The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf is a masterpiece of a thriller! Writer Wylie Lark has chosen a remote old farmhouse to hole up in as she finishes her latest true crime book. As a fierce winter storm rocks her town she discovers a small child on her property. She brings the child into her home to warm up and the mystery unrolls from there. Who is this child and how did they end up on her property? Lots of edge of your seat action and a finale that leaves your mouth dropped! Read and enjoy!

Heather Gudenkauf’s The Overnight Guest is a shocking, terrifying and creepy thriller best read with the lights on and the doors and windows bolted shut.

Wylie Lark is a true crime writer who wants some peace and quiet to work on her latest book. Having retreated to an isolated farmhouse, Wylie is not the slightest bit worried about the impending snowstorm. The farmhouse is perfectly cozy and she can work on her book without anybody disturbing her. However, far from being the ideal writing retreat, the farmhouse Wylie is staying at had once been the site of a horrific and gruesome murder where two people had lost their lives – and a girl had disappeared off the face of the earth without a trace.

As the house’s terrifying secrets come alive during this snowstorm, Wylie finds herself trapped by oppressive ghosts from her past. When she discovers a small child outside in the snow, Wylie doesn’t hesitate to bring the boy in for shelter. Who is this child? Why was he out in the snow during a storm? And why was he in her front yard instead of at home with his parents?

Desperate for answers to the questions the plague her, Wylie beings her search for the truth. However, it quickly transpires that the farmhouse isn’t as isolated as she thought and that there is somebody determined to find her – whatever the cost.

Heather Gudenkauf’s The Overnight Guest is a cleverly written and brilliantly layered thriller that draws you in from the very beginning and keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. A gripping crime thriller that will barely let you catch your breath, The Overnight Guest is a shocking, twisted and menacing tale full of tension and foreboding that will keep you guessing until the very last page.

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📚B IS FOR BOOK REVIEW📚

📔Title: The Overnight Guest
🖋Author: Heather Gudenkauf
🗓Pub Date: 01.25.22

🗂Genre:
Thriller, mystery

📖Plot:
Wylie Lark, a true crime writer, runs away from her stressful life to finish her latest book while living in the farmhouse where the grisly murders she is writing about actually occurred. But when a massive winter storm descends, she finds a young child in the snow and begins to investigate her own mystery of who the child is and how they got there.

‼️ Trigger Warning:
Murder, rape, miscarriage, emotional and physical abuse

💭Thoughts:
If you are looking for a fun winter thriller to curl up with on a cold night, this is a great one! It is dark and atmospheric, the writing flows to keep the pages turning, and I didn’t guess everything that was going to happen — always a plus, right?! Grab a blanket, a warm drink, and get comfy … you won’t want to get up once you dig in to this one!

🗣Recommended for those who like:
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, The Shadows by Alex North, Room by Emma Donoghue

Wylie Lark is a true crime writer. She’s spending time in an old farmhouse while she works on her latest piece that tells the story of what happened 20 years ago in that same house.

Twenty years ago two people were murdered and two went missing, and the full true story of what happened and who did it never really came about or saw justice. This book is told in multiple storylines-the past, present day, and an unknown time with unknown characters.

A horrible snowstorm hits and while Wylie is outside getting firewood she stumbles upon a child that looks like it tried to find safety. The appearance of this child brings fear and confusion for Wylie and she tries to make sense of what is going on now and what happened in the past. There’s not a lot I can say without spoilers but this one was very creepy and kept me hooked from the beginning!

Thank you to Park Row Books for my copy and inviting me to join this blog tour.

The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf winds back and forth between three storylines. At the beginning, the connections are unclear but the threads are pulled together, some contrived but some in unexpected ways. The book surprises me with its twists but in a really good way. I do not see them coming, but once revealed, my reaction is, "Of course!". That, for me, makes a mystery and thriller work.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2022/01/the-overnight-guest.html

Reviewed for NetGalley and a publisher’s blog tour.

This fast paced thriller was told from three perspectives over two timelines. The first half of the book was like reading three unconnected stories. Then the clues became obvious and the "big reveal" was somewhat predictable. It was well written, and kept my attention throughout and it all wrapped up pretty quickly at the end.

I really enjoyed the suspense in this thriller. There are multiple POV’s and different time periods and it all comes together so well. Add in a remote house which is cut off from everything due to a snow storm. Even more creepy is the fact there had been murders in the house years before. I was engaged with this story from the beginning to the end. I did guess the big twist but there was a surprise twist at the end. Overall a really good thriller!!

