An Unwanted Guest

An Unwanted Guest Plot Summary

Introduction

The wind howls through the Catskill Mountains as snow begins to fall, transforming Mitchell's Inn into an isolated fortress of Victorian elegance. What should have been a peaceful weekend retreat for nine strangers becomes something far more sinister when the first body appears at the bottom of the grand staircase, neck twisted at an impossible angle. As an ice storm cuts power and phone lines, trapping the guests with no means of escape, the deaths multiply. Each murder more calculated than the last, each victim silenced before they can reveal what they know. In the flickering candlelight of the lobby fireplace, suspicion spreads like poison among the survivors. Trust crumbles as quickly as the alibis, and everyone becomes both hunter and prey. But the killer walks among them, wearing the mask of innocence, waiting for the perfect moment to strike again.

Chapter 1: Arrival at Mitchell's Inn: Strangers in a Snowstorm

The serpentine road winds deeper into the Catskills as darkness approaches, snow falling with increasing fury. Gwen Delaney grips her Fiat's steering wheel, knuckles white, squinting through the windshield at the swirling white curtain ahead. Her passenger, Riley Shuter, sits rigid with tension that has nothing to do with the treacherous driving conditions. Riley carries invisible wounds from her years as a war correspondent in Afghanistan, and even this peaceful mountain retreat cannot silence the ghosts that follow her. When Gwen's car slides helplessly into a roadside ditch, salvation comes in the form of Ian Beeton and Lauren Day, an attractive couple who pull over despite the worsening conditions. Ian's easy charm and Lauren's quick efficiency mask whatever brought them to this remote corner of New York. They offer rescue without hesitation, loading the stranded women into their warm car for the final approach to Mitchell's Inn. The Victorian hotel emerges from the storm like something from a gothic novel, its red brick facade and gingerbread trim frosted with snow. Other guests have already arrived: David Paley, a distinguished attorney seeking solitude; Matthew Hutchinson and his radiant fiancée Dana Hart, whose engagement ring catches the lamplight like captured starfire; Henry and Beverly Sullivan, a middle-aged couple whose marriage shows stress fractures beneath their polite facades; and Candice White, a writer who keeps to herself with the focused intensity of someone racing against time. Bradley Harwood, the owner's son, greets them with practiced hospitality, mixing cocktails in the lobby as his father James tends the kitchen. The hotel's isolation becomes apparent when Bradley explains they have no cell service, no internet, and limited staff due to the storm. But the roaring fireplace and flowing champagne create an atmosphere of convivial warmth, and the guests settle into what promises to be a cozy weekend of enforced intimacy. As night deepens and the storm intensifies, the guests retire to their rooms, unaware that morning will bring horror to their temporary sanctuary.

Chapter 2: First Blood: Death on the Staircase

Dawn breaks gray and bitter cold over Mitchell's Inn. Lauren wakes early, drawn downstairs by the promise of coffee and solitude. The hotel lies shrouded in an unnatural silence, broken only by the wind's relentless assault on the windows. Power has failed during the night, leaving the Victorian mansion trapped in perpetual twilight. Her footsteps echo on the grand staircase as she descends, then stop abruptly. At the bottom of the stairs lies Dana Hart, beautiful even in death, her navy silk robe spread like spilled ink across the carpet. Her lovely face has turned marble white, her engagement ring catching what little light filters through the lobby windows. The promising life that sparkled so brilliantly the night before has been extinguished with brutal efficiency. Lauren's scream pierces the morning silence, bringing the other guests stumbling from their rooms into the lamplight. They gather around the body like moths drawn to flame, their faces masks of shock and disbelief. David Paley, drawing on his legal experience, takes charge with grim authority. He checks for a pulse that will never return, examines the savage head wound that speaks of violence rather than accident. Matthew Hutchinson arrives last, summoned by David from his room where he had slept through his fiancée's final moments. His anguish fills the lobby as he collapses beside Dana's still form, his hands shaking as he strokes her cold cheek. His wedding plans have become funeral arrangements in a single night, his future reduced to grief and unanswered questions. The telephone lines are dead, cut by the storm. The roads have become rivers of ice, impassable until the plows can break through. They are trapped with their dead, forced to leave Dana's body where it fell until authorities can arrive. As the guests retreat to the warmth of the lobby fireplace, a terrible realization settles over them like the storm itself: if this was murder, the killer walks among them.

