence takes its toll.
Iris and Gabriel's only respite comes in the form of a couple new to town. But with them comes their gardener, who has a checkered past.
Soon, secrets from all their pasts will unravel, some more dangerous than they could have known.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A fatal accident causes a couple’s seemingly ideal marriage to unravel in best-selling author B. A. Paris’ gripping psychological thriller. Iris and Gabriel’s idyllic life in the British countryside is upended when Gabriel encounters a dying young man in a nearby quarry and the couple’s friend Laure moves in with them to escape her crumbling marriage. When Laure begins acting strangely and asking questions about that unfortunate young man, Paris skillfully builds up the suspense, chipping away at the façade of the couple’s perfect life and overlaying even their happier moments with an increasingly heavy sense of dread. A tightly woven, character-driven thriller, The Guest shows how secrets can build up into toxic time bombs.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Paris (The Prisoner) orchestrates a symphony of subplots in this creepy domestic thriller. Unhappily married English couple Iris and Gabriel are returning home to the village of Markham after a two-week holiday. During their vacation, Gabriel, a doctor, came across a fatal bike accident while out jogging one morning. The 18-year-old victim was a former player on the youth soccer team Gabriel once coached, and he remains plagued both by his failure to save the young man and by the fact that his final words were "Tell mum I'll never forgive her." When the couple arrives home, they're shocked to discover that their friend, Laure, has moved in. Laure explains that her husband has fathered a child with another woman, and she needs space to clear her head. She vastly overstays her welcome, however, leading Iris and Gabriel to question her motives. Then the couple meet their new neighbors, whose gardener, Joseph, develops a connection with Laure—and whose shady past eventually throws all their complicated entanglements into disarray. Paris deftly juggles the many characters and plot strands on the way toward a wild climax. The results are electrifying.