Heather Gudenkauf gives us three timelines and lots of characters and perspectives in The Overnight Guest. It is a lot to keep track of, at least at first, and I had more trouble keeping up with all the characters. I'm not usually a fan of so many timelines, but it is effective for this book. Expect to be shocked at times, and parts of the story are hard to get through, so I'd suggest knowing your limits beforehand as this one ventures into abuse, including sexual. The story is certainly chilling, and it keeps the adrenaline flowing. I really liked the snowbound atmosphere, and the pacing kept the pages turning.

Josie, 12, and her friend, Becky, are having an overnight together at Josie’s house. In the night, they hear a gunshot and run from the house. They see what looks like Josie’s older brother aiming a gun at them. They run for the cornfield but Josie is shot in the arm. She can’t find Becky and decides to stay quiet until daylight when she can run to her grandparents house. Then, she finds that her parents have been both been shot dead.

Wylie is a true crime author and has decided to come to the town where these horrible multiple murders happened years ago and stay at the house itself to finish her novel about the crime. Her 14-year-old son has been acting up lately and she left him with her husband to take care of it. There is a major snowstorm coming and she is getting firewood in to keep warm. She finds a young boy outside in the snow barely alive. She brings him inside to warm up. He is acting very shy. When he falls asleep, she figures he must have come from a possible car crash so she goes out to the main road to investigate. There, she finds a woman thrown from a truck and stuck in barbed wire. She puts her coat on her and runs back to get wire cutters, but when she returns, the woman is gone.

Told from the time period of the murders in the blistering summer heat to present time when Wylie discovers these car crash victims in a blizzard, the truth slowly comes out.

Oh my! This story is extraordinary and kept me on the edge of my seat. Twists and turns galore. I couldn’t figure out how another sub-plot fit into the puzzle until right up to when it was revealed, leaving me shocked. This is one fabulous thriller and one I know readers will enjoy!

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Nothing is scarier than a winter storm in the middle of no where and coming across a random person that you then have to let into your house. That sounds like my worst nightmare. But that is exactly what happens in this book. Queue shudders.

The story focuses on three different stories that slowly build until it clicks how they are all related and why you are reading them. The main story follows Wylie, a writer who is writing her next true crime novel about a murder that happened in the small, rural farming community of Burden. There is another story that follows a woman and her daughter who appear to be in a bad home situation and the last story flashes back to years before when an entire family, the one Wylie is writing about, was murdered and attacked in their home.

At first I was a little perturbed as to why we were jumping around so much to these seemingly unrelated stories. I knew they would tie in eventually, but jumping around is not my favorite thing. However, the more I got into The Overnight Guest, the more I understood the importance of these three different parts. I quite liked Wylie, even though she was a bit of a mystery. Quiet, seemed to be afraid of the dark, but chose willingly to live in the middle of no where while writing this book. I was very curious about her family issues she mentioned here and there. She just seemed like an interesting individual. She also was a good individual. She tried to help those around her, even at the risk of injury herself.

Josie was probably my favorite character. She was skirting that line between innocence and being young and the world being a beautiful place, and growing into a teenager like her friend Becky where interests had started to shift. She just wanted to have fun, enjoy a sleepover with her best friend, and laugh. It was a bit heartbreaking watching her learn that not everything is wonderful and that bad things happen to good people.

While the jumping around was not my favorite originally, the story did flow very well and you understand why those other stories are important as you get into the book. I also was not able to figure out the ending, which is always my favorite part of reading a mystery. If I can guess the ending early on, I feel like it takes some of the magic away. This one I didn’t see coming until it was revealed. I think Gudenkauf did a great job of writing strong female characters. It almost seemed like a female vs. male story, even if that is not what the author had intended. I enjoyed the full circle effect of the story and how it was wrapped up. Oh, and be warned, a little bit of gore is in the descriptions of crime scenes… for those with a weak stomach.

I didn’t feel a lot of suspense in this book, although there was an underlying twinge of it. The air of mystery surrounding everything happening definitely kept me on the edge of my seat. If you love a good who-dun-it, then The Overnight Guest is for you. I’m interested to pick up more from Heather Gudenkauf. She won me over with this slow building, simmering fire of a plot that kept me furiously flipping pages to see how it would end.

Wow - The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf was a really great book. The book spans 3 timelines and the story just gripped me from the beginning and it honestly never let up! The writing was excellent and I think this is my favorite book I have read by this author. Thank you to Harlequin publishing and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book! I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Heather Gudenkauf and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a quick and thrilling novel! I honestly fell into it head first and didn't want to come up for air! There are a few timelines that all come together and when they do, wow! It was a dark and slightly gory read; but I was living for that. I really enjoyed all the characters and there were so many moments that I was shocked and I loved it. Definitely recommend.

This one took a bit of time to get rolling for me. The time flashbacks were confusing and I struggled to find the relevance in so much of it. Ultimately it came together okay, but it fell a it flat overall.

