heather gudenkauf

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➽ I was provided with an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The following opinions are my own.

Wylie Lark, a true crime writer, travels to Burden, Iowa to stay in the home that was the scene of the gruesome crime her newest novel chronicles. While she’s there to finish her book she is also battling her own demons and running away from hardships at home. Everything is turned on its head when she discovers a little boy frozen in her yard during a dangerous winter storm. Once she discovers the child is alive she must find out where he came from- what she learns next will hit closer to home than she ever expected.

This is the second book I’ve read by Heather Gudenkauf. I really enjoyed her last book, This Is How I Lied (find my review for that title here), which is one of the reasons I decided to pick up her newest book as well. The Overnight Guest follows three different timelines: One being from August of 2000 when the original crime occurs, one being present day, and one unknown. These seemingly unrelated timelines slowly begin to merge as the story progresses and even though I did correctly guess most of the twists it was the execution that made this a great book. Gudenkauf expertly reveals important pieces of the puzzle at the perfect moments to keep the reader on the edge of their seat.

Towards the end when most of the story is told in present tense the tension was ramped up to double speed and I couldn’t wait to see where the story was going to go. This is also the first thriller to ever make me cry real tears. I was invested in the story of Josie and Becky and the gruesome crime surrounding them. It was truly heartbreaking. The atmosphere in this story was palpable- I could practically feel the August heat and humidity along with the remoteness of being so isolated far from other people. The same went for the deadly snow and ice storm that took place in the present timeline- the darkness, the cold, the fear- it all culminated to make for a very tense reading experience.

There were a couple of things that held me back from giving this five stars. There was a plot hole that really bothered me. Even though it was a relatively small thing it did change the trajectory of the story and it irked me. I would like to add that I read an advanced reader copy and this plot hole may have been caught and corrected in the finished copy. The second thing was a scene at the end that went a little too far for believability. Nothing that couldn’t happen just an unlikely turn of events. There was also a misjudged character who was treated very poorly but after this person was found to be innocent that turn of events was glossed over and I expected there to be some kind of closure in that regard. All of these things are tiny criticisms and don’t even hold up against the overwhelmingly positive things this book did, though.

The Overnight Guest is definitely one of the finest thrillers I’ve read recently. I haven’t had much success in the genre lately and I’m tending to find that nothing really shocks or surprises me anymore so when one does it really stands out from the crowd. If you’re looking for a good thriller that has the creep-factor going for it and a solid emotional punch then look no further. I totally stand behind this book.

About the Author

Heather Gudenkauf is the critically acclaimed author of several novels, including the New York Times bestseller The Weight of Silence. She lives in Iowa with her husband and children.

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➸ ARC provided by Park Row and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

25 years ago Maggie’s best friend Eve Knox was brutally beaten and left to die in the local caves that run under the small town that they live in. Worse yet, it was Eve’s unusual little sister, Nola, and Maggie herself, that found her. Police Chief Kennedy, Maggie’s dad, did everything he could to find Eve’s killer but the case eventually went cold with no arrests made.

Now 25 years later a new piece of evidence has been found and Maggie is the detective on the case. She is determined to see if new technology can pick up anything they missed all those years ago so that she can put her friend to rest at last. Everyone involved closely in this case has a different idea of who did what and they all have more than just Eve in common. They all have secrets too, some uglier than others.

Reading this book was like watching a drama unfold before my eyes. Even though this book didn’t have any really seriously shocking twists it was still gripping and I really had no idea which one of them was the killer. It helped that all the people in this book were twisted in their own way and could easily have been the culprit. Maggie didn’t have much personality but I only really noticed that in the beginning when there wasn’t a whole lot to focus on. Eve’s sister Nola is as weird as weird gets. The neighbors are creepers. Eve’s ex boyfriend is a jerk. And they all have secrets that are slowly uncovered as the story unfolds.

Throughout the book we are following Maggie in current day and also flashing back to the few days before, and of, Eve’s murder. My favorite aspect of this was following from Eve’s POV during these flashbacks as we got closer and closer to her time of death. We are also following Nola in both the current story and flashbacks. So, as we’re reading the book we are also slowly following Eve up to the fateful moment of her death and I thought this part was extremely well done. It kept me right on the edge of my seat the entire time, especially knowing that we would eventually see her death through her eyes, rather than be told what happened from an outside party. This really enhanced the book in my opinion.

I also really loved the very accurate dementia representation in this book. Maggie’s father has dementia and therefore can remember things quite clearly from years ago but has a very bad short-term memory. This added another layer of suspense to the story because he was the original detective on the case and you get the idea that he might know something that he’s keeping close to his chest but on the other hand you can’t trust anything he says due to the dementia. This was a great aspect to throw into the story for a little added mystery. It also shows the hardships that families dealing with dementia deal with and how truly devastating this disease can be for them. This aspect of the book touched close to my heart as I am deeply familiar with the disease and can therefore judge its authenticity in this book and I found it to be really well done and realistic.

For me what made this book a real gem wasn’t the shocking reveals but the unfolding of the story and drama involved. Even though I wasn’t shocked to find out who the killer was I still really enjoyed the journey to that moment. What really made me drop a star from my rating of this book was the fact that some things had to work a bit too perfectly for some important scenes to pan out and it really pulled me out of the story. There was also an element of the book that was never revealed. This element wasn’t a massive part of the book but it was present enough that I wanted to discover the truth and was disappointed when it was never explained in the end. I also would have liked to know more about Nola and what she was up to. It’s alluded to, of course, but I really wanted more where she was concerned.

Luckily, I can happily recommend this book to all the mystery and suspense lovers out there. I really enjoyed my time reading this but just beware of some potential triggers: loss of a parent, loss of a friend, loss of a sibling, domestic abuse (both mental & physical), hoarding, assault, rape, miscarriage, animal dissection, murder (described from the victims POV as she died).

About the Author

Heather Gudenkauf is the Edgar Award nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Weight of Silence, These Things Hidden and Not A Sound.

Heather was born in Wagner, South Dakota, the youngest of six children. At one month of age, her family returned to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota where her father was employed as a guidance counselor and her mother as a school nurse. At the age of three, her family moved to Iowa, where she grew up. Having been born with a profound unilateral hearing loss (there were many evenings when Heather and her father made a trip to the bus barn to look around the school bus for her hearing aids that she often conveniently would forget on the seat beside her), Heather tended to use books as a retreat, would climb into the toy box that her father’s students from Rosebud made for the family with a pillow, blanket, and flashlight, close the lid, and escape the world around her. Heather became a voracious reader and the seed of becoming a writer was planted.

Heather Gudenkauf graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in elementary education, has spent her career working with students of all ages and continues to work in education as a Title I Reading Coordinator.

Heather lives in Iowa with her family and a very spoiled German Shorthaired Pointer named Lolo. In her free time Heather enjoys spending time with her family, reading and hiking. She is currently working on her next novel.