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The Disinvited Guest

A Novel

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

From two-time Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author Carol Goodman comes a new mystery, about a group of friends isolated on a remote island with a history of foul play.

""Carol Goodman is a brilliant writer, and she shines here." —Gilly Macmillan, New York Times bestselling author

Lucy Harper still has traumatic memories and lingering health problems from the 2020 pandemic. So, when a new virus surfaces years later, she and her husband, Reed, seek refuge on his family's private island off the coast of Maine. Ostensibly safely sequestered with their five closest friends and family, Lucy should feel at ease. So why does she feel the weight of the island's dark history pushing down on the group?

As Lucy uncovers Reed's family secrets and the island's history as a quarantine hospital for typhus patients, she becomes obsessed with the past and feels her own grip on reality slipping. Tempers flare, strange signs appear in the woods, and accidents turn deadly. Is the island haunted by the dead? Or is someone amongst the living taking their revenge?

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 23, 2022
      Years after the 2020 pandemic, and ahead of a raging second, even deadlier plague, writer Lucy Harper, the narrator of this unsettling gothic thriller from bestseller Goodman (The Stranger Behind You), and her husband, Reed, escape to Maine’s Fever Island, which Reed and his sister, Liz, have inherited. During the 1850s, the island served as a quarantine site for Irish famine ships overflowing with dying typhus-infected migrants. Despite the dire circumstances, the first days on the island feel almost festive as the couple and their various guests, including Liz, are well supplied with food and drink. But the island begins to cast its spooky spell on everyone, particularly once Lucy, who has been unsuccessfully seeking a subject for her next book, immerses herself in the wrenching journal kept during the typhus onslaught by Reed’s physician ancestor. Things swiftly fall apart as possessions start to disappear, and escalating incidents of sabotage threaten the group’s survival. Never mind Goodman’s stumbles sustaining convincing characters, especially through the fantastic final twists. This smooth cocktail of refreshingly chilly suspense is sure to win her new fans. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      On a remote island in Maine, approximately 10 years after the Covid pandemic, a group of seven friends in their late 20s seek isolation in the face of another pandemic. Narrator Imani Jade Powers adeptly captures their voices, tones, and emotions as the story unfolds over a few months. Soon tension develops due to the worldwide situation, a building mystery relating to one character's past, and the unreliable perspective of another character. As more information is revealed and suspense continues to build, listeners will want Powers to read more and more quickly--the sooner to find out what happens. B.E.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      June 10, 2024

      Ten years after the COVID-19 pandemic, Lucy Harper and her husband, Reed, take refuge with friends on his family's island, waiting out the newest pandemic. Sequestered from society, the group should feel safe, but they are unsettled by the island's troubling history. Lucy soon discovers the family's connection to the island, which was once used as a quarantine colony for immigrant typhus patients. What she learns sends Lucy spiraling, making her question whether the island is haunted, or if someone in the group is out for revenge. Goodman's (The Sea of Lost Girls; The Stranger Behind You) latest mixes suspense with current events. Narrator Imani Jade Powers ratchets up the tension, precisely capturing Lucy's slow descent into madness as she learns more about the island's past. VERDICT While there are few surprises, fans of Agatha Christie, Ruth Ware, and Lucy Foley will enjoy this thriller, complete with the tropes of people stranded on a haunted island. For those who have lived through the COVID pandemic, the horror may not be the ghosts of the island but thoughts of recurring pandemics and lockdowns.--Elyssa Everling

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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