The Disinvited Guest

A Novel

By: Carol Goodman

Narrated by: Imani Jade Powers

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?

©2022 Carol Goodman (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

24-hr listen

This was a 24-hr read for me. Set in in the future - probably around 2030? - described as 10 years after the “first pandemic”, there’s now another pandemic that is causing widespread illness and death. A group of friends decided to ride this one out on a secluded island owned by one their families for generations. Since the last pandemic had such devastating effects on all of their lives, they’ve stayed prepared. The island is well-stocked with food and supplies and they should be able to survive for months. But the island has a violent history and when one thing after another starts to go wrong, the group doesn’t know who, or what, to suspect is behind all the strange happenings that seem to indicate history is repeating itself.

Once I started, I couldn’t stop with this listen. I had to know what was going on. I didn’t really like any of the characters and never knew who could be trusted. There were a few important events that seemed to happen suddenly and unexpectedly and then were wrapped up a bit too quickly for me, but the pace and high level of tension / suspense throughout made up for those things. Overall, I really enjoyed this one. It was my first Carol Goodman read, but definitely won’t be my last!!

Entertaining but only that

It was entertaining but heavy handed. It is a hard genre to do well. People stuck on an island and then they are dying

Good

The story is good. All the characters were unlikable. Because of the trauma most of them had been through from the previous pandemic and their past there was a tension between all of them. Their pasts made them not be able to trust each other. Because they didn’t like one another it made it hard to connect to any of the characters. The story itself was well done and kept my interest.
The narrator had a lisp or something that made her speech sound like air was stuck in her cheeks when pronouncing certain words. It was distracting enough to have me mention it. I usually never care how a persons voice sounds or notice things that others do in their reviews. But with this narrator she has a lovely sound to her voice but it was hard to not get distracted from the story with the other noise she made.

Not what I expected…in a bad way

The narrator was superb! The story was mediocre. Too many implausibilities for my comfort. Mack was one of the best characters, yet, largely ignored. Lucy and Reed, the main characters, were well developed but Lucy became annoying and too suspicious of the wrong people. And don’t get me started with the overuse of similes! This could have been a great novel. It had it all: interesting characters, isolation, mistrust, secrets and lies but it went off kilter trying to weave in modern day issues with the cottage’s history of being a typhoid hospital.

Twist-City

The interconnections of the characters were genius. I liked the ending, although I almost didn't make it there because the story became a bit dull in the middle. I wasn't sure I'd return to it. I did & glad for it.

Go ahead and use your credit, you won’t regret it.

The first book I read by Carol was “The Lake of Dead Languages” and since then I have become a big fan of her books. They always seem to lead you off in different directions trying to decide who done it before finally revealing the culprit. If you like a good mystery with healthy dose of creepiness check her out!!!

Not my usual genre, but I liked it

I just about go through an audiobook a week. This week’s book was outside my usual listen. It’s got a creepy, eerie vibe, a good whodunit mystery, and a dash of the supernatural.

I enjoyed the setting and listening to the story unfold.

I would definitely recommend adding this book to anyone’s book queue.

Unnecessarily descriptive and useless backstory

This book was a disappointment! The title description sounded interesting but the book is actually a disaster.

The female lead is stupid, naive, and intolerable. 90% of the story is unnecessary descriptions and analogies. The author seemed to be trying to go for a beautifully complex intricate advanced minded female lead, but failed MISERABLY and it is almost comical how dumb the FMC sounds most of the time. The characters of the novel seem unreal and out of touch with reality with how they deal with things and think.

Don’t get me started on the 1800’s backstory that took up 85% of the plot, that is actually useless to the overall point of the book.

Plus, there is no mystery or thrilling aspect at all. Plot was extremely predictable.

Im gonna be honest, the only thing I enjoyed was picking apart how dumb everyone and everything was.

This is so bad

Maybe written for YA I am really not sure. Just really bad considering that the Stranger Behind was better written.