Chapter 3: Trapped in Darkness: The Power Fails, Suspicions Rise

The hotel becomes a maze of shadows as oil lamps replace electric lighting, casting dancing phantoms on the Victorian wallpaper. The guests huddle around the lobby fireplace, their faces illuminated by flickering flames that reveal more than they conceal. Suspicion breeds in the darkness like a virus, infecting every glance and whispered conversation. David Paley studies Dana's body with professional detachment, his trained eye cataloging details that disturb him. The head wound suggests deliberate violence rather than accidental trauma. The positioning is wrong for a simple fall. Someone wanted Dana Hart dead, and they possessed both the will and opportunity to make it happen. His announcement that they're dealing with murder rather than misfortune sends shock waves through the assembled guests. Matthew bears the weight of immediate suspicion. As Dana's fiancé, he holds the statistical distinction of being the most likely killer. Beverly Sullivan's reluctant admission that she heard angry voices from their room the night before only deepens the shadows gathering around him. His protestations of love and innocence ring hollow against the stark mathematics of domestic violence. But other secrets surface in the lamplight. Riley's brittle composure finally cracks, revealing the post-traumatic stress that follows her like a loyal hound. Her years covering war zones have left her hypersensitive to violence, jumping at shadows and hearing screams in the wind. Gwen watches her friend's deterioration with growing alarm, torn between protective instincts and her own mounting fear. The search for answers leads them through darkened corridors and abandoned rooms, their footsteps muffled by thick carpets. They discover an unmade bed in what should have been an empty room, evidence of an unknown presence in their midst. A broken basement window suggests an intruder, though the ice-covered ground reveals no footprints. The hotel holds its secrets as tightly as it holds its prisoners, offering no easy explanations for the evil that has taken root within its walls.

Chapter 4: The Writer's Silence: Another Body Discovered

Candice White works alone in the library, her laptop battery dying as steadily as the daylight outside. The crime novelist has retreated from the group's mounting hysteria, seeking solace in the familiar rhythm of words on a page. Her book deadline looms like a personal storm, made more urgent by their isolation. She remembers her ailing mother waiting at home, dependent on a daughter who chose deadlines over duty. The afternoon stretches into evening with no sign of the reclusive writer. When Bradley goes to summon her for the evening's ice bar excursion, he finds only empty rooms and unanswered calls. Concern transforms into dread as David and Gwen join the search, their oil lamp casting nervous shadows on the corridor walls. The door to room 306 opens on a scene of deliberate violence. Candice lies crumpled on the floor, her silk scarf wound tight around her throat like a twisted necklace. The pretty accessory has become an instrument of murder, wielded with cold precision by hands that knew exactly what they were doing. Her laptop sits closed on the desk, its secrets sealed within its dying hard drive. Gwen's scream echoes through the hotel, bringing the remaining guests running through the darkness. They crowd into the small room, their faces pale in the lamplight as they confront the undeniable truth: they shelter a killer among their number. The pretense of accidental death crumbles like old parchment. Someone is hunting them systematically, choosing victims with a purpose none of them can fathom. The ice bar expedition transforms into a funeral march as they process the implications. Two deaths in two days, both unmistakably deliberate. The storm continues its assault on the hotel, but the true danger lurks within these walls. As they gather around the lobby fireplace, each guest studies the others with new eyes, wondering which familiar face conceals a murderer's heart.

Chapter 5: Hunt in the Cold: A Desperate Search, A Third Victim

The sound of gunfire shatters the night silence, sending Riley spiraling into full panic. Her war-damaged psyche cannot distinguish between past and present horrors, and she flees into the storm-lashed darkness wearing only a sweater against the killing cold. The hotel door slams behind her like the closing of a tomb. Gwen follows without hesitation, her loyalty overriding her terror. Behind them, the other guests stumble into the night, their voices lost in the howling wind as they spread across the ice-covered grounds. The darkness is absolute, a black void that swallows their calls for Riley, their desperate attempts to locate her before the cold claims another victim. Bradley Harwood moves through the storm with practiced confidence, his familiarity with the hotel grounds his only advantage against the treacherous conditions. The young man who mixed cocktails with such charm now faces a more deadly task, searching for a woman whose demons have driven her beyond reason into the killing cold. The sickening crack of metal against bone cuts through the wind's roar. James Harwood's anguished cry pierces the night as he discovers his son crumpled in the snow, blood pooling dark against the white ground. The iron boot scraper from the hotel porch lies nearby, its innocent purpose perverted into an instrument of murder. Bradley's skull bears the unmistakable depression of deliberate violence. The killer has struck again, using the chaos of the search to eliminate another obstacle. In the storm's fury, surrounded by panicked guests stumbling through the darkness, murder becomes almost routine. The hotel's protective walls mean nothing now. Death stalks them wherever they go, patient and methodical, choosing its moments with predatory precision. As they carry Bradley's body to the icehouse, each survivor wonders who among them wields the killer's hand.

