Editorial Content for The Christmas Guest
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Reviewer (text)
This wonderful new novella from Peter Swanson meets the needs of both Halloween and Christmas. Despite the holiday setting, THE CHRISTMAS GUEST involves much darker subject matter and is purely a psychological thriller from start to finish.
Ashley Smith, an American art student living in London, opens the tale as the primary figure. We experience the Christmas of her junior year through her recollections and her diary entries. Ashley was more than prepared to spend a quiet Christmas alone when she receives an invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman to come to Starvewood Hall and celebrate the day with her wealthy and extremely eccentric family. Ashley accepts and is glad she did, even though she didn’t think Emma liked her after she stole a potential boyfriend from Emma one evening at a local pub.
"THE CHRISTMAS GUEST never ceases to amaze, and the huge time and plot jumps from one section of the novella to the other is handled brilliantly by Swanson."
While at Starvewood Hall, Ashley explores the large estate and mingles with Emma’s immediate and extended family. She is especially taken by Emma’s wayward brother, Adam. Much to Emma’s dismay, it appears that Ashley has become smitten with him. However, this visit is not all fun and games. In addition to several trips to the village pub with Emma and Adam, Ashley has some frightening experiences. For instance, she notices a strange, bearded man watching her from the edge of the forest.
Swanson pulls off a complete shocker of a plot twist at the end of the novella’s first part. Ashley is murdered by an assailant who attacks her and Emma when they are walking home through the woods. The second part opens with Ashley gone. Or is she?
We see newspaper articles reporting on the brutal crime. It is at this point in the story that Swanson shows his genius as a plotter of unpredictable thrillers. We end up in New York City in 2019 with a character named Ashley Smith. This will perplex some and will have most wondering exactly what is going on and how much they should believe from those diary entries left by Ashley in 1989.
THE CHRISTMAS GUEST never ceases to amaze, and the huge time and plot jumps from one section of the novella to the other is handled brilliantly by Swanson. It will puzzle readers in the best of ways and will make them want to go back to the beginning and read this short, fascinating story all over again.
Teaser
Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone. But a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, the country residence of the Chapman family. Ashley is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma’s aloof and handsome brother. But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Over 30 years later, the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time.
Promo
Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone. But a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, the country residence of the Chapman family. Ashley is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma’s aloof and handsome brother. But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Over 30 years later, the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time.
About the Book
New York Times bestselling author Peter Swanson pens a spectacularly spine-chilling novella in which an American art student in London is invited to join a classmate for the holidays at Starvewood Hall, her family’s Cotswold manor house. But behind the holly and pine boughs, secrets are about to unravel, revealing this seemingly charming English village’s grim history.
Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone, but a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, country residence of the Chapman family. The Cotswold manor house, festooned in pine boughs and crammed with guests for Christmas week, is a dream come true for Ashley. She is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma’s aloof and handsome brother.
But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Is she in a grand romance? A gothic tale? Or has she wandered into something far more sinister and terrifying than she’d ever imagined?
Over 30 years later, the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time. What began in a small English village in 1989 reaches its ghostly conclusion in modern-day New York, many Christmas seasons later.
Audiobook available, read by Esther Wane