I absolutely loved this book. I didn't want to go to bed. I didn't want to put it down. I suspected some of the twists and yet... it still kept my heart racing and I thought it would play out well as a movie (I mean the book would always be better, of course!) I was intrigued from the very first chapter and enjoyed the non-linear timelines. Overall, it gave me the vibrant thrum of expectancy that I look forward to in a well-written suspense novel with less than perfect characters and an atmospheric setting.

I really liked this mystery/thriller that deftly ties 3 separate storylines together. Although the ending wasn't a total surprise, the final who-did- it was not easily guessable. I especially liked the author's vivid descriptions of the Iowa farm setting and the characters were so distinctive it was easy to keep them straight despite there being a lot of them. Very well written & atmospheric. Would make a great movie!

Did not finish!

It might have been my mood-idk I just wasn't feeling this one. I also started reading this then I got sick, then got busy.

A house where nearly an entirely family was murdered in cold blood. A snowstorm raging outside. A child found abandoned in the snow.

If you think this sounds like the perfect set-up for an ominous suspense thriller, allow me to introduce you to Heather Gudenkauf's new novel The Overnight Guest, a story about a true crime writer who mysteriously finds a child outside a farmhouse where a horrible murder, the topic of her next book, took place. This creepy thriller is just-right for curling up with on a brutally cold winter night, and will appeal to readers who enjoy Mary Kubica, B.A. Paris, and Wendy Walker's books.

The Overnight Guest is told in three storylines. There is the year 2000 plot which takes us back to the day of the murder which left nearly the entire Doyle family dead, and its aftermath and hunt for the killer. Then there is the present day narrative which follows true crime author Wylie Lark as she investigates the unoccupied farmhouse where the Doyle family was killed and where she uncovers the mystery of an abandoned child in a snowstorm. Most peculiar and disturbing is the storyline of a mother and child living within an abusive household.

The novels' three storylines are disjointed and are full of red herrings, but the clues for solving this mystery are there if you look closely enough. I will admit that it took me awhile to get used to Gudenkauf's vague style of storytelling - I know that it is meant to protect the book's twists, but it also left me feeling disconnected from the story. However, while slow, the storylines of the novel do pick up pace until they are traveling at a neck-breaking speed toward the book's conclusion. This is when all three storylines come together and all is satisfyingly revealed. I was ready to rate this novel 3 stars due to its tepid pacing, but once the pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place, I appreciated the multiple "ahha!" moments that Gudenkauf gave me.

Wylie Lark is a true crime writer working on her next book. She’s literally returned to the scene of the crime, staying at the farmhouse where Josie Doyle’s family was murdered twenty years ago in Burden, Iowa. She welcomes the quiet and solitude and was almost finished when a bad snow storm descends. Forced to venture out into it after her dog doesn’t return, she discovers a child laying in the snow, injured from what appears to be the result of a car crash. Wylie manages to get the child back to the house and thus begins another mystery that will threaten her life and that of the child.

The story is told from three points of view, transitioning between present day and the days leading up to the murder of Josie’s family in 2000. All were equally riveting and I couldn’t decide which I wanted to be immersed in at any given time. The last third of the book was impossible to put down as I untangled clues to figure out how they all were supposed to fit together because, of course, they had to. I’m being deliberately vague since it’s a bit tricky to be more detailed.

I enjoyed this mystery, made even more exciting by the narrator who excelled at creating distinctive voices for each of the characters, those with a point of view and others. She’s a great storyteller and is one of my favorites. True confession…I figured things out much earlier than when it was revealed but it didn’t matter as that brought on a whole new level of anxiety and anticipation. And, it brought one more little twist I didn’t see coming. This was everything I was hoping it would be and a little bit more.

Page turner that alternates between three stories: a current day true-crime writer during a blizzard who finds a nearly frozen child outside her house, a past tragedy when a young girl's family is murdered and best friend disappears, and a mother and daughter controlled by an abusive man. Plenty of twists and turns and the author does a good job of bring it all together.

I thought The Overnight Guest was a good mystery. Wylie is a true crime writer who has been living on a farm that was the scene of double murder. That same night 2 people disappeared. Josie was the only survivor. Wiley is writing their story. The story is told in three timelines, Wylie in present day, Josie on the day her parents were murdered and an unknown timeline from a little girl's perspective.

I liked the flow of the book. The change in all three perspectives was smooth throughout and moved the story along steadily. I was engaged from beginning to end. The plot has a few twists. One I did figure out, but the rest I was genuinely surprised. It's kind of a hard book to discussed without giving away any key plot points. I liked all of the main characters. The girl's perspective was the most heartbreaking. I'll just leave it at that. I highly recommend this one.