Chapter 6: Fractured Trust: Accusations and Revelations in the Dark

The lobby becomes a courtroom as fear transforms into accusation. Beverly Sullivan, her nerves frayed to breaking point, voices what others only dare think: Ian Beeton carries the mark of a killer in his eyes. She describes the cold satisfaction she glimpsed when they brought Bradley's body inside, a moment of unguarded pleasure that chills her more than the storm outside. Riley's tortured revelation of her wartime trauma explains her brittle composure, but raises new questions about her reliability as a witness. Her confession of PTSD and the horrors she witnessed in Afghanistan paints her reactions in a different light, yet does nothing to explain the murders stalking them. The group's sympathy wars with their suspicion as they struggle to separate trauma from guilt. David Paley finds himself exposed when Riley identifies him as the attorney once accused of murdering his wife. The cold case that destroyed his marriage and career follows him even here, to this remote mountain refuge. His protestations of innocence fall on ears deafened by fear and desperation. The statistical likelihood of coincidence crumbles against the mounting evidence of connection. Ian's carefully constructed persona begins to crack under sustained questioning. His story of his brother's drowning reveals layers of deception and guilt that span decades. The boy who died alone in a farm pond becomes a symbol of Ian's capacity for fatal neglect, his willingness to abandon responsibility when consequences grow uncomfortable. Lauren's gradual withdrawal from him speaks louder than any accusation. Henry Sullivan's voice rises above the others, proposing the unthinkable: they should kill Ian themselves before he murders them all. The civilized facade crumbles as survival instincts override moral constraints. Only David's intervention prevents the group from becoming the very evil they fear, his legal training a thin barrier against mob justice. But trust has shattered like ice in the storm, leaving each survivor isolated in their suspicion.

Chapter 7: Morning Judgment: Justice and Hidden Truths

Dawn brings the blessed sound of snowplows grinding up the mountain road, but their salvation comes too late for Henry Sullivan. He sits frozen in death by the dying embers of the lobby fire, his face peaceful in its final repose. His wife Beverly's grief seems muted, her tears perfunctory rather than heartfelt. The storm has claimed five victims now, each death adding weight to the survivors' desperate need for answers. Sergeant Sorensen arrives with the crime scene team, her experienced eyes taking in the tableau of death and suspicion. The hotel has become a morgue, its elegant rooms transformed into evidence chambers. She begins the delicate process of separating truth from fear, guilt from innocence, in a case where every survivor carries secrets that might condemn them. The breakthrough comes from the smallest evidence: a diamond earring frozen in the snow where Bradley died. Lauren's attempt to remove both earrings after losing one becomes her downfall, the careful calculation of a mind that thinks three steps ahead. Her arrest shatters the group's assumption that Ian carried the killer's guilt. The revelations pour forth like water through a broken dam. Lauren's connection to Dana reaches back fifteen years to a group home where two damaged teenagers first crossed paths. The pretty fiancée was once Dani, a vicious girl who knew Lauren's darkest secret: the child she pushed from a rooftop in a moment of rage. Bradley's blackmail note triggered a killing spree that claimed four lives, each murder designed to protect Lauren's carefully constructed identity. As handcuffs click around Lauren's wrists, the surviving guests confront the terrible truth that evil wears familiar faces. The woman they trusted, liked, and defended had been systematically murdering them while playing the role of innocent victim. Ian's relief is palpable as suspicion lifts from his shoulders, but the knowledge of how easily he was deceived will haunt him forever. The killer had been hiding in plain sight, her mask of normalcy perfect until the moment it slipped.

Summary

The survivors of Mitchell's Inn return to their lives forever changed by their weekend encounter with calculated evil. Lauren Day, revealed as the methodical killer who orchestrated five deaths to protect a decades-old secret, awaits trial for her crimes. Her careful facade of normalcy serves as a chilling reminder that monsters walk among us, indistinguishable from saints until the mask finally falls. The hotel itself stands empty now, its Victorian elegance tainted by the blood spilled within its walls. James Harwood mourns his son Bradley, whose youthful greed led him to blackmail a killer and pay the ultimate price. The other guests carry their own burdens: Beverly Sullivan harbors the secret of her husband's murder, David Paley faces renewed scrutiny of his past, and the surviving members of this accidental family must live with the knowledge that evil wore a trusted face. Some secrets stay buried beneath the snow, while others surface only when it's far too late to matter.

About Author

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Shari Lapena

Lapena investigates the intricacies of human relationships through the lens of psychological thrillers, weaving narratives that delve into dysfunctional families and hidden secrets. Initially pursuing a practical career in law, she shifted to teaching English before finally embracing her passion for writing, a journey that led her to full-time authorship. Her early books, such as "Things Go Flying" and "Happiness Economics", were recognized for their humor, yet they remained under the radar compared to her later works. The unexpected pivot to thriller writing was marked by the creation of "The Couple Next Door", a novel that she crafted in secret and without an outline, ultimately becoming a global bestseller and solidifying her place in the genre.\n\nHer books are characterized by intricate plotting and unexpected twists, drawing readers into the complexities of her characters' lives. This method of engaging storytelling, alongside her exploration of familial and societal secrets, has resulted in all of her suspense novels achieving bestseller status across platforms like the "New York Times" and the "UK Sunday Times". For readers, her books offer a compelling escape into worlds where suspense is interwoven with profound emotional depth, appealing to those who relish complex narratives. Her ability to maintain suspense without sacrificing character development makes her work particularly impactful for fans of psychological thrillers.\n\nBeyond critical and commercial success, with novels like "The Couple Next Door" selling millions worldwide and titles such as "Not a Happy Family" further showcasing her expertise, Lapena's work has been celebrated in international circles. Her novels have been adapted for film and television, extending her reach beyond the written page. Described as "the undisputed queen of dysfunctional families," Lapena's career illustrates how a shift in focus can lead to new creative heights, demonstrating the transformative power of pursuing one's true passion in writing.

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